Posts tagged old house

various solvent cans acetone, lacquer remover, paint thinner, denaturated alcohol in a cedar closet

Testing Hardwood Floor Finishes in an Old House (part 1 of a few)

1
April 29, 2010
by jb in
A few days later, Jeff hit me back; he had gathered some info from a couple places on the internet. He said, Well, I tried the water test like you suggested, and water doesn't seem to discolor the floor . . . . But . . . I learned some other things too. Repeating what he found, he said, I learned that rubbing alcohol (actually denatured) can be used to test for shellac, acetone for varnish, and lacquer thinner for lacquer. Mineral spirits can be used to clean "unsounded" floors, and I also learned that polyurethane only really became popular in the last fifteen (editor's hmmm) years. Strippers can be used to test for that. [ . . . ]
chipping paint

Don’t Eat the Paint Chips and . . .

2
April 13, 2010
by jb in
And actually it's a fate not too dissimilar to that of at least one other building product that I can think of. Yes, another naturally occurring substance that in its day was molded into floor and ceiling tiles, shingles and insulation. Sound familiar? Strong, durable and inert, a great insulator, but it too in the end was dangerous. [ . . . ]
einstein_bmontgomery

plumb, square and level :: if Albert Einstein was a builder

0
April 16, 2009
by jb in
Plumb, for example, is the state or description of being perfectly vertical or perpendicular, yeah, to the earth. Level is the state or description of being perfectly horizontal or parallel to the earth. These things are true. . . . For us, our time-space curve is drawn out on a very localized scale. Think about it; Einstein was onto something. Everything, including those things that we measure with tools and instruments, is relative. [ . . . ]
installed 2

Installing a Tile Landing: aka No Tile is an Island

0
March 18, 2009
by jb in
When working in older homes, you must be conscious of the build up of flooring. As the years pass, it seems, we (in the general sense of collective humanity) always opt to cover old with new. And in this case, I was following the herd, but first, I had just a little prep to do. In our computer room, we had a plywood subfloor that was intact enough. This floor had to be sound enough too. So I went to work with a box of decking screws, and after about an hour, it was. For a little added insurance, and well for some comfort underfoot, I also chose to install a ¼ inch Luan as an underlayment, glued and fastened with roofing nails. [ . . . ]
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