any tips on cleaning A frames

[capt141stpa]

greetings

recently the area i live in got hit with heavy rain and where i sotre my a frame water got in to the tote and i wasnt aware of it and not i got a terriable mess with mildew. i was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to clean the tent with out harming it
thanks
Les

[VaTrooper]

Sunlight and a little bleach water I've heard works good.

[tompritchett]

Heavy on the sunlight and light on the bleach. Too much bleach or strong cleaner and you can lose your water proofing and weaken the fabric especially around the bottom.

[3rdUSRedleg]

What Tom Said...
Sunlight will KILL future mold, mildew, and Bleach will deffinately kill off any deep mold imbedded within the fabric.
But, add water to bleech.. to much will destroy the fabric, and it will become fragile like an old cotton shirt washed and worn to may times...
Bleach will take off the water proofing... spray heavily with scotch guard and let dry...
set up the a frame in the sun, for a few days..and take down if rain threatens...

[bill watson]

Vinegar works, also, to kill the mildew. It used to be used a lot as a cleaning fluid.

It apparently doesn't directly attack the mold and mildew. It change the conditions so they can't live. pH and all that. And it has some residual effect, so it's good to hit the tent with vinegar sprayed from a converted spray bottle of some sort before you put it away for storage. Won't hurt the waterproofing or flame retardant.

[Jim Mayo]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Sunlight and a little light cleaning will kill the mold. Looking at original pictures shows tents were often varying shades of white indicating they experienced the same effect.

[Mark Wadsworth]

Then what I would do is lay it out on a deck or driveway and hose it down then take some laundry soap in a buck and then take a long handled scrub brush and get at some of the bad spots. a little bit of bleach will do wonders to it also. You can lay it out in the open to try but a tent that is set up will dry a whole lot faster.
I waterproof my tent with Enterprise waterseal. It does not leave that oily feel to the tent. Plus It's a few bucker cheaper then Thompson's.

[capt141stpa]

thanks for the help i ll give them a try and see how it turns out
Les

[TheSignalCorpsGuy]

I've never heard about the vinegar - that may work! However - I put my "A" up in the back yard - got the deck sprayer (pump sprayer), mixed 1 cup bleach with 1.5 gallons of water and sprayed it both inside and out. Then I let it sit for about 3 hours and then rinsed it thoroughly. I wouldn't have done that - but when I put it up - it just SMELLED! BAD! (like mold/mildew). However - the bleach killed the bad stuff and dulled down the stains. Tent actually looks quite a bit better now.

The key to WATERPROOFING your tent is to apply some kind of sealer to the fabric when it's standing.

As one person said - a deck water repellent is an excellent idea - HOWEVER - do NOT USE A FLAMMABLE one! Believe it or not - this will leave your tent flammable to a large degree. A burning death is not fun at all!

I use a water-based sealent put out by a company called VALSPAR - it's in their "SEVERE WEATHER" collection of products. It's NOT an oil based product and is white in color.

You'll need 2-3 gallons with a deck sprayer on your "A" tent.
1. First Coat: Spray inside and out and let dry
2. Second Coat: Spray inside and out and let dry
3. Third coat: Spray outside only and let dry

then you take it down. You'll notice that the fabric has about doubled in weight and seems 'thicker' - but it's waterproof!

In any case - if you have questions - ask - "BEEN THERE DONE THAT!"

[Eliza]

Lysol spray kills mildew and comes in a variety of scents. This also works well on books that have a mildew/musty smell.

eliza