Ask the Remodeler

In My Humble Opinion
1

[DISCLAIMER] If you hire a contractor to work on your house, make sure they are licensed, bonded, and insured! Try to get at least three estimates, and check references.[/DISCLAIMER]

I have been in the building trades for over 20 years.

This thread is basically for DIY type homeowners who need tips/tricks on home improvement/repair type projects. Questions about tools are also welcome.

I wont address contractor/homeowner issues or prices per jobs.

I will give you some tips and tricks to make the job easier. :wink:

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Hrm… I have a language problem. blush

There’s a kind of rough wall finish that was very popular here in Spain in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Please google images for gotelé as I have no idea what it’s called in English, sorry. It’s sort of like someone pulled strings of plaster off the wall. I’ve got childhood memories of scraping my arms against the more agressive varieties of this thing.

The flat I just bought suffers from a mild case of it. Since I’m going to repaint the living room at some point, I thought I may as well take advantage of this to clean out that monster finish.

If you can identify it: what would I do to clean it off? I’m told both “wet and scrape” and “sand”; do you think this could be done by hand, could I use just my regular BnD, or would I need to hop along to Leroy Merlin and rent some serious machinery? I realize it sounds silly to be asking someone across the sea - but people here seem to have the notion that 5’4" women can’t do this kind of work. They just stare at me funny when I ask, then tell me to ask “one of my men” to do it (who, the accountant? :rolleyes:)

3

The explosion of home improvement shows…Good or bad?

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You all understand that it’s going to take him two weeks to respond to your questions, right?

5

You have no idea how much I need this thread right now.

I’m in the last stages of a bedroom remodel, and spent last night using my mitre box to size the new baseboard, some recycled wood-fiber stuff from Home Depot, and its going up on (re-)painted plaster.

My wife went looking for some nails our carpet installer told her about with white heads (the baseboard came pre-primed and we painted it with Home Depot’s ever-popular Swiss Coffee), but not finding them, she on the advice of someone at Lowe’s*, brought home regular 5d finishing nails. Trouble is, the baseboard is pulling itself off over the nail heads. Fortunately, we’ve only made an abortive attempt at nailing in board in a corner where heavy furniture will prevent us from ever seeing it again.

What do I need to do?

*We have a Lowe’s, a Home Depot, and an equally-sized one-off home store, All-American Home Center, within 5 miles of us, so I have plenty of opportunities to get myself in DIY trouble… Next Summer, a new outdoor kitchen!!

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Nava It looks to me to be a very rough texture, as we call it here. If I understand you correctly, you would like the walls to be smooth. I would advise against trying to scrape it, and it is not worth the effort/labor to try to sand walls that likely have several coats of paint.

What we do when a homeowner wants a smoother wall that has a heavy texture like you are describing is “skim coat” the walls with drywall mud (very labor intensive also) to make them smooth. then we would texture and paint according to the customer’s specs. Forgive me if I misunderstand you.

THespos I think the home improvement shows are great. They give DIY types sound ideas and also show that some things we do are actually quite skilled and sometimes you do really need a pro.

dahfisheroo Since you signed the bid last week and gave me 15% up front for material, it will actually be 3 or 4 weeks before I can get somebody out there to start the work. Dude, it’s summertime, I am spending time on the boat fishing. :wink:

scotandrsn If you are installing baseboard over true plaster walls (some people call drywall plaster) plaster can be up to an inch or more thick, making nailing it a problem. Not sure where the carpet dude was coming from, but standard practice is to use finishing nails, #6 for most base like streamline, the smooth stuff, or colonial, which has a couple curves/grooves. The nails are countersunk into the material (I generally use a pneumatic nail gun) but by hand, you drive the nail almost flush with the material, then use a nailset to sink it in a bit. You want to nail into the shoeplate framing which is 1 1/2 in thick from the slab, so, counting carpet/tile, etc, try to nail an inch or so from the bottom of the baseboard. With true plaster, you might have to use longer nails, also maybe into the studs, which are generally 16 in apart, or in older houses 24 in.

If it is an old plaster house, with wavy (not straight) walls, you sometimes have to glue and screw the baseboard. Just general advice, without more info.

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Is it the same as stucco?

[I thought you were a boy!]

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Let’s see if I can stump you with this. :wink:

I am having a hard time figuring out which walls are load bearing. I have a large beam running East-West in my basement ceiling and the joists are obviously running NS from the foundation walls to the beam and from the beam to the other side (long span = 2 joists).

So, on the first floor I would think that there would be a load bearing wall running directly above the beam EW along the length of the house. The East half of the first floor has this wall which I would assume to be load bearing. But the kicker is that the West half of the first floor is a large room with no walls and no way to put a header in since the middle of the Western wall is a large bay window.

How is my house constructed? Is the wall on the East half of the first floor really load bearing? Are the direction of the joists one direction in the East half of the second floor and another in the West?

BTW, this is an old house. And I would not knock anything out without getting a qualified engineer to look at it. I just want to know what my options might be for planning the remodel.

Thanks.

9

What was it you wanted me to tell Gort?

10

Is there anything that can be done about tile walls in a bathroom, other than taking a sledgehammer in there? My bath has pink tile about halfway up the wall. I hate pink. I really can’t afford to rip out all the tile right now, so if there is something I could put on it to make it not pink I would be thrilled.

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Klaatu, a funny story you should appreciate:

My business partner and I were remodeling a four story block shaped apt building that was about 100 yrs old. It was just about cube shaped, and was sandwiched in among a slew of other large houses, many of which had been converted into apartments. (Not part of the funny story, just an interesting ((I think)) intro…)

Anyways, the building was a fire damage that my partner’s FIL had purchsed. He wanted to use as general laborers some of his low income rent people from his other properties who owed FIL rent money. Most of them just got to do clean out and yard work, as they were very unskilled, and would tired of working after a regular day. This one guy, tho, said he used to do construction (I know, always USED to… Why’d you quit?) and knew his way around some of the semi skilled stuff.

Well, we had reframed and drywalled some of the apts already, and had taped and bedded and done a float coat. Partner and I were having a bit of trouble installing this new giant patio door in the large downstairs studio apt. Helper renter guy was finished with whatever it was we had him doing, so I told the guy to just hit the screws again where we had floated out so we could texture before we left for the day.

Partner and I are having a hell of a time with the door because of out of square concerns and were getting a little annoyed overall. FINALLY we get the door just right and partner says “That stupid banging was driving me nuts. What’s he doing anyways?”

That’s when I realised the error I had made. Instead of specifically telling helper guy to skim over with mud any of the screw holes that still needed it, I had told him, “Hit the screws again.”

HE WAS HAMMERING THEM IN!!!

:smack:

Yeah, hammering screws in the almost finished and ready to texture drywall.

At least the big ass door was done right.

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There are some bathtub refinishing products that should work on the tiles. At least, I’ve used such product before on tiles and it worked. It’s a two part epoxy. Requires specifically exact prep and application (SEE INSTRUCTIONS FOR SPECIFICS) and either very good ventelation or a respirator.

Serious about following the instructions exactly, too. And they will be slightly different for whatever specific brand you get, which is why I’m not stating any.

But, I’ve had good results with a couple of different products. Check your local specialty paint store or try to find it at your local big box store (Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, etc…)

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NCB, I am still laughing as I post this…but like you said “hit em again” heh!

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StinkyBurrito Without a floor plan in front of me, I will not even think of giving you advice re bearing walls. Apologies, but as you said, ask an engineer. I really meant this thread to be about homeowner/DIY stuff, and would hesitate to offer advice about structural issues, as that would be a safety related thing, and I won’t get involved in that. I don’t mean to be put-offish, but that’s a whole different thing.

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Well, that would be “Klaatu Barada Nikto” or “where’s my fucking hammer?” :wink:

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Thanks for the response! It’s a true plaster wall (the house is 50 years old), I wouldn’t call it wavy, and the board is, judging by your description, colonial, but not too ornately so.

The issue wasn’t so much the nails not holding into the wall, but the board slipping over the heads. Is a #6 and a 6d finishing nail the same thing?

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Do I have a question for you!!

I have about a 5 inch crack in my fiberglass bathtub. I do know that I need a new bathtub but was wondering if there’s anything I can do until then.

Once before in an old house I bought one of those fiberglass repair kits used for cars/boats that seemed to work pretty well so I though I might try that.

With this tub when I press down, the area where it’s cracked gives a little bit.
I didn’t know if there was damage to whatever was underneath. I tried to look where the faucets are (don’t know what you call it, there’s a piece of wood I can remove in the closet and see the back of the faucets) to see if I could slide a piece of wood in but can’t get to it.

This is what I was thinking-will this work?

If I drill some holes around the crack and use that insulation foamy stuff and spray it in there, then use some kind of patch kit. Would that work?

18

I painted my tiles and they look great. I bought some primer that you can use on glass/ceramic tile. You had to wait a week and then I painted them and they came out great.

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SnakesCatLady, here’s how my bathroom looked after I painted the tile.

The orange tile picture isn’t my bathroom but that was the color of the tile before I painted it. Actually, it was worse than that. The bottom was orange, the border was black and the top was peach.

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How do you get rid of a ‘popcorn’ ceiling? How do you refinish it afterwards?