Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Today I went to the lake to bring my pontoon home and when I took the cover off my seats had a lot of mildew on them. I just had my seats recovered last year so I was really suprised, but I had noticed this year that there was a little mildew on the seats so I have several questions.

1 Why am I getting mildew on my seats, I have a good fitting top? It is by no means air tight.

2 What is the best product to get them clean again?

3 Is there anything that I can get to put on my seats to prevent this from happening again?

4 I hear guys talking about winterizing their boats, what do you need to do to winterize a pontoon. I live in the midlands of SC so out winters are not really bad?

Thanks for all the help you guys have given me in the past and in the future.
Wade

To further prevent this go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy a 5 gal bucket, and a large bag of charcoal. Put the charcoal in the bucket and sit on the floor of your toon then put the cover back on. I found that this works pretty good on eliminating mildew on mine.

To clean the seat there are numerous cleaning products to get it clean but make sure its dry before covering it back up.

Everyone speaks highly of using Mean Green on the seats--including my dealer.

The best cleaners I've ever found are Dollar General's Awesome and Home Depot's Zep Orange Degreaser. A little soapy/bleach solution will also work.

Then, use 303 vinyl protectant on the seats.

My problem's not mildew, but spider poop. Those little rascals are everywhere in the ceiling of our boat house. I'm thinking of ordering in some matching Surlast canvas and making covers to put over my light Ivory color seats.

Thanks guys, where can I get the 303 vinyl protectant?

midnight1957 wrote:Thanks guys, where can I get the 303 vinyl protectant?

West Marine has it.

I use this to get rid of the mildew. Works great.

Bamaman wrote:Everyone speaks highly of using Mean Green on the seats--including my dealer.

The best cleaners I've ever found are Dollar General's Awesome and Home Depot's Zep Orange Degreaser. A little soapy/bleach solution will also work.

Then, use 303 vinyl protectant on the seats.

My problem's not mildew, but spider poop. Those little rascals are everywhere in the ceiling of our boat house. I'm thinking of ordering in some matching Surlast canvas and making covers to put over my light Ivory color seats.

That Awesome works great, all those Dollar, 99 cent stores have it even Wal-Mart is selling it now. Have you tried those bug bombs for spiders? It's worked for me.

Just Laxin wrote:

Bamaman wrote:Everyone speaks highly of using Mean Green on the seats--including my dealer.

The best cleaners I've ever found are Dollar General's Awesome and Home Depot's Zep Orange Degreaser. A little soapy/bleach solution will also work.

Then, use 303 vinyl protectant on the seats.

My problem's not mildew, but spider poop. Those little rascals are everywhere in the ceiling of our boat house. I'm thinking of ordering in some matching Surlast canvas and making covers to put over my light Ivory color seats.

That Awesome works great, all those Dollar, 99 cent stores have it even Wal-Mart is selling it now. Have you tried those bug bombs for spiders? It's worked for me.

Dryer sheets work fantastic for spiders and bugs. I started using them a few years ago and have not had spider or bug problems since. Just buy a few boxes and put the sheets in the rafters of the boat house or wherever you can. I have a covered boat lift and I put the sheets all over the posts on the cover...it works great. I also place them all over around the toon.

We have found that if we seal the seats in the fall, mildew is at a minimum in the spring. This is after the boat sits on the lift all fall, winter and spring.

STEVEBRENDA wrote:We have found that if we seal the seats in the fall, mildew is at a minimum in the spring. This is after the boat sits on the lift all fall, winter and spring.

Yep... and cleaning/scrubbing mildew off very very well a few times a year helps. My jets ski is 16 years old and if you saw it you would think it was brand new. The longer the mildew is left on the more of a challenge it is to get off. I'll spend an hour cleaning mildew off my jetski at least twice a year. I also spray on some 409 type mildew cleaner and just let it sit and work for about 10 min or so.

Go find some Jo-Max mix it with bleach per instuctions, spray it on let sit for 20 minutes, spray again and most of it will dispear, Jo-Max kills the mildew and will keep it gone for a good long while, belive me I go through a lot of it keeping my customers houses clean with, most times I can go around the house twice, every thing is clean and looking new without the use of a presure washer, so it saves them some money.

jimrs wrote:To further prevent this go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy a 5 gal bucket, and a large bag of charcoal. Put the charcoal in the bucket and sit on the floor of your toon then put the cover back on. I found that this works pretty good on eliminating mildew on mine.

To clean the seat there are numerous cleaning products to get it clean but make sure its dry before covering it back up.

hey now why didn't I think of that! and the Bounce sheets!

Handymanherb, where can I find Jo-max?

Thanks,
Wade

Home Depot in the paint aisle, I have seen it in some Wal-Marts paint section too

My buddy actually used a dehumidifier here by the beach where it hits the dew point 90% of the time.

Not sure how much it cost to run it but it worked great.

curtiscapk wrote:

jimrs wrote:To further prevent this go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy a 5 gal bucket, and a large bag of charcoal. Put the charcoal in the bucket and sit on the floor of your toon then put the cover back on. I found that this works pretty good on eliminating mildew on mine.

To clean the seat there are numerous cleaning products to get it clean but make sure its dry before covering it back up.

hey now why didn't I think of that! and the Bounce sheets!

Just in case someone was concerned: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/wetcharcoal.htm