Bleach & bicarbonate (baking) soda.

[SamanthaTabs]

Hi,

I've asked about cleaning headlining before and was still trying to find a solution. Stumbled across this on a sailing blog:

"On vinyl headliner: Baking soda with bleach straight from the bottle. Made a thin paste and used a scrub brush and toothbrush for the corners and seams to apply it. We let it stand for a couple of hours, the longer the better, then rinsed off it off well, using a sponge and lots of fresh rinse water. Use rubber gloves, goggles, and clothes you don't mind ruining."

Tried a patch and can ecstatically say it works! Takes quite a while, recommend good ventilation, trashed a t-shirt and probably have more than a few cleaning sessions to go.

Hope this helps anyone in the same position of grimy vinyl especially above the galley

Fully expect people to remind me that bleach can be damaging to porous surfaces, in our case if it hadn't worked we were going to replace it anyhow.

 

[Chris_Robb]

Hi, we have used ordinary vinegar which seems to work well - did you try it and if so how did they compare?

I have also used Mister Muscle greece killer spray before in the galley area.

 

[SamanthaTabs]

Hi, we have used ordinary vinegar which seems to work well - did you try it and if so how did they compare?

I have also used Mister Muscle greece killer spray before in the galley area.

Believe me I've tried every product imaginable, nothing compares to the bleach/bicarbonate of soda mix. However, it's really tricky working above head, plus ventilation issues, so am taking the headlining down to carry on outside. Seamanstaines, if you're reading this don't worry - won't rip it down until you get home next week

 

[Poecheng]

I have also used Mister Muscle greece killer spray before in the galley area.

My goodness, thats a bit extreme. It's only the headlining on a boat - no need for genocide.

And you keep your boat there as well !

 

[Scomber]

Hi,

I've asked about cleaning headlining before and was still trying to find a solution. Stumbled across this on a sailing blog:

"On vinyl headliner: Baking soda with bleach straight from the bottle. Made a thin paste and used a scrub brush and toothbrush for the corners and seams to apply it. We let it stand for a couple of hours, the longer the better, then rinsed off it off well, using a sponge and lots of fresh rinse water. Use rubber gloves, goggles, and clothes you don't mind ruining."

Tried a patch and can ecstatically say it works! Takes quite a while, recommend good ventilation, trashed a t-shirt and probably have more than a few cleaning sessions to go.

Hope this helps anyone in the same position of grimy vinyl especially above the galley

Fully expect people to remind me that bleach can be damaging to porous surfaces, in our case if it hadn't worked we were going to replace it anyhow.

this bleach bi carb mixture applied with an old toothbrush is by far the best cleaner of grouting twix tiles that i've ever used

 

[GrahamM376]

Take care with amount of scrubbing and pressure applied on old foam backed vinyl as it can come unbonded.

 

[nicholat]

We've used several different brands of 'mould and mildew' remover spray on our headlining lots of times without any ill effects to the headlining. If I'm working on overhead areas I use a sponge to apply rather than spraying to stop it dripping everywhere. Spray on, leave a few minutes, wipe off again. Our headlining is textured with a sort of weave pattern so lots of small gaps for the evil black stuff to make a home but the mould spray gets into the gaps and gets rid of it all.

The bottle says it contains chlorine based bleaching agents.

The bottle said not to use on vinyl so did try a small area of headlining first to make sure it didn't dissolve so would be worth doing that f you go down the mould spray route. But I have been using this spray for many years and the headlining is 30 years old and I haven't seen any ill effects from using it.