A few weeks ago, I was parking my car in the garage and gently hit the two water-filtration system cylinders (reverse-osmosis) in the back of the garage. I didn’t see anything gone wrong and thought nothing of it, especially since the cylinders were surrounded by a freezer and all sorts of boxes.
Yesterday I noticed the bedroom (the nearest room to the garage) had wet carpeting all around. No matter how much I toweled it up and ran the dehumidifier, it was still damp. I turned off the valves on the water-filtration cylinders but the damage was done. Today, the next two adjacent rooms’ carpet have also become damp.
Looks like a major ripping-up of floor and carpeting and mold-killing is coming, woe to the wallet.
Lesson: a few inches in parking can make a month’s havoc.
Despite my telling him that the manufacturer of our vinyl plank flooring recommends never using anything other than Boma or other kinds of specialized cleaners, Mr. brown this morning used “Krud Kutter”, a strong grease-cutting detergent, on some gummy areas of our floor. Those gummy areas are now very clean, all right, but the Krud Kutter also took the shine right off and now those areas look completely different from the rest of the floor. We’ll try some home remedies to restore the original look, but I have a feeling that nothing will work. And we can’t afford new flooring. And we’re just about to put the house up for sale.
Sounds like a job for the SD. What about varnish or clear nail polish? Or a thin coat of a glue that dries to a shiny finish? (We just glued a veneer back onto a kitchen cabinet door, and the glue that oozed out the edges is definitely shiny.)
Of course, the problem is you don’t want to try something and make it even worse, so any creative solutions may be risky.
Home Depot sells all kinds of glossy floor polishes in all different sizes. I use them on my floors - even my ancient red oak floor. It makes them look like they were just refinished. It also makes my bathroom tiled floor look new again.
I remember reading that trick in a magazine many years ago. When I visit my parents and drive their car, I rely on the location of a yellow snow shovel on the wall. When the side view mirror is right next to it, I know I’ve parked in about the right spot.
That’s what I have in my garage right now. It works great, and is better than the sophisticated sonar parking system in the car. It was also much cheaper and easier to install than the electronic things mounted on the wall, and doesn’t move out of position like wheel blocks on the floor.
Sorry to hear about the damage, it sounds like a huge pain. Hopefully insurance will cover some of it.
This is vinyl plank flooring, so a varnish isn’t indicated, and other floor polishes seem like overkill. We just need two 2 x 3 foot spots, which have been dulled by the strong cleaner, to match the rest of the floor in shininess. After researching online, I tried a few drops of mineral oil on a dry mop, rubbed over the dry dull area, then buffed dry, then went over the area with Boma to remove any residual oil. It looks way better, though you can still see some difference. I think I’ll do the oil thing again just before bed, and let it sit all night before buffing it and cleaning it tomorrow morning.
(I just barely prevented Mr. brown from trying to go at the dull area with some abrasive rub. He thought it would improve the dullness to rub at it with a scratchy cleanser.)
If you’ve got the water stopped and can pull up the carpet right away, you shouldn’t have to replace the flooring nor have any mold issues. Put a couple of fans on it to speed up evaporation.
Is the shovel hanging on the same hook all the time (or similar)? Otherwise this feels… ephemeral.
Though I agree with the technique; I use it to align my parking on the street (if the other car is in the driveway, which is actually pretty rare) by lining up my car just right with the tree in our yard. If I can’t get to a certain place due to other cars ahead, I park elsewhere due to a fire hydrant.
Yes, it is. My parents are far too old to clear the snow themselves so they never use it. At best, my brother might but would probably return it to the same spot.