Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
As I mentioned in another post we had a water pipe rust through the other night and my boat cushions got wet.
I was only able to get the zippers to open on 3 of them and due to the construction of the cushions I was only able to completely remove one of the covers.
I put them out in the sun most of the day yesterday to dry them out and at the moment it doesn't appear that the fabric stained. When I brought them back in last night 2 or 3 of them were still damp in spots. They've been in the house all night and will remain in the house for at least a week so the AC/Heater can help suck out any remaining moisture.
My question is, what are the odds mold will start growing in the foam and is there anything I can treat the foam with now to prevent the growth of mold?
I would say to totally dry them out. Any product with bleach will harm the foam so if you want to treat them with a spray mold killer/preventative that won't harm the foam or fabric and has no odor try a product like this.http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1& storeId=10051& catalogId=10053& productId=100654126& R=100654126
Great ideas guys. Didn't even think of the fan inside on the cushions even though I've had one going in the garage for two days.
Scott - Thanks for the info on the mold killer. I'll definitely get some of this stuff for the cushions.
I just finished tearing off the sheetrock and pulling down the insulation and it looks like the same mold killer will work for the walls even though at this time it doesn't look like I will need it (but I will use it anyway). Other than a few really wet areas the biggest part of the insulation stayed dry due to an underlayer of metalized fiberboard? that was under the sheetrock. I pulled it all down just to make sure.
Like John stated above, The zippers will benefit from a drop or two of WD40 or a penetrating oil left overnight then gently persuaded to move with the help of some needle nose pliers. I have done this on a few crusted up marine zippers through the years with about an 80% rate of success.
The oil on the zippers is a great idea to open them. If your covers are in good shape, maybe replacing the zippers for Plastic zippers is a good idea...
If you don´t want to replace the whole zippers you can use cutting pliers to cut the rusted zipper car and replace just that.
Here in St. Louis we have had some very sunny days and it is suposed to stay lke this for a while, If you are having the same luck, give your cushions as much sun as you can.
The zippers are stuck because they wrapped the foam with some kind of fuzzy material and when they zipped them shut the fibers got tangled in the zippers.
I haven't messed with them much but think I can work them loose when I get some spare time.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.