Old house reeks - how do you de-scent it?
verdant_croft
15 years ago
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brickeyee
15 years agoverdant_croft
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Custom furniture reeks of cigarette....
Comments (23)I will echo Casey's sentiments. RL is the worst paint ever. My husband likes their colors, i hate the paint. I now have found an excellent store who custom matches ANY color from ANY manufacturer. It's slightly more expensive but a local shop here in LA and they use zero VOC tints and still get it right. I would highly recommend finding a shop that can mix from the color codes and use BM or Pratt and Lambert or something better. Honestly, I have great success with BM and I have tried nearly everything. Also using the Floetrol or equivalent is a good idea, no water, it just gums up the latex. Paint makes all the difference. You can always mix your own with tints. i've gone to mixing my own out of frustration. That and I use REALLY good brushes. I think even the first layer should go on by brush, those rollers are no good for trim, doors or furniture. A pro should have sprayed for you... About the smell- weird. I'm surprised the wood would soak that up. I'd do it myself if I were you and give the GC another project he can do to make up for the money you paid him. I think painters are the hardest thing to hire- After all my years doing scenic work and sign painting, I still cannot hire people to paint in my own house, I hire painters for rentals and for film sets. My house is my domain, i can't stand how people paint doors, furniture is even worse. If you do it yourself, you'll get it right. That's worth the piece of mind. sad. sad. sad. GC never should touch paint. ever. I learned that from my mom......See MoreHow do you know what you know about old houses, etc?
Comments (14)Whoa, if you get a degree in industrial arts you get to acquire carpentry textbooks along the way?!? Sweet! Kim, I've always enjoyed/appreciated your contributions; given the wisdom of trial and error that was behind them, I see why they stood out. My mom got us a couple of the Reader's Digest fixit books (have to run downstairs, one of them might be the very one you have); I like the way they are encyclopedic and detailed. I know Jane Powell but not the Small Houses books (do you mean The Not So Big stuff by Susanka, or the Small House anthologies from Fine Homebuilding?) Thanks for mentioning books; I think I might start a reference book thread for this forum. Hey Casey, THANKS for taking the bait. And you are NOT a bloody genius, you are an old house DEITY for crying out loud! Would you please start your own show on youtube? Or maybe just a house tour? Even Petch house has youtube videos. Or, do you already have a project blog and everyone knows about it but me? Actually for someone with a degree in historic preservation, I am impressed with how low-key your posts come across; they read more like an old friend who's "been there" and wants to pass along lessons learned along the way, it's really very nice and encouraging. But if you ever want to browbeat me feel free; I would take it as a compliment. To be honest if I post about something I'm thinking of doing to my house, and you don't opine, I figure one of two things is going on: 1) you're not on the forum; or 2) you're politely disapproving. Most of the time I assume it's 2 because you seem to be pretty consistent around here. But I just want to say, and I hope I speak for many, that I love love love your posts, especially when I'm searching on a problem I'm trying to solve and something from you pops up! (PS I finally got around to using that general finishes gel varnish you recommended and it was fantastic, thank you; I will post photos to the woodworking forum sometime before the next census.) Oh, and I love the way you "aged" the color tones in the new pine beadboard in your kitchen; reminds me of the pine in my grandmother's kitchen. When I was really little I used to look at the gleaming pores and think it was the closest wood could get to 24K gold....See MoreHow do you dispose DE?
Comments (6)wow.. I did not know that about the DE, my PB told me it was good for the grass. I guss a whole lotta BS, I was dumping in my shed bed over the gravel, but now I know of a couple of new uses.. I hate ants. Thanks guys,...See MoreOT?: how do I de-stink my house?
Comments (23)We now do our deep frying in the attached garage... thanks to a suggestion made by my 22 yr old son. It sure saves the cabinets from getting that oily film as well as the house from lingering oil odors. I'd ban hubster from doing fried burgers. Actually we don't fry our burgers we BBQ them (or grill them). We do all season BBQ'ing... oh and BTW, I live in Calgary Alberta.. which can get REALLY cold, no excuses! Wiping down surfaces, cleaning the hoodvent filter, and letting in fresh air seems to be the best solution though. I still think that spraying a house only masks the odor and doesn't really get rid of the true offenders....See Moreworthy
15 years agoCarol_from_ny
15 years agoworthy
15 years agomom2lilenj
15 years agoverdant_croft
15 years agoeandhl
15 years agoKathryn Botard
15 years ago
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