Look What We Found

This project has been an interesting test of our optimism. Several seemingly simple steps in our timeline have presented far greater problems than anticipated. Like the asbestos in the back bedrooms for example. Instead of lifting the ancient carpet and padding to reveal beautiful untouched original hardwood flooring, we found tiles made of asbestos. Similarly, in the kitchen and dining rooms, we were lulled into a false sense of ease as we saw newspaper sticking out of the edges of the sheet linoleum flooring making us believe that, although a little strange, there was likely newspaper under the whole floor. We assumed that this would make the process of removing the lovely yellow and orange floor covering quite simple. Au contraire!

See the lovely yellow lino?

(With all the bikes in there, you'd think the guy running the bike shop still lived downstairs!)

After removing the linoleum, we found some tar paper…old tar paper that over time and thanks to gravity had leached most of its tar into the floor underneath. There were a few patches where the paper had come up completely and we were excited about the prospects of uncovering it. We decided to run some tests to find out if any basic household items might remove it. We tried soaking a spot in windex, using Goof-off, fingernail polish remover (acetone), and regular household orange cleaner…all to no avail. So now what?

The Internet is truly an amazing tool. Even though Bob Villa’s website professionals said that the best thing to do was to call a professional, we knew there HAD to be a better way. We searched home forum after home forum. If someone out there understands how those crazy forums work, please let us know. We were able to read the questions just fine, but trying to find the responses felt impossible. However, there were links to products, mostly chemical, that we were not inclined to either pay for or use in our house. There was only one potential organic orange product that looked interesting. Finally, we found someone else’s web-site that was a lot like this one. He was restoring an old house and had a very similar problem to ours. Then we struck it rich. One lady told the story of how she removed the tar paper stuck to her deck with water. It showed photos over time of her spraying the bejesus out of her deck. This method seemed like a waste of water and not quite right for our situation. We wanted to save the wood, not ruin it. Plus, after getting all that water into the house, how were we supposed to get it out?

Others suggested soaking a blanket or towel in hot water and then laying it over the floor over night; or putting a blanket down and then pouring water over it and letting it sit. One lady even said she put down a blanket, watered it, then put a cooling rack (like for cookies) over the top of that, then placed an old iron on the cooling rack. We only have one iron we didn’t want to ruin, let alone ruining blankets. We need those blankets, it’s cold in our house!

Finally we were gaining hope that we might not have to use chemicals to remove this stuff. Then we found the post of the guy who was working on his own house. He said that he rented a wallpaper steamer and it did the trick. It was worth a shot. And low and behold, it worked! Maybe not as quickly as it did for him, but still, the paper came off, as did the tar if you let it sit long enough.

So Andrea took a few days off work to help get the job accomplished. We rented two wallpaper steams and set work early Wednesday morning. By the end of the evening we were exhausted, smelled like tar, but had uncovered all of the wood without chemicals. It is really nice too. We do still have to refinish the floors, but a sanding, some stain, and some sealant and we’re in business.

This simple bit of progress and our spirits have been rejuvenated. Oh the joys of homeownership!