I can paint and do it pretty well - that's not a problem. However my bathroom has mildew building up on it and I want to know how to properly clean that so that I can paint it. Am I right that this needs to be removed prior to painting or is there a product you can "paint" on? My wife thinks you could just paint it with Kilz then repaint. Is this correct?

I've seen several posts advising Zinsser's Kitchen & bath paint. I also know you can have mildew resistance added to the paint. Is one method preferred over the other?

This is an old house, built in the 50's and does not have an exhaust fan in the bathroom. I do not know it the existing paint is oil or latex.

Once the mildew is gone, is it time to paint or do you need to prime first?

Seems like a lot of questions and your feedback will be very much appreciated!

 

There is probably a better way but I have put bleach in a spray bottle, mixed in water and sprayed the mildew. I just assumed bleach would kill it because its such nasty stuff and it seems to do the trick. I rinse with with water after.
I'm intersested to see what others have to say.

 

Bleach is the most effective/common way of killing/removing mildew. The bleach mixture should be 30-50% bleach mixed with water. As when any cleaner the residue should be rinsed off prior to painting.

It is a common misconseption that priming mildew with kilz will stop the mildew. This is not true! While the primer and paint will hide the mildew and slow its growth, it does not kill it and it will come back.

There is a sticky at the top of this forum describing how to tell oil base from latex. If you currently have oil base on the walls you need to either continue with oil base or use an oil/shellac primer before applying latex.

 

then either install an exhaust fan or keep the door open when showering and use a bathroom paint or add the mildewcide to regular paint. or you can expect the mildew to show up again soon.

 

The mildew must be killed
Dead, dead, dead.
The bleach will work, I like X-14 myself
If the mildew is gone, wiped off, and no stain or anything, you can paint w/o primer/sealing (using normal prep)
If it is dead, but unremovable, then you must seal it in with Kilz or I prefer BIN
Then you can paint it

 

The Z's K&B is an unbelievably mildew resistant paint
I'd recommend strongly
The only problem with it is that it doesn't tint well
Or I should say it does fine with pastels and light tints, but if you want Forrest Green then I'd go with some Ben Moore (or sim.) and the additive

 

I had an idea about this but it is nice to know facts from myths.