- 2 months ago
Black mold does not have to mean expensive sprays and a never-ending cleanup cycle. In this Amish home-saving guide, Elias explains how mold really grows, why bleach often only clears the surface, and how a few plain household materials can do a better job for far less money.
He walks through the old Lancaster County wisdom of using full-strength white vinegar to reach the root, then baking soda to help discourage mold from coming back and reduce the musty smell. The video also stresses the real fix behind any mold problem: finding and stopping the dampness, whether it comes from a leak, poor airflow, condensation, or a wet basement. For longer-term prevention, Elias points to lime whitewash, the breathable old coating used on barns, cellars, and dairy houses to keep walls clean and mold-resistant.
Created for viewers searching for mold removal tips, black mold cleanup, vinegar for mold, baking soda cleaning, basement mold solutions, and old-fashioned home maintenance advice. It is a practical home repair and cleaning guide for anyone wanting simple, low-cost ways to deal with mold and moisture at the source.
He walks through the old Lancaster County wisdom of using full-strength white vinegar to reach the root, then baking soda to help discourage mold from coming back and reduce the musty smell. The video also stresses the real fix behind any mold problem: finding and stopping the dampness, whether it comes from a leak, poor airflow, condensation, or a wet basement. For longer-term prevention, Elias points to lime whitewash, the breathable old coating used on barns, cellars, and dairy houses to keep walls clean and mold-resistant.
Created for viewers searching for mold removal tips, black mold cleanup, vinegar for mold, baking soda cleaning, basement mold solutions, and old-fashioned home maintenance advice. It is a practical home repair and cleaning guide for anyone wanting simple, low-cost ways to deal with mold and moisture at the source.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00That dark patch creeping across your bathroom wall or your basement ceiling is not just an ugly mark.
00:07It is mold, a living thing growing and spreading, and it can be a real trouble to the health of
00:13your house and the people in it.
00:15And here is the bitter part.
00:18You go buy the $30 bottle at the store to kill it, you spray it, the wall looks clean again,
00:24and a few weeks later, the mold is back, often worse than before.
00:28You are caught in a cycle that never ends, buying bottle after bottle, and the mold keeps coming back.
00:37Today I am going to show you the old way to truly kill mold and, far more important, to keep
00:44it from ever coming back,
00:45and it costs you next to nothing.
00:48I am Elias, and I keep up this Lancaster County place with my own hands, the way my people always
00:55have.
00:55And mold is no new trouble.
00:58The old people dealt with it on their barns and cellars and dairy houses for as long as there have
01:04been such buildings,
01:05in damp stone cellars and milk houses where you would think mold would thrive.
01:10And they kept those walls clean with a couple of cheap, plain things and a bit of knowing, no $30
01:17bottle in sight.
01:18I am going to give you what they used, but first, let me give you the honest safety word, for
01:25mold is a health matter, and I will not have anyone hurt.
01:29Here is the plain safety, and you heed it.
01:33Mold can genuinely trouble the breathing and the health, especially for the very young, the old, and anyone with weak
01:41lungs or asthma,
01:42so it is worth taking seriously and not living with.
01:46And a small patch on a hard surface a careful body can handle himself, which is what I am showing
01:52you today.
01:53But a large spread of mold, a whole wall, or worse, or the black mold, or mold where someone in
02:01the house has poor health,
02:02that is a job to take seriously, and often a job for a professional with the right gear, and there
02:08is no shame in calling one.
02:10If you do tackle even a small patch yourself, wear gloves and open a window,
02:16and for a worse spot, a proper mask that filters the spores, not just a paper one.
02:22Know your limits. A little patch, you can manage.
02:25A great spreading trouble, get help.
02:28And one more honest word, do not just paint over mold and hope, nor scrub it away and ignore where
02:36it came from,
02:36for hiding it does not heal it, it only grows on unseen, behind the paint and in the wall, while
02:43you breathe its spores.
02:46Deal with it honestly and at the root, or do not pretend to have dealt with it at all.
02:51Quick word before I go further.
02:53The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
02:59I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
03:03The book is the long version.
03:05If you want it, it is there.
03:07I will not mention it again.
03:10Let me tell you about my grandfather's cellar, for it is the whole reason I trust this.
03:15It was an old stone cellar, dug deep and cool, where we kept the potatoes and the apples and the
03:21crocks of kraut through the winter,
03:23damp as such a place always is, the kind of cool, damp, dark, where you would swear mold would take
03:30over in a month.
03:31And yet those stone walls were clean, year after year, my whole boyhood and long before,
03:38clean white walls in a damp underground room.
03:41The secret was no secret to him.
03:44It was the lime whitewash he brushed on those walls, the same his father had brushed on before him.
03:50A coat freshened every so often, and that white lime kept the mold from ever taking hold in the dampest
03:57room on the place.
03:58I asked him once why the cellar never went moldy like other folks did, and he looked at me as
04:05though I had asked why water is wet,
04:07and he said,
04:08Why, the lime, of course.
04:10It always has been the lime.
04:12To him it was just what you did, plain as breathing.
04:16That is the knowing I want to hand you today,
04:18the cheap old answers that kept a damp stone cellar clean for a hundred years.
04:24Now let me tell you the first thing, and it will save you money and grief both,
04:29why that store bottle of bleach fails you.
04:32Folks reach for bleach to kill mold, and here is the trouble.
04:36On a hard-sealed surface like tile, it may do something,
04:40but on anything the mold can sink its roots into,
04:43the wood, the drywall, the grout, the concrete,
04:46the bleach does not truly kill it.
04:48It strips the color off the mold at the surface,
04:51so the wall looks clean and white, and you think you have won,
04:54but the roots of the mold, down in the material, live on.
04:58And worse, bleach is mostly water,
05:01and water is the very thing mold wants,
05:03so you have wetted the very spot the mold is feeding in.
05:07A few weeks on, it grows right back,
05:09often darker than before,
05:11because you watered its roots.
05:13That is the cycle that has you buying bottle after bottle.
05:16The surface clears, the root lives, the mold returns.
05:21You must kill the root,
05:23and for that the old people had a better and cheaper thing than bleach.
05:27Think of the mold like a weed in your garden.
05:30If you only cut off the green top of a weed,
05:32and leave the root in the ground,
05:34it grows right back,
05:35and you have done nothing but tidy it for a week.
05:38The mold is just the same,
05:40the dark stain you see is only the top of it,
05:43and its roots run down into the wood,
05:45or the grout, or the concrete,
05:47where you cannot see them.
05:49Bleach mows the top, and leaves the root.
05:51To truly be rid of it,
05:53you must reach the root,
05:54and that is exactly what the old vinegar does
05:56that the bleach cannot.
05:58That thing is plain white vinegar,
06:01the same cheap vinegar from the kitchen,
06:03and it does what the bleach cannot.
06:05It sinks in and kills the mold down at the root.
06:08Here is how you use it.
06:10You do not dilute it.
06:11You use it full strength,
06:13straight from the bottle,
06:14for watering it down only weakens it.
06:17Spray or wipe the undiluted vinegar
06:20right onto the moldy spot,
06:22soak it well,
06:23and then,
06:23and this is the important part,
06:25you walk away and leave it a full hour.
06:28That hour is when the real work happens,
06:31the vinegar soaking down through the mold
06:33and killing it at the root,
06:35not just bleaching the surface white.
06:37After the hour,
06:38you scrub it with a stiff brush
06:40and rinse with warm water,
06:42and then,
06:43most important of all,
06:45you dry the surface as thoroughly as you can,
06:47for any moisture left behind
06:49gives a surviving spore a foothold to start again.
06:53Plain cheap vinegar,
06:55a couple dollars the bottle,
06:56full strength,
06:57left an hour,
06:58scrubbed and dried.
07:00It kills far more of the mold
07:02and kills it deeper
07:03than the bleach ever did.
07:04A few plain notes on it.
07:06The smell of the vinegar is sharp,
07:08but it fades as it dries,
07:10and it is a wholesome smell,
07:12not the harsh fumes of bleach
07:13that catch in your throat,
07:15so you can use it in a closed bathroom
07:17without choking,
07:18though I would still crack a window
07:19for the spores you are stirring up.
07:21Use the ordinary white distilled vinegar,
07:24the cheap cleaning kind,
07:26not the deer cider or wine vinegars
07:28from the kitchen,
07:29for it is the plain white
07:30that is cheapest and does the job.
07:32And give it the full hour.
07:34Do not rush it,
07:36for it is in that quiet hour of soaking
07:38that the vinegar does what the bleach never could,
07:41reaching down to the root.
07:43Bleach works in a minute,
07:44but only skin deep.
07:46Vinegar takes an hour,
07:47but goes to the root.
07:48That hour of patience is the whole difference.
07:52Then, once it is clean and dry,
07:54here is the second cheap thing
07:56that helps keep it from coming back,
07:57your plain baking soda.
07:59You mix a bit of baking soda into water,
08:02about a quarter teaspoon to a cup,
08:04and you spray or wipe that over the same spot
08:07and let it dry,
08:08and do not rinse it off.
08:10Leave the dried residue right there.
08:12Here is why.
08:14Mold likes a sour acid sort of surface,
08:17and baking soda is the opposite.
08:19It is alkaline,
08:20and that thin, dried film of baking soda
08:22left on the wall
08:23makes the surface unfriendly to mold
08:26trying to start again.
08:27It keeps working there for a good while after,
08:30quietly discouraging the mold from coming back.
08:33A few scents of baking soda
08:35left as a dry film,
08:37standing guard.
08:38And there is a small bonus in it,
08:40for the baking soda also takes up
08:42and sweetens the musty, mildewed smell
08:45that mold leaves behind,
08:47the way it freshens a stale icebox,
08:50so the spot is left not just guarded,
08:53but smelling clean.
08:55Vinegar to kill it at the root,
08:57baking soda to guard the spot
08:59and sweeten it,
09:00both of them cheap, plain things
09:02already in most every kitchen.
09:05Now this vinegar and baking soda
09:07will clean up your mold
09:08and discourage it,
09:09and it works on near any surface,
09:11your bathroom tile and grout,
09:14your window frames,
09:15your basement concrete,
09:17your wooden beams and brick.
09:19But here is the hard truth,
09:22and I will be straight with you
09:23as I always am.
09:25Killing the mold that is there
09:27does not keep it gone
09:29if the thing that caused it
09:31is still there.
09:32Mold needs damp to grow,
09:34and if you have a damp spot,
09:36a leaking pipe,
09:38a window that sweats,
09:40a basement with no air moving,
09:42poor air flow,
09:43then you will kill the mold
09:45and it will simply grow back,
09:47because the damp that fed it
09:49is still feeding it.
09:51So the real fix is always two parts.
09:54Kill the mold that is there,
09:56and then find and fix
09:58the source of the damp that grew it.
10:02Mend the drip.
10:03Air out the room.
10:05Deal with the moisture,
10:07or you will be cleaning that spot forever.
10:09No cleaner on earth,
10:12cheap or dear,
10:13keeps mold gone
10:14while the wall stays wet.
10:17So play the detective a moment
10:19and find your damp.
10:21Is it a bathroom with no window
10:23and no fan,
10:24where the steam of every shower
10:26hangs in the air with nowhere to go?
10:29Then you must get air moving.
10:31Open a window,
10:32run a fan,
10:34let it dry between.
10:35Is it a basement
10:37that smells damp and earthy?
10:39Then it wants air
10:40and perhaps a way
10:41to carry off the moisture.
10:43Is it a corner under a window
10:45that sweats and drips
10:47in the cold weather,
10:48the condensation running down?
10:51Is it a slow drip
10:52from a pipe behind the wall?
10:54Each of these has its own fix,
10:57but the principle is one.
10:59Find where the wet is coming from
11:01and stop it,
11:03for the mold is only the sign.
11:05The damp is the disease.
11:07Cure the damp
11:09and the mold has nothing to grow on.
11:12Leave the damp
11:13and you will fight the mold forever.
11:16And that brings me to the best part,
11:19the real old secret,
11:21the thing that is the very reason
11:23those old barns and cellars
11:25built 200 years ago
11:27show no mold to this day.
11:29It is not a cleaner you put on
11:32after the mold comes.
11:33It is a thing built into the wall
11:36from the start
11:37that keeps the mold
11:38from ever growing at all.
11:40And it is the old
11:42lime whitewash.
11:44This is a genuinely old way,
11:46the real thing the old farmers
11:49and the Amish
11:49have brushed onto their barn walls
11:52and cellar walls
11:53and dairy house walls
11:55for generations.
11:56That plain white coating
11:58you have seen on an old barn.
12:01Now here is why it works
12:02so against mold.
12:04The whitewash is made with lime.
12:07And lime is powerfully alkaline,
12:10far more so even
12:11than the baking soda.
12:13So alkaline
12:14that no mold nor mildew
12:16can grow on it at all.
12:18A wall coated in lime whitewash
12:21is simply a surface
12:23mold cannot colonize.
12:25That is why those old
12:27whitewashed cellars
12:28and milk houses,
12:29damp as they are,
12:31stay clean of mold
12:32year after year,
12:34decade after decade,
12:36where a modern painted wall
12:38in the same damp
12:39would be black with it.
12:41And it does more than stop mold,
12:44for that same lime
12:45is naturally cleansing
12:47and sweetening,
12:48which is the very reason
12:50the old farmers
12:51whitewashed
12:52not just their cellars
12:53but their chicken coops
12:55and their outbuildings
12:56and their fences
12:57to keep them clean
12:58and wholesome
12:59and free of the rot
13:01and the vermin
13:02and the foul air.
13:03A coat of whitewash
13:05was the old
13:06all-purpose answer
13:07for keeping a place
13:09sweet and clean,
13:10and it cost almost nothing.
13:12The salt in the mix
13:14helps it hold
13:15and harden,
13:16and the lime
13:17does the cleansing
13:18and the mold-proofing,
13:20and the whole of it,
13:21brushed on,
13:22cures to that hard,
13:24clean,
13:24breathing white coat
13:26that lasts for years
13:28before it wants freshening.
13:30The old recipe is simple
13:32and cheap past believing.
13:34It is water,
13:35salt,
13:36and hydrated lime,
13:37which is also called
13:38Mason's lime
13:39or Builder's lime,
13:41and mind you,
13:42that is the hydrated lime
13:43for building,
13:44not the garden lime.
13:45They are not the same.
13:47A common old proportion
13:49is about a gallon of water,
13:51a couple pounds of salt,
13:52and several pounds
13:54of the hydrated lime
13:55brushed onto the wall
13:56and let to cure.
13:58A bag of hydrated lime
14:00costs only a few dollars
14:01at the building supply store
14:03and is enough
14:04to coat a whole room,
14:05even several rooms,
14:07for a little of the powder
14:08makes up a deal
14:09of whitewash.
14:10Compare that to the cost
14:12of the deer bottles
14:13or the mold removal man
14:14and you see why
14:16the old farmers,
14:17who had little money
14:18and much sense,
14:20swore by it.
14:21A few dollars of lime
14:22brushed on once
14:24and freshened
14:25now and again
14:25over the years
14:26against an endless run
14:28of $30 bottles
14:29that never quite fix it.
14:31The old way
14:32was cheaper by far
14:34and worked better besides,
14:35which is the story
14:36of near everything
14:37I show you here.
14:39Now I will give you
14:40the safety on this plainly,
14:42for hydrated lime
14:43is caustic stuff.
14:45It will burn the skin
14:46and the eyes,
14:47so you wear gloves
14:49and eye protection
14:50when you mix
14:50and brush it
14:51and keep it off your skin.
14:54Used with that care,
14:55it is perfectly safe
14:56and has been used
14:57for centuries.
14:59I will not walk you
15:00through the full how-to
15:01of mixing and brushing
15:03whitewash today,
15:04for that deserves
15:05its own telling
15:06and I will give you
15:07that next time.
15:08But know that
15:09this is the thing,
15:10the prevention built
15:12into the wall
15:12that keeps mold
15:14gone for good.
15:15And here is one more
15:17honest piece
15:18that ties it together
15:19and it is the reason
15:20so many modern homes
15:21have mold
15:22the old farms never did.
15:24The modern paints,
15:26the acrylic paints
15:27off the hardware store shelf,
15:29seal the wall up tight
15:30and do not breathe.
15:32So when moisture moves
15:34through the wall,
15:35from the damp ground,
15:36from humidity,
15:37from a pipe,
15:38it cannot escape
15:39through that sealed
15:40painted surface
15:41and it builds up
15:42trapped behind the paint,
15:44making the wall
15:45damp and dark,
15:46the very thing
15:47mold wants.
15:48The old lime whitewash
15:50is the opposite.
15:51It breathes.
15:53It lets the moisture
15:54move right through it
15:55and dry away
15:56so the wall
15:57never holds the damp
15:58that mold needs.
15:59The old walls
16:01stay dry and clean
16:02because the very coating
16:03on them let them breathe.
16:05The modern sealed wall
16:07traps the damp
16:08and grows the mold.
16:10That is the heart
16:11of the difference.
16:12Think of it like
16:13the difference
16:13between a wool coat
16:15and a rubber slicker.
16:16The wool breathes.
16:18It lets the damp
16:19of your body
16:20pass out through it
16:21and you stay dry
16:22and comfortable.
16:23The rubber slicker
16:24seals everything in
16:26and after a while
16:27you are clammy
16:28and wet inside it
16:29from your own dampness
16:30with nowhere to go.
16:32The old lime
16:33is the wool.
16:34The modern sealing paint
16:35is the rubber slicker
16:36and the wall behind it
16:38is left clammy
16:39and damp
16:40just the home mold wants.
16:42A wall,
16:43like a body,
16:44wants to breathe
16:45and when you seal it up tight
16:47you make trouble
16:48you cannot see
16:49till it blooms black
16:50on the surface.
16:51Now let me say
16:53the small, honest word
16:54about why your grandmother's
16:56cheap mold answers
16:57got forgotten
16:57and you were sold
16:59the $30 bottle instead.
17:01Not to rile you up,
17:03just so you see
17:03the shape of it.
17:05There is a great deal
17:06of money in mold
17:07in the bottles sold
17:08at the store
17:09at $8, $20, $40 each
17:12bought again and again
17:13because they do not
17:15truly fix it
17:16and in the costly
17:17mold removal work
17:18when it gets bad.
17:20And there is no money
17:21at all in a man
17:22knowing that a $2 jug
17:24of vinegar
17:24and a few dollar bag
17:26of lime will do better.
17:27You cannot patent vinegar.
17:30You cannot own
17:31baking soda or lime
17:33nor charge deer
17:34for them
17:34for anyone can buy
17:36them plain and cheap.
17:37So nobody advertises them,
17:40nobody builds a business
17:41teaching them
17:42and over a couple
17:43of generations
17:43the cheap old answers
17:45simply fell out
17:46of common knowing
17:47while the deer bottles
17:48got all the telling.
17:50I am not saying
17:51a man schemed
17:52to bury your grandmother's recipe.
17:54No one had to.
17:56It is worse
17:57than a conspiracy
17:58because it is a system
17:59nobody had to coordinate.
18:01It simply pays
18:02to sell a deer bottle
18:03again and again
18:04and pays nothing
18:06to teach the cheap thing
18:07that works
18:07and so the cheap thing
18:09went quietly untaught
18:10not hidden by any plotter
18:12just left unsaid
18:14because no one
18:15profited by saying it.
18:17The old people
18:18knew these things
18:19because they had to
18:20and there was no mystery
18:21in them at all.
18:23So there is the whole of it
18:24the cheap old way
18:26to kill mold
18:26and keep it gone.
18:28Kill what is there
18:29with plain
18:30full strength vinegar
18:31soaked an hour
18:32scrubbed and dried.
18:34Leave a film
18:35of baking soda
18:36to discourage its return.
18:38Find and fix
18:39the damp that fed it
18:40for nothing
18:41keeps mold gone
18:42while the wall
18:43stays wet.
18:44And for the real
18:45lasting prevention
18:46the old lime whitewash
18:48that breathes
18:49and that no mold
18:51can grow upon
18:51the very thing
18:53that has kept
18:53the old barns
18:54and cellars clean
18:55for 200 years.
18:57A few dollars
18:58of plain old things
18:59and a bit of knowing
19:00against the endless
19:02$30 bottles
19:03that never truly fix it.
19:06Now I want to hear
19:07from you
19:07and I ask honest
19:09because I learned
19:10the whole country
19:11from these comments.
19:12Tell me in the comments below
19:13where does the mold
19:15keep coming back
19:16in your house
19:17the same damp spot
19:18every time
19:19I will wager.
19:20And have you been caught
19:21in that cycle
19:22of spraying
19:23and spraying
19:23with the store bottle?
19:25And tell me your county
19:26and your climate
19:27because the damp
19:28differs greatly
19:29across the country
19:30wet coasts
19:31and dry plains
19:32and the mold
19:33with it
19:34and I like to map it
19:35by where you all
19:36write from.
19:37I read every one
19:39and I learn
19:39the damp corners
19:40of the whole country
19:41from them.
19:42Next time
19:43I want to show you
19:44the full old way
19:46of mixing
19:46and brushing on
19:47a lime whitewash
19:48step by step
19:50how to make it up
19:51and lay it on a cellar
19:52or a wall
19:53or an outbuilding
19:54so you can coat
19:55your own damp spots
19:56with that breathing
19:57mold proof
19:58old coating
19:59and keep them clean
20:00for years
20:01the way the old barns
20:03have stayed clean
20:04for centuries.
20:05The old people
20:06kept their damp
20:07cellars and barns
20:08clean of mold
20:09for generations
20:10with a jug of vinegar
20:11and a brush of lime
20:13plain cheap things
20:14and the knowing
20:15of how to use them
20:16and their 200 year old
20:18walls stand
20:19clean to this day
20:20to prove it.
20:21There is a deep
20:22plain wisdom
20:23in that we traded away
20:25for a shelf
20:25of dear bottles
20:26that never quite work.
20:28The wall that breathes
20:30and stays dry
20:30is the wall
20:31that remembers
20:32how the old builders
20:33kept a house sound.
20:35The people who built
20:36this country
20:37with their hands
20:37knew that
20:38and we are only
20:39just starting
20:40to remember it.