Actually, that used to be an old in floor heater. It sat on a cement pad under the house, came up through the floor, and you fed it that way. That I knew about before hand, I’m counting on that giving the floor “character”
That’s what I’d like to be able to do. Lighten the stain enough so that we can maybe get it closer. Right now it just stands out so much it’s going to be a put off for potential buyers.
Ok, so does that mean I’ll be able to use stripper?..Like I would on a tile floor that is waxed? How can I tell the difference? I know for a fact that the carpet has been there since 1975, so can I tell from the time period what’s more likely?
Also, added another picture that shows close up the 3 different colors. If you look close at the last one, you can see what I meant by it looking like brush strokes. I just cannot figure out how this came to be. It doesn’t make any sense.
Keep in mind I have never, EVER done anything with plaster. That being said, I was present when a diy-er was visiting my sister and observing the holes she had purposely knocked in her plaster/lath (lathe?) walls.
He said that when he plasters, he mixes latex paint with the plaster to make it stickier or thicker or something. Said it works like a charm.
Re: plaster ceilings…he recommended that she completely remove around the broken section and replace it with 3/4" drywall. He said it wasn’t worth it to try to patch a very big area in a ceiling.
So there you have it…fof fwiw.
~karol
I’ll defer to the knowledge of the others on stripping the poly/lacquer/whatever it is off the floors. But if you are able to get it off and your goal is color matching, you’ll probably have better luck staining the outside darker than trying to lighten the middle.
You should be able to find floor sanding and finishing for about $1-$1.50/square foot. That doesn’t sound prohibitive for the area you’re talking about, but I don’t know your budget. You might see if you can get someone to give you a break by getting the floor sanded, but not finished. Professional sanding is pretty fast (a few hours), so you should be able to move the furniture onto the sidewalk if that’s what it takes to clear out the rooms.
You can patch cracks and small holes in plaster by packing them with joint compound (buy a tub of ready-mixed at the hardware store or at Home Despot). Run an old-fashioned can opener down the crack to cut in the sides a little so the joint compound has something to fill. The plaster will just crack again, though - it’s the settling of the house.
Well, for the 3 people on here that care, this weekend, we tried to lighten the dark areas of the floor with a couple of chemical cleaners. To start with, we tried an outdoor deck cleaner, supposed to lift stain and return wood to original condition. I tested a little bit on a back corner, and while it did remove everything, it looks like it bleached the wood…a lot. So that was out. Next we tried a stripper and stain remover, and that lightened it a little, but took a lot of scrubbing and scrapping to get it up. After talking to my Uncle, he suggested that what we were dealing with was most probably an old varnish. According to him, the varnishes that were used 30+ years ago tended to darken with age, especially if they weren’t cleaned. So what probably happened is that they had an area rug down, and would peal it back a little ways to clean the floors, the the very center never was cleaned, so the varnish turned almost black. After reaching this conclusion, the only choice left is for us to actually sand and re-finish.
Now to keep this in GQ, I have a few question. Sanding I think we can handle, but I’d rather not have to stain, or use a poly. I don’t know if I can be exact enough to do that right. My Uncle suggested that we use a dark wax, and put a few coats on, and that might hide anything that the sanding doesn’t take up. So what I’m asking is what steps are between sanding and waxing? Do I just wax right over the bare floor? Do I varnish first, then wax? I have a buffer, and know how to spread wax and buff it, but I’m sure there’s a step between there that I don’t know about. Again, thanks for any info or help you can give.
**bodypoet **–
I agree that repairing plaser ceelings is a pain in the ass, but using plaster does have a lot of benifits. Insulation and soundproofing are two that I can think of. The ceilings don’t have to be done now, but I’d rather think about re-doing them with something like the original plaster, than just replace them with drywall. In my opinion, doing that can only hurt the value of an older home. If someone buys an older house, I’d imagine that they’re looking for a type of quality in material and workmanship that’s just not found in many modern houses. I know for a fact that there are places in my new house that I could kick through the damn wall. Did the person that was talking to your sister happen to mention where he gets plaster? The only think I ever find is finishing plaster, which is not strong enough.
As someone who owns an old house, my opinion is that plaster walls are vastly overrated. They crack when the house settles and they’re very nasty to work on. Blueboard with a veneer plaster looks nice and it’s a heck of a lot easier to work with.
Anyway, you should be able to get all the plaster you need at Home Depot.
