Moldy oldies

[XCashier]

Had a customer come in yesterday, right before I was off work. She’d inherited an old trailer and was redecorating it. Yay, new curtains and décor! Then she showed me a photo of two moldy foam-rubber mattresses and said she wanted to recover them!

I told her that the mold would eat right through the fabric and make people sick, the best thing to do was dispose of and replace the mattresses. She would not hear of it, said our foam was too narrow (which, admittedly it is, but there's probably wider foam elsewhere, like on the internet), she was getting them cleaned and insisted that she could recover them and make them good as new.

Seriously, how do you not comprehend that mold is toxic?! There's no guarantee the "cleaning" will get rid of all the mold, it'll likely come right back. I’ve got no problem with recovering old furniture, making do, etc. But when it’s contaminated with big black patches of mold, like these foam rubber mattresses were, I don't even want to deal with it, and I certainly wouldn't jeopardize my family's health because of it. But there's no getting through to some people, I guess.

[sirwired]

And were these really nice foam mattresses, like memory foam, or just some cheap things that happened to be made of foam?

I imagine saturating them with bleach would work, and then you'd be smelling bleach for the rest of your life instead; not exactly an improvement.

Ick.

[XCashier]

And were these really nice foam mattresses, like memory foam, or just some cheap things that happened to be made of foam?

I imagine saturating them with bleach would work, and then you'd be smelling bleach for the rest of your life instead; not exactly an improvement.

I don't know; I only saw a picture of them on her phone. They were yellowed (formerly whitish) where they weren't black with mold, about 5-6" thick, she said they were 75"x 55" so she couldn't get a regular mattress. (I looked it up after the fact, she could've gotten a full-size mattress to replace them!!!) And even if they were nice memory foam originally, they were still moldy and nasty.

Yeah, I'd think soaking them in bleach would be about the only thing that would work, so you either get sick from the mold or from the bleach fumes. Hell, I'd rather sleep on a clean concrete floor than deal with that!

[MoonCat]

Well, not all black mold is that dangerous, but why take a chance?? And then of course if someone got sick she'd come back to your store and blame you for it because you sold her the coverings "and didn't tell her it was a bad idea."

[KuariKaydrith]

The bleach might eat right through the foam rubber, and make the whole thing reek to high heaven in the process! I get that good foam is not exactly cheap, but I'd rather replace it instead of dealing with a host of mold-related health issues. Frankly, I'd likely just toss the moldy foam and toss a couple of cheap mattresses into the trailer, even if they're not a perfect fit. Or pile on the pillows to make a nest. Anything is better than gambling on the mold not being dangerous.

[taxguykarl]

No kidding. How much of a budget-buster will new mattresses be? This was a complete re-decoration.

[Seshat]

Pop down to Clark Rubber and they'll not only sell you exactly the right sort of foam for your mattress, they'll cut it to fit and recommend types of upholstry fabric for the covers.

I do understand that CR is probably an Australia-specific chain of stores, but surely there's an equivalent place in other first world countries. Absolute worst case, pop down to the nearest 'light industrial' area and stop in at the first upholstry place you see: they can replace your mattresses with bedding quality foam.

[XCashier]

I'm sure she could've gotten the right sized foam nearby. Or, like I said, the nearest equivalent standard mattress (which would be a full). Even an airbed! But for some reason, she was bound and determined to try to turn that biohazard into usable furniture and no amount of reasoning from me would talk her out of it. Sheesh, why not make a table and chairs out of nuclear waste storage barrels while she's at it?! Or set up the trailer itself at the Love Canal or Three Mile Island.

Sadly, this is not the first time I have tried to talk someone out of doing something that would end up harming them. There is just no reasoning with some people, even when health and life are on the line.

[raudf]

The woman is an idiot. I would hate to go into the trailer if the mattresses are that bad. That stuff doesn't stay in one place and who knows how long they'd been in the place?

[notalwaysright]

She would not hear of it, said our foam was too narrow (which, admittedly it is, but there's probably wider foam elsewhere, like on the internet), she was getting them cleaned and insisted that she could recover them and make them good as new.

The other day I heard my coworker dealing with this issue... She had a decent reply. "Right, it isn't wide enough for a mattress, it's meant for chair cushions." No idea if that's true, but the customer was a bit more understanding after that. Our store used to have a policy (which was totally made up, I think ) of not returning foam, because we had an incident where someone slept on it while camping, then returned it.

I've had people bring in their moldy chair cushions, and put them on the cutting table. Yeah, thanks. This is why you pre-wash fabric, people. You really have NO idea what goes on at the fabric store...