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January 3, 2007
Le Nouveau Plancher - Prep Work
Putting down floor is hard work. Really hard. And it takes a lot of time. But it was a rewarding way to ring in the new year – the results are pretty exciting.
The first step was cleaning all the boards - there was about 100 years worth of gunk (best way to describe it) on the tongues of the boards. This was where the gaps had been between the boards when they were down on the floor. We used whatever we could to scrape it off. In the end, we scraped through a few screwdrivers – resilient gunk. There were spots where it seemed coca cola had been spilled on the floors because the gunk was so hardened that it was like a plastic shell. But we worked hard at it, so that gaps would be minimized when we laid the boards down in the house. This took about two days of work.
Comments
Steel wool works very well with mineral spirits at taking gunk off wood...sorry i am a couple of days too late with this advice.
Posted by: Tom at January 3, 2007 5:20 PM
Me too! Still it will be useful for the future, we will have to clean more boards before we lay down the hallway.
Posted by: P at January 3, 2007 5:57 PM
Wow. Zen-like patience.
Posted by: Brownstoner at January 3, 2007 10:54 PM
Hey P,
Yeah I was going to suggest what Tom suggested. Maybe you can start giving us updates before you start the work. I love watching your progress. Keep up the good work, and the good spirits.
-jeremy
Posted by: Jeremy at January 4, 2007 12:29 AM
also, may want to invest in an infra-red remover: www.thesilentpaintremover.com. its saved us hours and hours of paint removal and should work fast on local gunk spots.
looks good though. congrats on the project.
Posted by: housebywe at January 4, 2007 10:31 AM
I rented a 'silent paint remover' from Sister's Hardware on Fulton a couple of years ago. Don't know if they are still renting it out, but in the future it might bear looking into.
Love your reno blog; your wit and cheer and energy are inspiring, as is your progress.
Posted by: houseowax at January 5, 2007 11:24 AM
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