[Georgetown House] Introducing: Our Dining Room Floor, brought to you today b...
Today was Rip Out the Carpet Day, and I had originally planned to leave
taking up the plywood for another day. But Von came home as I was
mid-carpet pull and one thing led to another, and we pulled up all the
plywood.Ladies, Gentlemen and those elsewhere on the gender spectrum:
We have a wood floor in our dining room, in place of the nasty carpet
that has been the bane of my existence since we first moved here. I
mean, c'mon, what can you say about a beige carpet that you clean 6
times and the water still comes up into the carpet cleaner as black the
last time as the first?!? Pics are at the end of this post.The news on
the floor is mixed: Not as bad as we had feared it could be, but still
a lot of work ahead of us. No real evidence of smoke/water damage from
the fire that was in this room before PO's got hold of the house, but
there's LOTS of old linoleum glue on the wood. Oh happy happy joy joy
(NOT!). Some of it is being very kind and flaking right off, but most
of it is going to require some serious muscle. Sanding it off isn't an
option from what everyone has told me, because it will gunk the sander
up faster than my pug going after a treat. I ran some test patches of
various things that might work to help soften the glue, and doused
sections with goo-gone, Greased Lightning Orange Blast spray, Greased
Lightning concentrated cleaner mixed 1/2 & 1/2 with water, and pure
water as my control. The Greased Lighting spray was the winner in this
round. Greased Lightning totally rocks - it's the only cleaner I use
any more - but it's only softening a layer of the glue at a time, so
I'm going to test some other options tomorrow.The real bitch is the
staples. Oh lord the previous owners went freakin' nuts with that
freakin' staple gun when he was putting down that luan. And of course
all the staples went through the plywood and stayed in the floor when
we pulled up the luan. The only method I've found for removing them is
to jam one side of my needle-nose plyers into the staple, brace my
lineman's plyers behind them for leverage, then push down. My poor hand
is only marginally functional at this point, and yet I've barely made a
dent in all that are there. I'm definitely going to need a new
needle-nose when I'm done, I'm putting it through such intense abuse.
Do they made a needle-nose prybar?!?I'm so happy with having most of
the carpet gone (haven't taken it out of the doggie hall yet) that I
could work until my body is one solid muscle spasm. Oh, wait. I already
did that. ::groan:: I need some serious ibuprofen and a soak in the hot
tub. Except we don't have a hot tub. My friends do, though... Hmmmm, I
wonder if they're asleep...OK here are the pics.The before pic. Please
ignore the mess. I wasn't about to clean just before I turned the room
into a disaster area. The checked rug is the nasty ugly area rug that's
hiding the hideously awful carpet.Down to the luan, in half the room
anyway:There's the floor! We have no idea what that one stained area
might be in the second picture - it seemed to be there from before the
carpet.The Great Solvant Face-Off!For this teeny bit of progress, I
feel hit by a truck?!?
taking up the plywood for another day. But Von came home as I was
mid-carpet pull and one thing led to another, and we pulled up all the
plywood.Ladies, Gentlemen and those elsewhere on the gender spectrum:
We have a wood floor in our dining room, in place of the nasty carpet
that has been the bane of my existence since we first moved here. I
mean, c'mon, what can you say about a beige carpet that you clean 6
times and the water still comes up into the carpet cleaner as black the
last time as the first?!? Pics are at the end of this post.The news on
the floor is mixed: Not as bad as we had feared it could be, but still
a lot of work ahead of us. No real evidence of smoke/water damage from
the fire that was in this room before PO's got hold of the house, but
there's LOTS of old linoleum glue on the wood. Oh happy happy joy joy
(NOT!). Some of it is being very kind and flaking right off, but most
of it is going to require some serious muscle. Sanding it off isn't an
option from what everyone has told me, because it will gunk the sander
up faster than my pug going after a treat. I ran some test patches of
various things that might work to help soften the glue, and doused
sections with goo-gone, Greased Lightning Orange Blast spray, Greased
Lightning concentrated cleaner mixed 1/2 & 1/2 with water, and pure
water as my control. The Greased Lighting spray was the winner in this
round. Greased Lightning totally rocks - it's the only cleaner I use
any more - but it's only softening a layer of the glue at a time, so
I'm going to test some other options tomorrow.The real bitch is the
staples. Oh lord the previous owners went freakin' nuts with that
freakin' staple gun when he was putting down that luan. And of course
all the staples went through the plywood and stayed in the floor when
we pulled up the luan. The only method I've found for removing them is
to jam one side of my needle-nose plyers into the staple, brace my
lineman's plyers behind them for leverage, then push down. My poor hand
is only marginally functional at this point, and yet I've barely made a
dent in all that are there. I'm definitely going to need a new
needle-nose when I'm done, I'm putting it through such intense abuse.
Do they made a needle-nose prybar?!?I'm so happy with having most of
the carpet gone (haven't taken it out of the doggie hall yet) that I
could work until my body is one solid muscle spasm. Oh, wait. I already
did that. ::groan:: I need some serious ibuprofen and a soak in the hot
tub. Except we don't have a hot tub. My friends do, though... Hmmmm, I
wonder if they're asleep...OK here are the pics.The before pic. Please
ignore the mess. I wasn't about to clean just before I turned the room
into a disaster area. The checked rug is the nasty ugly area rug that's
hiding the hideously awful carpet.Down to the luan, in half the room
anyway:There's the floor! We have no idea what that one stained area
might be in the second picture - it seemed to be there from before the
carpet.The Great Solvant Face-Off!For this teeny bit of progress, I
feel hit by a truck?!?