Darkroom horror

[dfoo]

I just went down to my darkroom for the first time in a week or so. On the carpeting on the floor was some white stuff. What is that? I looked closer and horror of horrors! Its some sort of mold growing! Touching the carpeting I can feel it is a little damn. It has been pretty humid for the past couple of weeks, and I made the mistake of keeping the door closed to the room leading to ideal conditions I guess to grow fungus. Woops! I cleaned up the room, turned on the extractor fan and opened the door. Hopefully that'll sort things out. I checked out the lenses in the room (quite a few) and none of them seem to be affected.

Normally Newfoundland isn't an ideal place to develop fungus given that it's typically not humid, nor all that warm! Normally, I like to keep it closed with an air purifier active to supress dust. However, I guess at this time of year dust be damned! Its not a good idea to keep the door closed.

 

[NathanJD]

Squirt a little bleach mould spray around the carpet and the like (as long as you don't mind the idea of bleach on your carpet) just to kill off the spores.

 

[PKR]

Carpeting in a darkroom? Dust?.. A little fixer will kill the mold.

 

[MartinP]

Rubber mats would be very industrial, though more practical than a carpet.... My darkroom has that vinyl sheet (modern 'lino') sort of flooring, with 'attractive wood pattern finish' - this is also the spare bedroom of course, or is it the other way round, errmm.

 

[ed1234]

I would say that is going to be a major cleanup to prevent the mold to start growing again.
If you can really have mold on the carpet, there is going to have some tiny bits of spores and the corner of the back of the shelf somewhere. Get everything out of the room, clean all the walls with bleach water mix, and have a Dehumidifier or air purifier switch on in the room for a few days. Then cleaning all the stuff came out of the room.


The carpet is pretty much done.

 

[dfoo]

All good points on the carpeting. They are actually, however, rubber backed mats not true carpets. I would have to disagree with your assessment on the major cleanup (or perhaps I'm simply lazy). There are mould spores everywhere.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Although I am far from an expert on mycology, I'd have thought that the moulds that grw on carpets and the moulds that grow on lenses were rather different species.

I'd second the advice that it's a bad idea to have carpet in a darkroom, though.

Chers,

R.

 

[Edward C. Zimmermann]

Its some sort of mold growing!

Get rids of carpets. They are not good with the climate in a darkroom. Not only are they dust magnets, help create static charge problems but they also emit loose fibers. They are the wost thing you can have in or even near your workplace. Replace with a more appropriate floor covering. Vinyl and linoleum are good choices. Its what I have in my darkroom. The absolute best material is, however, Dycem material. These mats are the stuff of clean rooms. Dust and other contaminants stick instead of flying about to land on ones materials.
If one can't remove the carpets--- a rental, for instance--- the next best option is to get some rubber mats.

 

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