After finding out that Soygel is a nontoxic miracle for cleaning up my adhesive-caked heart of pine floor, I went out in search of cheaper-yet-effective brands of nontoxic solvents.
I ended up going with SoyClean Paint Stripper. At $31/gal, it is about half the price of Soygel. SoyClean is a liquid, which makes it a little harder to wrk with, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. It does have a rather overpowering citrus scent to it. I'd rather smell th soybeans, personally. It works, but is not nearly as impressive on the adhesive as the the Soygel. As I have a gallon of it, I will be trying it next on the old paint splatters and varnish on my stairs. I think it will be able to handle that much better. I will report back after that experiment.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Back to square 2!
Today's mission-- to decide if I still want to sand and seal the floor, or just paint it. I see good reasons on both side of the debate (which is raging on inside my head), but I just cannot make the leap to "painting is good, I should just paint the floor." I know I'll be happy with it either way, but I'm not one to go into such important life decisions lightly.
Here's the test patch that I put Soygel on. This stuff rocks, and is totally non-smelly. I slathered it on last night, covered it with some plastic to keep it moist, and took 10 minutes to scrape and scrub the old adhesive and paint off. Pretty good for 10 minutes work , eh?
Here's the test patch that I put Soygel on. This stuff rocks, and is totally non-smelly. I slathered it on last night, covered it with some plastic to keep it moist, and took 10 minutes to scrape and scrub the old adhesive and paint off. Pretty good for 10 minutes work , eh?
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Today's project: looking for the floor's finish
The more research I do, the more convinced I am that I should go with a "green" finish for my family room floor. Not only are they environmentallly friendlier, they are typically lower VOC than standard polyurethanes. And the people who have used them seem to be quite happy with their results.
Problem: The pros are not willing to work with me on this. They all want to put down 3-5 coats of oil-based poly and charge me $2.50/sqft for it. I will not spend top dollar to have people come to my home and do what I don't want. So I've now decided to DIY the floor.
My husband thinks I'm kinda nuts for even considering it. He redid the dining room floor at our last house, and vowed never to do it again. I do not have the benefit of his experience though. ;) Sooo, I'll rent an orbital sander from a local place, and then probably go with tung oil and wax, or "hardwax oil."
As exciting as all this is, I still think I'll need to move my family out of the house for a couple of days while I do all this. Good thing my in-laws have a big guest bedroom. :)
Problem: The pros are not willing to work with me on this. They all want to put down 3-5 coats of oil-based poly and charge me $2.50/sqft for it. I will not spend top dollar to have people come to my home and do what I don't want. So I've now decided to DIY the floor.
My husband thinks I'm kinda nuts for even considering it. He redid the dining room floor at our last house, and vowed never to do it again. I do not have the benefit of his experience though. ;) Sooo, I'll rent an orbital sander from a local place, and then probably go with tung oil and wax, or "hardwax oil."
As exciting as all this is, I still think I'll need to move my family out of the house for a couple of days while I do all this. Good thing my in-laws have a big guest bedroom. :)
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Oy- what have we gotten ourselves into?
So as we finished uncovering the wood floor, I realized the amount of grime involved. yuck. And the guy who was going talk to us about sanding for us has yet to call. So I have to call around to some other places. Why does nothing in home repair ever go smoothly?
Monday, June 26, 2006
Family room floor project, -- day 1
First step, pull out old carpet. It's actually a nice shade of green, but it shows every single speck of everything. And with two young kids, there are LOTS of specks of everything.
Pulling up the carpet isn't an easy task, as the half-wall built to keep people from falling into the basement was built on top of the carpet. Who builds walls without removing the carpet underneath?
And when I pulled carpet away from this wall, the beaverboard paneling was damaged. So I removed it, too. Under it -- more fiberboard paneling! And water-damaged to boot. I guess I'll also learn to hang drywall in this project. Old houses are one learning experience after another. I think that's a good thing.
That is a good thing, right?
Riiight?
But this is what is under there. We believe it to be heart pine, like the rest of the first floor. I'm calling floor guys (or gals) for quotes today.
And this is what we hope it to look like when we are done, minus the gouges that the previous owners caused by trying to DIY the floors in the past. There is a time for DIY, and a time for professionals. The owners of this house over the years have had troubles finding that balance. ugh.
Pulling up the carpet isn't an easy task, as the half-wall built to keep people from falling into the basement was built on top of the carpet. Who builds walls without removing the carpet underneath?
And when I pulled carpet away from this wall, the beaverboard paneling was damaged. So I removed it, too. Under it -- more fiberboard paneling! And water-damaged to boot. I guess I'll also learn to hang drywall in this project. Old houses are one learning experience after another. I think that's a good thing.
That is a good thing, right?
Riiight?
But this is what is under there. We believe it to be heart pine, like the rest of the first floor. I'm calling floor guys (or gals) for quotes today.
And this is what we hope it to look like when we are done, minus the gouges that the previous owners caused by trying to DIY the floors in the past. There is a time for DIY, and a time for professionals. The owners of this house over the years have had troubles finding that balance. ugh.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
First post -- how exciting!
You see, I tried to start a website to chronicle the updates we do to our 1900-ish house. I got a photo album up and everything, but then I tried to subdivide it by room and add comments. Apparently websites are smarter than I. So I decided to blog it all instead. I'll start tomorrow with pictures of our family room floor project's humble beginnings.
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