Mold problem on new purchased bamboo fence

[BlueMoon]

I live on the Pacific Coast of Washington state. I am new to bamboo, but love everything about it. As a result, I decided to build a new fence out of bamboo. After much research, I decided to purchase the bamboo from (editors note: name of company removed).

I bought seventeen 6x8-foot panels of 1-inch bamboo to build my 145-foot fence. The cost was $86 per panel. The bamboo arrived on three pallets, each panel rolled up and tied up in a woven plastic bag.

When I started opening the bags, a bunch of crystals fell out on my garage floor and made the floor wet. I have since learned that this was desiccant, included to absorb moisture from the bamboo. When I questioned my salesman, I was told it was nothing to worry about. I have since learned that the bamboo was probably not dried properly after it was cut.....

I built the fence in August and September of this year, during a very dry and warm period of weather here in the Pacific Northwest, and this is how it looked on September 15th:

http://members.aol.com/kathyk1296/F1 (images have been removed by original poster)

The bamboo had a powdery mold on it in this photo, but it was not visible at that distance.

By October 17th, the fence looked like this:

http://members.aol.com/kathyk1296/F2

http://members.aol.com/kathyk1296/F3

http://members.aol.com/kathyk1296/F4

The bamboo was very discolored by the mold, with some culms totally black in color.

I again called the company I purchased the materials from and was told to "just spray a bleach solution on it and rinse it off with the hose, that it was nothing to worry about." Well, I tried that and a lot of the mold did not come off, even when I scrubbed it by hand with a brush and a bleach solution. The mold seemed to be ingrained in the bamboo. After two weeks, the mold was returning with a vegeance.

I next purchased a pressure washer and spent countless hours trying to clean the mold off of the bamboo. I sprayed up and down each individual culm, to be sure I was optimally cleaning the sides of the culms as well as the face, and did this on both sides of the fence. Even with pressure-washing at a distance of one inch and holding the sprayer in place for several minutes, there were many areas where the mold could simply not be removed. It seemed to be ingrained in the culms from the inside out.

After the pressure washing, the fence still looked like this in some areas:

http://members.aol.com/kathyk1296/F5

I knew there was only a small window of time before the mold would once again return, so I quickly purchased a stain/sealer from Sherwin Williams and spent several days carefully applying this by brush to all visible surfaces of the culms. I finished this the first week of November. It was a fortunate stroke of luck that the rainy and cooler winter season did not begin here until the end of November this year.

It's been over six weeks since I sealed the bamboo. I can see mold starting to appear in places and know I will have to get out there soon to try to remove it. I see ongoing maintenance of the bamboo as my new future.

One of the reasons I built a bamboo fence was because I was led to believe that it would be a low-maintenance or no-maintenance fence. I was told that I could seal it in a year or so once it had a chance to weather a bit, or that I could just let it naturally and slowly go gray. I never expected the extreme amount of maintenance I've already had to do, or what it appears I will continue to have with this fence. I know there must be mold on the ends of the culms that is hidden by the fence framing. What will happen there?

The company I purchased the materials from claims that I am the only customer of theirs that this has happened to. That seems very hard for me to believe. I have since talked with other bamboo dealers and have been told that this should not have happened. That if they receive bamboo with mold on it from their suppliers, they ship it back to them. I've seen a bamboo fence in Seattle that has been there for years and never been treated with any product, and it has no mold on its surface.

The company also blames it on the climate I live in and says all fences in my area will have mold on them. Well, I've driven around my town and I don't see this happening, on any kind of fence. The cedar fence I was replacing was very old and it had no mold on it whatsoever.

I would really appreciate hearing input from others who have built fences or other things outdoors in similar climates and what their experiences have been with mold, if any.

Thank you very much and Happy Holidays,
BlueMoon

[CaroleMeckes]

Hi BlueMoon,

'Welculm' to the Bamboo Forums. Sorry you have had a bad experience with your first bamboo fence.

I'd guess that the bamboo that was used for your fence was just harvested too young. First year canes usually get moldy after a short while and never quite clean up well.

Mark would often harvest some first year canes because 1. he wanted to use them to make bamboo paper and 2. because he would say that the grove was too crowded and the smaller canes would never be able to develop well since there were taller canes around them blocking out the light.

I would end up finding some of these young canes in our outside collection and I used to try to clean the up, but it was not worth it, so now I just set them aside and eventually, I will just send them back to the grove as "food for the grove".

Nevertheless, in your situation, the company should really replace your fence panels with better quality or refund your money as you should not have to have had the terrible experiences that you have had with your bamboo fence.

The problem is that the company obviously did not make the fence themselves, but most likely had it shipped to them and they were probably not aware that the bamboo that was in the woven plastic bag was not properly harvested. The company should complain to their suppliers and request a replacement for you. If their supplier does not make good - they should find a new supplier.

A company that would want to uphold a good reputation would try to make good of your problem.

Carole

[BlueMoon]

Carole,

Your input is much appreciated. I am currently working with this company to try and get some compensation for my experience with their inferior bamboo. At this point, they seem unwilling to accept their responsibility for my dilemma and have offered me a token $250 for what they refer to as my "inconvenience."

They state that mine is "the only case where their recommended steps to remove mold have failed." To me, that means that they must have a lot of mold problems with their customers to deal with, if they have established a method for doing so. Yet, they continue to tell me that I am their only customer who has ever had this problem.

They also say that they have no way to substantiate that their method was properly adhered to by me. That confounds me, as I told them in great detail (along with photos) exactly what I had done in trying to combat the mold. Since their method was only to "spray the fence with bleach and rinse it off with a hose," I feel that I went just a little bit beyond that. I figure I very conservatively spent 80 hours of my time scrubbing the mold by hand with a brush, pressure-washing it, and sealing it. It's hard to imagine that all of their other customers who don't have my problem did more than that?!

I really appreciate your input on my situation and would very much like to hear from others as well. My reason for posting in this forum is both to learn from the experts here and to also hopefully warn others and prevent them from purchasing bamboo from this apparently disreputable company. If anyone would like to know the name of this company, I encourage you to email me privately through the forum.

Thank you,
BlueMoon

[trummer]

Bluemoon,

Please contact me. I have the same problem with bamboo I purchased at the same time in seattle. The chances are good that we got it from the same place. I can't find your email so send me one.

Thanks

[lorelei510]

I purchased bamboo fencing from a company in southern California and I have the same experience. I was told that I should have sealed it (even though I was led to believe it was already sealed upon arrival) to prevent the mold. So I went out there and tried their suggestions, to no avail. I ultimately had to use a pressure washer and straight bleach on the fence to remove most of the mold. I then sealed it with a natural color since the pressure washing seemed to strip the bamboo some. Thinking that was the end, I enjoyed my fence until the weather started changing. But as you'd guess, the mold has appeared again. I am not willing to go through that process again. Anyone can contact me so that maybe we can coordinate and get this resolved!

[VitalK9]

Hi there

I have just joined the forum, which I found whilst trying to find a solution for the blackening bamboo fence we recently installed in our yard. Much like mentioned above, ours also arrived in rolled up panels (8' x 6') in white woven plastic sacks. My husband retrofitted it to our existing wire fencing, so it was quite easy to install. It looked fine and the company we bought it from told us it might need treating in the summer with some linseed oil (?), but it would otherwise be hardy enough for outdoor use. It was apparently very popular. We have fenced 200 feet of our property frontage with it! Anyhow, we installed the fence just before the winter arrived (October 2007). By Christmas we could see it was getting darker in colour and seemed to have black mouldy spots on it. This is what it looks like now:
1491

1492

It's quite unsightly and our customers are commenting on it, wondering whether it's normal. From what I read here, it is not. We haven't yet attempted any bleach treatments and it sounds like we'd be wasting our time anyhow. We really don't need more maintenance on our acreage!

I am awaiting a reply from the company we got it from and really hope they are helpful. It was bought in Vancouver BC and we live on Vancouver Island, BC.

Chrissie

[VitalK9]

OK, so the company have been very quick in replying and here's what they say:

It looks like the fencing has some mold on it, however, this is normal and simply pressure washing it and letting it dry thoroughly and then applying some linseed oil will make it look much better. Make sure that the linseed oil has a few days to dry before it rains.

We have bamboo fence and have had it outside for about 3 years and ours does not look like yours. I am confident that by pressure washing it, and treating it with linseed oil, will rectify the problem.

What do you all think of that? They've sort of admitted that our fence looks nothing like it should do, but totally played down the severity of it after only 5 months of weathering. My husband won't like the idea of pressure washing the entire thing and I really doubt it will remove the mould significantly. Has anyone else tried linseed oil treatment? If this can work, we'll do it, as I can see that taking it all down or getting a replacement is likely to be a very arduous process. Sigh.

Chrissie

[Zsawchuk]

I have had The same problem with any outdoor bamboo product, I have found a few things that killed the mold, but i have not found a proper way to keep it from coming back. To kill it, You may need to use bleach On every single part of the bamboo that has mold, then use a fungicide, But other then that, you might need to try and seal it once all the mold is 100% gone.

[NJ Tubs]

We are in PA and installed our bamboo fence 2 summers ago. We are currently in the process of cleaning it again, hopefully for good. We started last year, with bleach on one run of the fence, the other 2 runs of the fence were not touched.

We have scrubbed, power washed and tried a couple different products. The runs of the fence that sat untouched were actually easier to clean than the section that was cleaned last year. That is important to know because if you are going to tackle this project, seal it afterwards. You don't want to go through this nightmare again.

We have found that Olympic Deck Wash works the best in cleaning the fence without scrubbing (my elbows and shoulder are grateful for that). Spray it on a dry fence and let it set for 5-10 minutes. Don't let it dry, it will create a different kind of cleaning nightmare, mist if necessary to keep wet. Then use a high pressure washer to spray off. We go over the section of fence several times (45 degree angle, straight on and then the opposite 45 degree angle). Don't clean in direct sunlight, work on the shady side of the fence. We use the medium nozzle and spray less than an inch from the fence.

If you have to scrub, god knows we scrubbed 1/2 the fence already before the Olympic product was recommended by a relative, plastic bristle scrub brushes or fine steel wool works the best.

We are sealing with an product tinted yellow, makes it look brand new and you can still see the grain of the bamboo.

We bought this product over the internet and had it shipped from CA. Unfortunately, we selected a company that went out of business. Wish we went for the other company, if indeed, if the couple of hundred dollars would have made a difference. Somehow I doubt it.

Anyhow, when clean, the fence is beautiful. If this doesn't work long term, we just might rip it out and put up wood slats. This fence was supposed to be maintenance free. :rolleyes:

[darwood]

Hi there
I have a six foot bamboo fence purchased only 2 or 3 months ago.And it all has turned completely black and has some serious splits.The fence came from Home Depot.I have quite a bit of it.It's beginning to look as if it will slpinter a part.I have seen some splinters.I hope I can I find my receipts.This looks terrible.
I have just joined the forum, which I found whilst trying to find a solution for the blackening bamboo fence we recently installed in our yard. Much like mentioned above, ours also arrived in rolled up panels (8' x 6') in white woven plastic sacks. My husband retrofitted it to our existing wire fencing, so it was quite easy to install. It looked fine and the company we bought it from told us it might need treating in the summer with some linseed oil (?), but it would otherwise be hardy enough for outdoor use. It was apparently very popular. We have fenced 200 feet of our property frontage with it! Anyhow, we installed the fence just before the winter arrived (October 2007). By Christmas we could see it was getting darker in colour and seemed to have black mouldy spots on it. This is what it looks like now:
1491

1492

It's quite unsightly and our customers are commenting on it, wondering whether it's normal. From what I read here, it is not. We haven't yet attempted any bleach treatments and it sounds like we'd be wasting our time anyhow. We really don't need more maintenance on our acreage!

I am awaiting a reply from the company we got it from and really hope they are helpful. It was bought in Vancouver BC and we live on Vancouver Island, BC.

Chrissie
I have a fence from Home Depot that's turned black after only a couple of months.There's some splintering going on too.I suppose it will only get worse.I live in south central Florida.It's been usually cold the past two months but the heat will be here eventually.A lot of people only stay here during the winters,because they're usually mild.Not so this year.There's lots of dead fence in the canal out back.Maybe the cold weather killed them.How do you know when to return a fence?

[CaroleMeckes]

There's lots of dead fence in the canal out back.Maybe the cold weather killed them.How do you know when to return a fence?

Do you mean that there is lots of "dead bamboo" in the canal out back?

I don't think that Home Depot will refund you for your fence.....
Carole

[darwood]

Unfortunately I was commenting on our unusually cold weather this year and high lighting the extreme circumstances surrounding it by mentioning the dead fish as further proof.The fence might be turning black because of it but I sincerely doubt that.As far as returns,I have never had a problem returning anything to Home Depot.My mind slipped because I may not have all the receipts,which Home Depot does not require.But in that case they put the refund as in store credit and give me a card.Thanks.

[CaroleMeckes]

oh - you meant dead fish (not dead fence) in the canal

[darwood]

yes

[CaroleMeckes]

The only "bamboo fencing" that I have ever seen at Home Depot is the 'reed fencing' that comes in a roll and is about 6 feet tall - is that what you got there?