A hutch is a wooden box with animals living in it. They eat, drink, sleep and go to the loo in there, and all of that makes warmth and moisture. Add a British winter and you have the conditions mould likes.
So if you have found dark marks inside your hutch, you have not done anything wrong, and your hutch is not necessarily faulty. Worth saying too: not every dark mark is mould. Staining from water, tannin bleed out of the timber and general grubbiness all look similar, and nobody can tell for certain from the colour alone. Here is how to work out what you are dealing with, handle it safely, and make it less likely to come back.
First, the thumb test
Before you clean anything, find out whether the timber underneath is still sound. Press the marked area firmly with your thumb and compare it with a clean part of the same panel.
If the wood feels firm, you are looking at surface marks on sound timber, whatever they turn out to be. Those usually clean off, and the rest of this guide is for you.
If the wood feels soft or spongy, looks swollen, or the surface layers are separating, stop. That is not a cleaning job. Take photos and get in touch with us instead, and we will look at it with you. Scrubbing at damaged timber will not fix it, and we would rather see it.
The same goes if the marks cover more than a small patch, if several panels are affected, or if you are simply not sure. Send us photos and let us take a look. Cleaning advice is for small areas on firm wood.
What to send us, if it is one for us
Four photos tell us nearly everything:
- The whole hutch from a few steps back, so we can see the model and where it sits.
- Each affected area, filling the frame.
- A close-up of the worst patch, with your thumb pressing beside it.
- Both faces of the affected panel, inside and out, if you can see them safely.
Add a line about how long it has looked like that, and your order number if you have it to hand.
Cleaning a small patch of surface mould
Before you start
Move your pets somewhere comfortable. They stay out until the hutch is completely dry.
Then gear up. Wear rubber gloves, close-fitting eye protection and a snug particulate mask such as an FFP2 or N95. This is not cause for alarm, you just do not want to be breathing it in while you scrub.
One important exception: if you have a mould allergy, a weakened immune system, a lung condition or a chronic respiratory illness, please do not do this job yourself. Ask someone else, or bring in a professional.
The clean
Warm water with a squirt of mild washing-up liquid, and a firm brush on the marked area. Follow the instructions on whatever detergent you use.
Do not soak the wood. You want it damp, not saturated. Then go over the area again with clean water so no detergent is left behind, and wipe off what moisture you can.
The bit that actually matters: drying
Get it properly dry. Doors open, outside on a dry day if the weather allows, until the timber is dry all the way through, not just dry to a quick touch.
How long that takes depends on the weather, the temperature, the airflow where you are and how wet the wood got, so we will not give you a number. Your pets go back in when it is genuinely dry and the hutch is fit to use, not before.
Drying is what actually breaks the cycle. Damp timber is the condition mould needs, so a hutch that goes back into use still damp tends to end up back where it started.
Where the moisture is coming from
Cleaning treats the symptom. Finding the water source is what stops it happening again. In our experience, these are the usual suspects:
Rain that keeps hitting the same spot. Stand by the hutch during a shower and watch where water actually goes. A dripping gutter, an overhanging branch, splashback off a wall or path. Sometimes moving the hutch a foot solves it for good.
A leaking water bottle. A slow drip keeps one patch of timber permanently wet. Check the seal and the spout.
Damp bedding and blankets. Swap bedding for dry weekly, and air blankets indoors rather than leaving them in.
Urine and soiling. Part of normal hutch life, which is exactly why the regular clean-out and a proper dry afterwards matter so much.
Still, humid air. A hutch in a shed or garage is out of the rain, but if the air in there never moves it can stay damp. Some through-draught helps. Outdoors, leaving a hand's width of space behind and beside the hutch lets air circulate so the timber can dry between showers.
Covers. A cover keeps rain off, which is the point of it. Timber also needs to dry out, so peel the cover back on dry days and let the air get to the wood. Cover on for the weather, off when the weather allows.
Keeping the timber protected
Every panel of a Home & Roost hutch is treated with TIMBAC® before it leaves our workshop, floors and ramps included. TIMBAC® is a water-based stain, and its label describes it as durable, weather resistant, with excellent water repellency and lasting protection against the elements. It is low odour, and safe for plants and pets once it is dry.
Weather wears any finish over time, so our guidance is to give the timber a fresh coat once a year. It goes on with a brush, on a dry day.
Treatment is protection against the weather, not a guarantee against mould. A wooden hutch in a wet British winter still needs cleaning out, drying properly and a look at where the water is getting in.
What is ours to fix, and what is yours to keep on top of
Worth being straight about this, because it saves everyone a difficult conversation later.
If something left our workshop wrong, that is ours. A panel that was not treated properly, a joint that failed, timber that was not sound when it arrived. Send us photos and we will look at it with you and tell you plainly where you stand.
Cleaning it out, drying it properly and keeping the treatment topped up is the ongoing job of owning a wooden hutch. It is the same as clearing your gutters or oiling a garden bench. A hutch that goes a whole winter without a proper clean and a proper dry will grow mould, and that is not a fault in the hutch. It is what damp timber does.
We are blunt about it because of the second of the two photographs above. Caught at the stage in the first one, that is an afternoon with a brush. Left long enough, the panel is finished and no amount of scrubbing or goodwill brings it back. Ten minutes every few weeks through the winter is the whole difference.
If someone is unwell
If a person or animal in your household seems unwell, speak to your GP or your vet. We make hutches, so we cannot tell you whether something you have found is affecting anyone's health, and we would not try. Get proper advice first, and we will deal with the hutch side separately.
The short version
- Press the wood. Firm means you can probably clean it. Soft, swollen or separating means send us photos.
- Small patch only. Bigger than that, or several panels, and we should look.
- Gloves, eye protection and a mask before you scrub.
- Mild detergent and water, no soaking, then a clean-water wipe.
- Dry it thoroughly. Pets return only when it is genuinely dry.
- Find the water. Rain, bottles, bedding, still air.
- A fresh coat of TIMBAC® once a year keeps the timber protected.
4 comments
Do you sell a rain cover or thermal cover for the 6ft sandhurst double tier hutch?
Question: Can the mold and mildew become airborne and affect a toddler that sleeps in the same room as rabbit?
My grandson has had a runny nose and wheezing with a congested cough and the straw smell in his room hits me hard as I have allergies to straw, hay, alfalfa.
I’m concerned he may have the same allergic reaction as Me,
Best water bottles for my outdoor rabbit? I live in San Diego it’s sunny 90% of the time what water bottle do I use for my rabbit? Plastic or glass?
How do you stop rabbits recking their hutch and chewing.