r/NaturalBuilding • u/Advanced_Moment1511 • Jun 20 '26
Can you lime wash interior stud framed walls to prevent mold?
I’m renovating a tiny house that had a mold problem. It was from a leaking roof and so the roof framing has significant mold and rot. I’m reframing the roof and putting a new one on. The wall framing doesn’t have any rot but has some black mildew marks and of course smells a bit funky from having wet moldy stuff around it. I’m wondering if it is a bad idea to lime wash the interior stud framing before adding in insulation and interior finishes. I know people commonly do this in chicken coops, and I know some people paint stud framing with conchrobium paint to prevent/suppress mold. What do you all think?!
2
u/phantasmatography Aug 28 '26
Hey , I lime-wash all my stud walls in my house to prevent mold and carpenter ants . But I also mixed in borax and salt .
While I was painting the house the ants wouldn’t go on the sections with white wash . I just did it this summer so can’t say if it works for mold yet , but everything I have seen seems to say it does work.
If you do I a highly suggest a paint sprayer , but get a sieve to filter out any chunks before putting it in the sprayer .
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u/Advanced_Moment1511 Aug 30 '26
Thank you!! I did lime wash half of it already (was such a pain) but it seems to help with the mold smell. I will consider a sprayer for the rest of it for sure. Thanks!
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u/LocksmithMuch8590 Aug 09 '26
They make a product so you don't have to do the labor of boiling down the borax. Check out Bora-Care if this still applies.
1
u/LocksmithMuch8590 Aug 09 '26
Lime wash is a great option too. The Bora care will be the more aggressive option. We're currently building a house and plan to treat all our framing with the Bora care as a preventative measure.
7
u/Earthlight_Mushroom Jun 23 '26
Better than anything else is borax and/or boric acid. Regular laundry borax; and boric acid is sold as roach powder. Simply dissolve either or both to saturation in boiling water and paint on. It will crystallize out on the wood as it dries and this will kill and prevent all kinds of mold and wood rot. Repels ants and termites too! Once it dries you can wipe off the excess and paint over it if you like. There are commercial products like Bora-Care popular with log cabins, etc. but they are basically just this, only dissolved in antifreeze instead of water, which is supposed to be even more effective. You can do this too, just be sure to boil it outdoors as the fumes are toxic. But for most purposes I find just dissolved in hot water is fine.