Why renovating a house is a never ending story of joy

Posted on Sat, 11 Dec 2010 by midcenturyjo

Help! Look what the painters did to my floor! I have spent all day trying to save it but I admit defeat. Perhaps you can help with suggestions on improving this sorry state of affairs? My suggestion is a jam and cream donut.

pam says:

I agree with many of the comments. If these were professional painters this never should have happened. I just had my kitchen cabinets refaces, no paint at all, and each day they covered the entire floor in drop cloth. Even when I paint my own rooms I do this, it's just common sense. If they didn't offer to already, I would make sure you contact whoever you have to in order to get your floors repaired, free of charge to you. You should not have to pay for this!

I only suggest you,clean the floor with cold water (if it´s a water paint) and pray!!!!
Your blog is perfect!!!
I follow you from Spain.

g says:

Jo, good ideas.

One more suggestion – don't leave trades people with your keys or unsupervised. I've caught many a nightmare early (but they still suck, just far less). Perhaps the new painters can start in the room with the terra cotta tile (as you are not as keen on it).

Also, please do remediate the mould before unpacking. That could be a long, painful and sickening problem, which will not allow you to live your life well at all.

Enjoy and all the best!

Anne-Lise says:

Hi Jo

It makes me so sad to see your beutiful floors like that. Try and make sure those painters never work again! Is there a consumer network or something over there that you can report them to?

Like people have mentioned before me I believe that sanding the floors would be a great option. It is abig job, but floors usualy look great afterwards! We will be starting ours in january… It is no small job, but the bonus is that you get to choose the varnish. We will be using oil which give the floors a beutiful glow.

The other les expensive route would be to paint the floor a high gloss paint like we do in Scandinavia. I have seen examples on here before. They look great but it is of course a different look all together.

Best of luck,

Anne-Lise

midcenturyjo says:

Thanks again everyone for your support and comments. The process of making these bastards pay has started but will take a little time to come to a conclusion. In the meantime a big hug to Ellen for thinking of insurance. As it happens we may be covered for some of the repair (after excess). An assessor is coming. Owe you a donut Ellen.

Melanie says:

Unbelievable! I would be livid!! These are professional painters? Have they heard of drop cloths?

Best of luck with getting this mess fixed!

lori says:

There is a product that contains orange oil. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it, it has been a while since I needed it, however when I was faux-painting for a living I kept two containers of it on hand just in case the sh*t ever hit the fan (because no matter how careful you are, at some point, paint will get on something.) Anyway, it takes off acrylic paint forever and oil paint up to 7 days, without damaging the finish below. (It also takes it off carpet and skin without burning or stinking to high heaven and isn't toxic – I personally have never found Goof-Off to be non-damaging of wood. It changes the sheen of the finish.)
I purchased it at Home Depot and it came in two varieties, one being liquid, and one looking like baby wipes. I hope they still make it, if they do, potentially you could put a baby wipe type on a swiffer base and mop away.

That said, oh wow, how heartbreaking. I am so very sorry. =(

Ani says:

We have black japan floors in our house (in the swich too) and they were also covered in paint. After weeks of scraping we then rubbed the floor with metho and steel wool for another week or so. The metho dissolved the black japan and with tedious concentric sanding motion with a cloth and steel wool you can achieve a more consistent finish across your floor. You can then either re-apply another coat of black japan and/or tung oil and beeswax. This takes a long time but but maintains that old antique 'patina' that your floors have. Once you sand the floor, you can never get that look back.

B says:

Don't worry! This is fixable. Mineral spirits work wonders on dried paint, and should not damage the floor at all (test an inconspicuous spot first, of course). I do renovation work and this is a problem I've had to remedy many times; never once have the spirits damaged the original surface.

midcenturyjo says:

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. Things are moving slowly (as they always do in cases like this) but they are moving. I am having a furniture restorer come round to throw around some ideas and test some patches together. I'm getting caught up in the idea of tackling this job myself, at least the "stripping" back stage before restaining and finishing. I think I may be kidding myself but I want to see the job done properly and somehow doing it myself seems the only way. This crazy idea will probably change by the time Christmas is over or my knees give out whichever comes first 🙂

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