# Starting off easy: 1935 Home Dining Room First



## TheJerk (Apr 4, 2013)

This all started trying to move a 32 inch tube tv across the dining room floor, it was vinyl. Okay, giant hole in the floor so now it's time to replace the floor but I hate vinyl so looked around until I found a laminate flooring I liked. Now, it's exploding into a full re-modeling of this room and will probably continue through the whole house. Here's the start and yeah, I'm doin' this backwards but I'm not ripping this floor back up so gonna have to protect it while I work. 

Patched holes and such in the walls and painted it first. Seemed like the smart thing to do, then tore up the vinyl and had to fix the floor. Yeah I read, level is NOT flat. 




























http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a625/Th3_Jerk/diningroom001_zps94b0c353.jpg

Those are where it started with fixing the floor. Notice the paint except for trim work was done. Now here it is with the floor almost done and my brilliant idea to go further




























See that floor almost done?










Gonna rip and redo all this wood. 










Now I know better than to do it in this order, but what the heck, life's an adventure and if ya can't run backwards sometimes then where's the fun? So, anyone got tips on how to prep that space around the doorway before the trim goes back on? Probably gonna see the same problems when I pull the trim from around the walls too. 

And just so you guys know why this is going to take so long to do, I lost part of my left lung last summer and have cancer (don't tell me your sorry, I'm doing great right now). So, I'm a bit slower but this is better than sitting around the house staring at it all, plus I get new tools and a nicer house when I'm done.

As I finish 1 room I will move on to the next. Some need more work than others but they all need something.


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## TheJerk (Apr 4, 2013)

Not sure what happened to the first part of the original pics, will try to fix it if I can.

Today I pulled up more trim boards and took a trip to Harrison Paint. Did you know they actually make paint there and it's just a hop and a skip, not even a jump from me. They were recommended by my local hardware store for help in stripping down the woodwork and re-staining it to match the hickory. When I first got there with my small piece of woodwork and a floor plank piece he was ready to help.

At first he recommended their regular stripper that works in minutes to strip down the wood. But when I mentioned that I have cancer and lost part of my lung he was quick to refuse to sell it to me. Said it's incredibly caustic, even a respirator wouldn't help me with it and it's filled with carcinogens. Instead, he recommended a different brand called Back To Nature Ready Strip. It's more like a paste and takes a tad bit longer but is supposed to work. Said the stuff is usually about $40 a gallon but he had 3 gallons that were thinner than they should be and he sold them to me for $10 a gallon ($30 for all of it) plus a new utility knife and a good putty knife to scrape it up with . Total cost was $40 and some change. Not bad I thought. 

Next was a trip to Harbor Freight for a set of Saw Horses. Okay, they only had 1 cheap 1 and the heavier set was $32.99, or I could get 2 rolling stands for $16.99 a piece (basically a dollar more) so I went for the rolling stands, set them up, they are much higher and easier to work with, just left the rollers off them so the wood doesn't slide, and set to work.

Now, this is where it gets interesting and I'll have new pics for you in the morning. To tired to take 'em right now. But the door frame trim has 6 sections that all came off as 1. I thought it was just a lot of paint holding it together but soon found it out that 1 inch trim pieces around the outside of the 6 inch or so trim was the culprit. Managed after a bit of staring at it and finally gently using my wonder bar to get the sides to separate from the top with the smaller trim staying attached to each piece. Nice, I won't have to line that up 6 pieces later, just the three. 

So got the first piece of the door frame trim on the stands and pulled up my first long piece of base woodwork. Lots of 2 inch nails holding it and only 1 mishap. I tried to use the short "L" section of the wonder bar and broke the freshly painted sheetrock. Oh well, so much for being done painting the walls and patching holes in the dining room. Put that piece of trim on the stands also and began the stripping process. It says it needs to sit a tad longer than the carcinogenic strippers, about 10-12 hours so in the morning this should be ready to see how it does. I'm in Ohio so might have to move this part of the project from the garage to the basement if the temperature is an issue with this stuff working. Good thing I'm not in a rush to do this all.

Next weekend is a field trip to a place called Buckeye Salvage, which again is here in town. I love going to this place as it's owned by a demolition company and they salvage everything they can out of the old houses. Some of it is not worth bothering with (toilets and such) but they also pull up all the old hardwood floors, old trim work and so on. The windows in the dining room are trimmed with MDF and no way am I gonna let that stuff stay in there. So this will be a great place to get the old trim boards I need for the windows and not have to spend a fortune, just some time stripping and refinishing them.

I did look up Back To Nature Ready Strip online and found out it's about $46.52 a gallon, so I got a good deal on it. Now the video they have on Youtube they claim it has no smell, it does have a slight smell but not enough to bother me or affect my breathing. Next they claim it can be put on with your bare hands if you want. Okay, that might be possible but this stuff strips paint and stain from wood, I'm NOT putting it on with my bare hands regardless of what they claim in the video. 

Anyone else worked with this stuff before? Also, is it possible to use a non-drop woodglue to put the baseboard back up? It would be really nice to be able to do that and not have to fill nail holes once it's up. Will be using another 1 inch piece of trim on top of it once it's up as a shoe since I really can't stand the 1/4 rounds that normally get used for this and it would be nice to be able to glue that in also. Believe it or not, layin' on the floor trying to nail like that is harder on me than anything else so any shortcut I can find in doing this is going to be greatly appreciated.


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## Dorado (Feb 7, 2013)

TheJerk said:


> Believe it or not, layin' on the floor trying to nail like that is harder on me than anything else so any shortcut I can find in doing this is going to be greatly appreciated.


They make trim screws too. I'd try to avoid gluing. People with steel stud walls glue molding sometimes but you should try to avoid it. Changing the baseboard would be much harder for someone if it's glued.


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## TheJerk (Apr 4, 2013)

Still working on stripping the woodwork and I need to stop and give a review here.

The stripper Back To Nature Read STrip Plus is a "No Go" for removing the paint. Yes, it will remove the paint somewhat, but if you let it dry like the instructions say then you have to reapply it and let it set to soak through the dry, means you waste all the original. In addition, it fights to remove more than 1 layer at a time even after sitting for 12 hours as instructed. 

Contacted the company and they do not back it at all. Specifically what they said was that the stuff has a shelf life of 3 years and since this is over 3 years old (how was I to know that) they will not back it. hmmm... Guess they should consider putting expiration dates on it then. Lady in customer service actually hung up on me and I didn't even start to get rude. She said and I quote "...we have to draw the line somewhere." Okay, I bought it on Friday, this is Monday so I guess that line was crossed over the weekend. 

Oh well, I only spent $10 a gallon on the stuff, it will work for very light stripping jobs, but not those with several layers of paint like it's advertised.

Got 2 pieces of base molding to remove, 1 has an outlet in it and the other has a phone jack (my internet means since I use U-Verse) so trying to figure out how to remove them without causing major issues. The old metal junction box for the outlet wants to come with the wood. Not good. Pretty sure I need to disconnect the outlet and install a new plastic box behind it for safety reasons.

Phone one? I might have to pop the cover and snap a picture of it before removing everything so I can put it all back together, not sure the line is going to survive without taking that little box all the way out. Very tight fight on the line from the floor to the box, no wiggle room at all.

Anyone know of a good non-carcinogenic stripper that I can use here? House is to old so lead paints gonna be an issue and way to much woodwork left to strip to sand it, grind it, heat gun it as those will all cause dust. Might have to go the carcinogenic route if I can't find anything.


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## Dorado (Feb 7, 2013)

From what I hear, stripping isn't easy even with the dangerous chemicals, and stripping well enough for staining would be especially hard. There's even a chance the stripped molding wouldn't be good enough for staining. Maybe you should paint it. Sanding is a health risk too.


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## TheJerk (Apr 4, 2013)

Time for another update with pics this time!

Okay, we got all the woodwork out of the dining room that we are restoring. Notice, I didn't say all the wood work out, but we should have it all out over the weekend. In the process of taking it out solved a couple questions this house gave me:

1.) Why can't I get a nail into this wall? It has a room on the other side of it.

2.) Why is from door to wall only 4 inches on this side, but on other side of doorway is it over a foot to the corner? 

Well, we have an answer as to what is taking up all that space:










Yep, that is cement on the wall just below the plaster, but only a couple inches worth. Then we have a solid tile block wall. But why is the wall solid sounding on this side but hollow on the opposite side? Because in the next room they put up 2 x 4 's and then sheetrocked those. So I have an interior wall that is now over a foot thick. Nice to know in the event someone ever tries to shoot me through a wall. Note to self, hide behind this wall.

Next up is some pics of the wood in the stripping process. I gave up on the stripper I was using and went for the heat gun and puddy knife method. Holy crap did that go fast:










Nothing like taking 20 coats and almost a 100 years of paint off a 1 x 6 in seconds. The smell was minimal and it all scraped into the trash can. Even took some of the varnish with it this way. 










Another piece of the molding along with the top piece of door trim with is a 1 x 4 with a 3/4 inch piece of "L" shaped molding that goes around it.

Finally last night I started to strip the actual stain off using a chemical stripper, respirator and the good old putty knife. It's coming along great, will finish stripping the other boards today and begin the steel wool process over the weekend. Might be ready to stain by Monday.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Since the base wood is Poplar and the window frames had been changed out, I went out hunting last night for Rainbow Poplar (it has different colors from minerals for those not familiar with it) and found all but 2 pieces I need to frame the windows. I'll have to make my own "L" shaped moldings (God gave me a joiner for a reason) so I'll get some pics of the wood untouched and we'll see how this contributes to the whole process of bringing the floor, walls and trims together.


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## Dorado (Feb 7, 2013)

A respirator with prefilter is probably just as important when using a heat gun to strip paint as it is when using chemical strippers. I don't think prying nails out of old baseboard that you want to stain is a good idea, but somehow it looks in good shape.


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## TheJerk (Apr 4, 2013)

Well lesson has been learned. Bought cheap gloves and the stripper burned as soon as the stripper touched it (taking off the varnish/stain) it went right through the gloves. Ouch.

Well, down to the last 2 boards getting stripped and then it's steel wool time to pull out the last of the stripping agent. Will wood puddy the nail holds once that is done so the wood isn't filled with holes and then it's time to quick sand with 320 and start staining.

Now 1 question guys since I got a hole house to do room by room, what gloves work with this chemical stripper? Got the Curad Latex ones from Wally World and those simply do NOT work if the stripper touches them. It's worse than getting it on my skin direct (which I've also done on accident.


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## Dorado (Feb 7, 2013)

The MSDS will tell you what gloves to use. What chemical stripper are you using?


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## TheJerk (Apr 4, 2013)

Okay we're in a jam here and could use some guidance off you guys.

It seems the trim boards that I "thought" were poplar, in reality are 80 year old gumwood boards. Now, I'm being told by my lumber yard that if I go with gumwood it's gonna run about 5 times as much to replace these pieces that are damaged vs. the cost of birch. So my question is this:

If I substitute birch for the damaged pieces and still use the old gumwood that I have stripped down will it match or can it be made to match color and grain (I know grain will not be exact) and is it the best substitute? I've already bought a good amount of poplar thinking that is what I had, should I return the poplar (haven't sanded, stained, cut it or anything yet) or go ahead with the poplar and try to match the stain on it to the gumwood? Is there a better wood I can use that will be reasonably priced. While I don't mind spending the money on the correct wood, I do have to be a realist when it comes to creating a white elephant if I spend that much on the gumwood.


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