Am I screwed?

So here's the deal.... Idk where this could have come from but I just discovered mold in my back seat floorboard. I feel like an idiot for letting this happen. Idk where the moisture would come from in this area. I did have the blower motor leak from the windshield but fixed that problem with no mold up front. However the rear seams to have a spot now but all door seals in the area are solid. Any recommendations on how to resolve this without ripping out the carpet?

 

I'm not an expert by any means, but this is the route I'd take:

1. It'd be smart to wear a mask.
2. Remove the front seats to access as much of the carpet as you can.
3. Vacuum EVERYTHING (then throw away the vacuum bag, or clean the shop vac with bleach to prevent spreading the mold spores)
4. Clean thoroughly
   • If you have a steamer, use it with a little bit of carpet shampoo
   • Most people don't have a steamer, so next would be to mix 4:1 vinegar to water in a spray bottle, and spray just about every surface, nook, cranny, everything.
   • Let it sit for about 15 minutes. Once dry, vacuum again.
   • You may want to use a carpet detergent and brush at this point as well (I mean, you've gotten this far. Why not?).
   • Repeat above with the seats, front an back.
   • Let everything air-dry before moving on.
5. Protect your carpets.
   • I've had really good luck with Mold Control. I have a wine barrel sitting on an outdoor carpet, and there's still no mold after a year.
   • I don't know if 303 Aerospace Protectant will keep mold away, but others may chime in.
6. Remove any remaining moisture. I've heard that cat litter in a tube sock works like a giant desiccant packet

Obviously, you should find out why there's mold there (leaky seal somewhere else, evap condenser is plugged, etc.). My wife's Jetta will collect moisture in the fall/winter months, and it usually ends up being the evaporator drain is plugged with dirt or mud. I'll unplug it, run the defroster for a while, and that usually does the trick.

Best of luck!

 

I would yank it and put in new flooring. I just removed mine for a sound deadening project and it wasnt "THAT" bad

 

Rip that shit out and buy the Baja floor liner

 

So first off thank you for the gracious input!

So I did a little more research.... To try and not risk ripping out the carpet... I took an enzyme based cleaner and hard scrub brush with a 409 antibacterial ending. Let the enzyme cleaner sit for about 5-7 min and started scrubbing.

I took the cap off of the left back seat mount bolt to find that it has seeped in there. Did the same for that area and Bagan pulling trim panels enough to pull the carpet up to find no mold underneath!!! Looks like I found it in time. 99% of the time I am the only one in the truck and hardly open those doors and inspect ( I live in the PNW so I should... Lesson learned) anyways.... The enzyme cleaner seemed to completely remove all remnance of the mold after the scrub, but to be sure I gave it a good vacuum to try and get as much as I could out. Followed with the 409 lemony fresh antibacterial to sit over night (tonight). Here are my results.

The flash of the camera caught the moisture of the 409 but I'm not worried because I already have 2 "humidifier" bags in there that did wonders for drying the passenger side floorboards (from the blower motor/windshield leak that I fixed), so I just tossed those in the back floorboard and hopefully we're good to go.

Hopefully this does the trick. If not then @hx989 has it right I'm gunna go with something all weather. Though I searched Baja floor liner I only found this:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-all-weather-flooring-dc-tacoma.241122/

In the image search results, everything else was just floor mats. Looks pretty damn cool and not hard for a DIY @ that price (if I can find one).

 

Closer to $500. That thread is 6 years old

 

OP - I read somewhere on TW that there can be a leak in the light above the rear window. This could be the source at least.

 

I have my thoughts on where this could be coming from. In this video this guy rips out a $*&# ton of grime behind his front wheels.

https://youtu.be/2hdHrPfhVRI

Low and behold while I was cleaning those areas in my ruck are CAKED! so tomorrow I will be pulling all of that out. Idk if this has anything to do with it but I did notice under the door trim panels, that moisture seemed to be running down the side from front to back.

 

Still though... For a solid flooring, it's worth it. Especially where I live.

 

Thank you! I'll check that out!

 

Could you link a product? I cannot find anything for the 10 min I've been searching. Lol

 

Good to hear you caught it in time!

 

Thanks!