Questions & Answers

You may be starting a home project or be in the midst of one or have some experience you'd like to share. So here's a forum for that exchange. Jill and/or I can answer questions about certain problems or challenges but, remember, we're not licensed contractors. All you're asking is for our opinion. If you want to respond or add to any entry, just send it along and we'll add it as soon as possible (usually within a week). Also be sure to check out our how-to videos. Thanks. Ron & Jill

Finding the Right Wood Stain

I came across you and your wife's story in the recent Charles Villager. You both did an amazing job restoring your home. My boyfriend and I recently bought a row-home on the 2500 block of Guilford Ave. here in Baltimore. It's in need of some work, but not nearly as much as yours. I'm writing to pick your brain. We have two different tones of woodwork in our living room because part of it use to be a parlor, but the wall was removed at one time. The majority of it is dark like yours, and we would like to stain the rest to match. I'm having trouble finding a stain dark enough though. Do you remember the brand and color that you used? Your help would be most appreciated. Thank you for your time. All the best, Brittany Yoder

Hi, Brittany: it looks like you got a great house! I envy all of that unpainted woodwork. We’ve been using two stains: red oak and mahogany, mostly red oak by Minwax. As you know, the longer you keep wet stain on the wood, the darker the wood will get. I’d do some testing, ideally on wood the same age (if you have scrap around the house). You can mix stains too. I’d go to a paint store, like Budeke downtown (on Broadway) and ask for more advice. The main thing to remember about stain is that you have to stir it -- all of the pigment is on the bottom. You can also mix stains. We sometimes add walnut to darken a reddish stain. Good luck with your project -- and send pictures! Ron

Electricity for Our Kitchen Hood

Hello, my mother and i are installing a mircohood,(oven range) we need to know if we have the proper wiring we need to installnks for, white n black plus ground wire! will we need to put in a receptacle? thanks for your time, Chris and Jazz

Hi, Jazz and Chris: thanks for checking in with us. Your hood should have come with installation instructions. You can wire the hood in two ways: either connect those wires to a cord with a plug on the end (see illustration) and then plug it into a socket. Or connect those wires to a separate line that goes straight to your electrical panel. We recommend the second method because it's permanent.

Either way, you have to twist each of those wires -- white, black, and neutral -- to their counterparts in the electrical cord you want to hook up or plug in. This has to happen inside a junction box (plastic or metal). Look at this how-to video to see that kind of connection: How to Install an Electrical Outlet
Ron

Where is Ron's Book?

Hi. I am interested in buying your book about fixing up the house, but haven't been able to locate it. Is it still available somewhere? Thanks Paula

Hi, Paula. Thank you for your interest in Renovation: A Love Story. It hasn't been published yet because I'm still working on it. Best wishes, Ron

Refinishing Stairway Spindles/Balusters

Hello Ron, Hope this message finds you and Jill well. I want to thank you for your video post on how to strip paint. It has been very, very helpful this week! I am curious, however, how did you guys redo the spindles on your staircase? I know a lot of them were missing and damaged so you had new made, but the ones that remained - how did you refinish those? I have 25 spindles on our staircase that have not been painted but need to be redone.Suggestions, as always, appreciated.Thanks and have a wonderful weekend! Laurel Zoet

Hi, Laurel: thanks for checking out our video. We had to have new balusters (spindles) made for the staircase to replace the ones the fraternity destroyed. We took measurements for all the ones that were missing, then we took one of the original balusters as a model and gave these to a wood turner, who copied the original. Some wood turners have machines that can do copies -- instead of the wood turning doing each one himself on a lathe. It’s pricey to get this done, no matter what the process, but sometimes that’s the only way. We have three flights of staircase spindles. Only a third of these were gone.

The only way to refinish spindles safely is to keep them in place. You don't want to take them out--it's just not worth the risk of cracking or splitting them because all staircase spindles are nailed in place. So, we sat on the stairs and took a wire brush to them, then a knife, then sandpaper. The knife chipped the paint off.

If your spindles are NOT painted but are varnished, then you need to decide whether or not to sand the varnish or remove it totally. Chances are, you want to sand the finish with a light grade (200+) just to get the top coat off. Then wipe them down with rubbing alcohol. Then refinish them with a satin polyurethane or other finish.

You could use a chemical stripper to get ALL of the finish off, but that’s really messy. You could use heat too. If you use heat, you’ll have to scrape off the heated finish with a knife blade. This could get pretty complicated if your spindles are really ornate. Good luck! Ron

Refinishing Carpeted Stairs

Hello, Thanks for such an informative website. I have learned so much. We want to start stripping the paint off of the woodwork in our house and I found your video very informative. We have carpet over our wooden floors (which is a project will we save for later) and I was wondering the best way to melt the paint without melting the carpet. I read about the cardboard covered with tin foil trick. Would work as well? Thanks. Rachel in Denver

Thanks, Rachel, for checking out our website. If I understand you correctly, you want to strip the paint from the stairs without removing the carpet. It sounds like removing the carpet is a chore you want to save for later. We sympathize, but consider this: the time and trouble you would spend trying to work AROUND the carpet will far exceed the time and trouble it takes to remove the carpet altogether.
I (Ron) am the one who wants to work through projects fast. Jill is the one who reminds me, Do it once, do it right. When we built the library, we had 14 glass-fronted cabinet doors to strip and refinish. Jill insisted we remove the glass in each door to make the stripping easier. I didn't want to do it -- it's so much work! But she was right. We did a more thorough job with the glass removed. And it was easier in the end.

So, Rachel, we strongly suggest that you remove the carpet and do the stairs right. It's a pain but you'll get much better results and, in the end, it will be less trouble than trying to work around the carpet. Good luck with your project! Best wishes. Ron & Jill

Sanding Floors

Ron, I enjoyed your video on youtube about sanding floors. I have a quick question. I have a living room and dining room that ajoin each other.If I put down polyeurothane in the dining room first and then after that dries, finish the living room, would it be obvious that the two areas were done at different times? Moving all the furniture is the problem here.

Another question.I'm planning on using 100 grit to sand my floors. Basically to take off the old polyeurothane. I think there are just a couple of coats from when the floor was first put in. You think that will be fine? Also I'm worried about dust. Since this is a medium grit will dust be the usual problem it is for people sanding? I'll use a Clarke e z sander. They have a separate shop vac that attaches but none of the rental stores carries it. Do you think hooking up a different brand shop vac would work? Thanks. Robert

Hi, Robert: that's no problem. I do it all the time. The main thing is to do the floors the same way -- that is, the same number of coats, the same kind of polyurethane, etc. I've been doing our house in stages, as it's needed. Sometimes I do the stairs, then the hall, then the room.

Yes, any shop vac will do as long as you get a good seal between the sander and the vac (so that no dust is spitting out). You'll have to finish the floor with a higher grit, like 150 or higher, to get a really smooth finish. Good luck!Good luck with your project! Ron

Filling & patching Holes in Plaster

Hi there, I saw your video on installing a wall outlet and I was wondering if you've had any experience filling/patching holes in plaster walls with drywall compound, and what result you found from that. Thanks for your time. Andrew McGhie

Hi, Andrew: I have lots of experience patching holes in lathe and plaster walls. 1) You can't patch lathe and plaster walls with drywall compound. You need "patching plaster mix." 2) You can use pieces of drywall inserted in the hole to fill up the space (as long as the drywall piece is not flush with the outer layer of plaster). Then you plaster over that. 3) You have to apply the plaster in three or more applications, allowing each application to dry. Otherwise, the plaster goes on too thick and will crack. You can send me a photo of your holes and I can give you more detailed advice. Good luck with your project and keep in touch! Best wishes, Ron

How Should I Refinish These Floors?

I live in a house with oak floor from the 50's Now the polyurethane is peeling and the floor is getting dark stains from floor traffic. What do you think is the best way to sand and reseal the floor. I have 3 rooms to do and each room is roughly 12 x 15
Thanks, M.R.

Hi, M.R.: best thing for your job would be an orbital sander. These are easy to operate (unlike drum sanders) and they'll do what you need. Since you do not have damaged floors, all you need to do is sand off the old polyurethane and old dirt. Your local DIY rental store can advise you on how to use the orbital sanders. There are also plenty of videos on line about this.

We recommend at least two coats of high-gloss polyurethane to finish your job
See our video for details: How to Sand and Save a Wood Floor. Good luck with your project and keep in touch! Best wishes, Ron

Are Copper Gutters Good for a DIY?

Hi, Ron, a friend of mine put me onto your house renovation site; amazing stuff. Thought of you in light of my front gutter coming down with ice. I live in a Victorian . . . and need to replace a section of guttering about 13ft on the ground level. I've been looking online and mixed reviews about whether guttering is something to do diy, especially the soldering for the copper.
Any thoughts? Trust you must have faced this problem with your place.
Thanks, Graham in Baltimore

Hi, Graham: thanks for checking out our site and getting in touch. First, there's nothing like copper gutters. If it's within your budget, get a pro to do the replacement. Two reasons: the pro has experience; and, if he's reputable, he'll back up his work. As you know, the gutter has to sit just right under the roof line and it has to drop just right to keep the water flowing. And, of course, it has to be secured well so that it will hold under most conditions (not storms like we just had). I'd save the aggravation and time for other DIY projects, like installing a door or wiring a new lamp. Good luck with your project. Send us a photo. And keep in touch. Best wishes, Ron

How To Clean Mucked-up Cabinet & Door Hardware

Hello, I have spent the better part of a whole day reading your blog. It is fascinating and wonderful. I also have a love for old homes and can see many possibilities. I have old hardware, door knobs and face plates that need to be stripped and/or cleaned. Does Jill boil them in just soapy water? Is there a particular brand of soap that works best, and is anything else added? How long does she boil it? What is the process after they are boiled? Thank you ahead of time for any assistance you can offer me. Sincerely, Johanna in the UK

Hi, Johanna: I boil rusted or heavily painted hardware (door plates and latches etc.) overnight in my crock-pot. I keep the heat on "low." I add only a squirt of dish detergent. Neither of us is sure if this makes any difference but I figure it can't hurt. In the morning, I lift out one piece at a time (careful, they're hot), then I place the piece on a metal tray and scrub it with a small fine-wire brush. The paint comes right off and so does the rust (if there's any left). If there are any little bits of paint left, I pick them out with pins or a dental tool. Then Ron sprays the hardware with a clear gloss lacquer. We never re-paint the hardware. If we don't want the hardware permanently coated with a clear finish, then we rub cooking oil on it to inhibit rust. I hope this helps. Good luck with your project! Jill

How To Remove Aged, Yucky Tile Adhesive

Hi. We just removed old vinyl tiles from the 12x12 kitchen floor. Covering the hardwood is black yucky tile adhesive. We tried adhesive remover. It was very toxic and didn't work. Any suggestions? Especially non toxic/green. We would like to stain and varnish after adhesive is removed. Saw your great video. Thanks. Dobra

Hi, Dobra: Jill and I had this problem in our kitchen. The tile had been laid in the 1920s and was under several inches of other tile. When we got down to the floor finally, we encountered the black, aged tile mastic--it's like hardened tar. We tried all kinds of solvents on it but nothing was much help. We got so frustrated we contemplated blowing it up but that wasn't pratical. Finally, Jill wet the adhesive with soapy water. Mind you, we did not soak the floor, just got the adhesive wet. You could lay wet towels over a stretch of the adhesive or you could spray bottle patches as you work. It does loosen up.

Then we scraped the stuff off with a razor scraper and some other paint stripping tools. One tool we used is called a "mutt." It's a large scraper attached to a shovel handle. It gives you wide coverage and lots of leverage. None of this is easy but it is do-able and just as effective as chemicals. Do NOT take sand paper to the adhevise -- that will just heat up the adhesive and gum up your sand paper. As a final clean-up--after you've scraped most of it off -- use rough steel wool soaked in rubbing alcohol (90% alcohol is best) to scour the floor. Then we went over it once more with a razor scraper. Good luck!
Ron & Jill

The Mystery of the Popping Floors:

I live on the 1st floor of a 3 family house about 100 yrs old. It is very poorly insulated and you can hear your neighbor's conversation if they are speaking loudly. Not much repairs have been done except the recent replacement of a delapadated porch. You could not make two steps without the floorboards squeaking, so I finally convinced my brother to fix it. Now the squeaking is replaced by a lot of popping when you step in those areas and cracking when you walk through the archways. For instance,I notice that when I step in the entrance of my kichen, there is a popping sound on the opposite wall. . . .I know that some places where the wood joins, if you manipulate it with your toes, it is springy, . . . If you hold down a loose board with your toes and someone walks across it, it feels like the floor is giving way under your feet . . . . I was planning on buying this house from my brother, but now I am not so sure. What is happening . . . and how can this be fixed?
Dawna in Connecticut

Dawna, my best guess is that the floor joists have sagged and so there is space between the joists and the floor boards. The joists are the support beams under the floor and these are attached to the frame of your house. Over time, the house has "settled," making the joists bend down at the ends. This kind of sagging happens in all old houses, which is why floors in old houses are never level and rooms in old houses are never square.

Run your mouse over this image -- it gives you an idea of how your floor boards rock. The popping is the floorboard smacking against the new nails because the nails won't hold the floorboard tight against the sagging joists. The cracking is probably the floorboards stressing against each other as they try to rock up.

It's really not a serious problem but it will take work to repair. You'll have to pull up all of the floorboards and put shims on top of the joists to level them out. Then you can re-lay the floorboards. While you have the floorboards up, you can insulate (sound proof) between the floors. Remember, when sound-proofing you need air space between the insulation and the floor--you do not want to pack the space with insulation because packed insulation carries the sound instead of dampening it. So here's an opportunity to take care of nagging problem and get some more privacy. Good luck!

The lamp lady on your newel post

I love your newel post "Lamp Lady". Where can I find one?

The lamp lady -- the newel post lamp -- shouldn't be too hard to find. A great number of these were made in the late 1800s and early part of the twentieth century. You can distinguish these from table-top lamps because of the small round (wood) base that they stand on. The figures themselves were made of spelter, an alloy that is mostly zinc (it's also called "pot metal"). It was a cheap substitute for bronze. Figures cast from spelter are fairly fragile. Often if they topple onto a hard surface, they will crack. If you find a spelter figure in an antiques shop, you want to be sure the seller knows the difference between spelter and bronze. Bronze is going to be very heavy, very smooth, and, if scratched, it will show yet more bronze below the surface. Spelter will show a silvery color.

We actually had another newel post figure just like this one but we sold it to a friend in the neighborhood. The first one we got from a friend who found it at an auction. We found our second one at an auction too. That's a good place to look obviously. You'll pay a lot more at an antiques store. Also look at online sales. In fact, if you do a search by entering "newel post lamp" you'll find a lot of offerings. If you're looking for bargains, auctions are the way to go. Our newel post lady cost us $75 six years ago. Good luck hunting! Ron & Jill

Radiator Re-do

Hi Ron, I just spent several very enjoyable hours on your "house love" web page. Thank you for sharing - it's a great house!

How did you refinish the radiators? Did you use the same heat gun & steel wool method you describe for the woodwork? I am having trouble getting the paint off the inside nooks and crannies of my radiators, and don't know what to finish them with when I have the paint off.
Thanks! Kathleen, Baltimore, MD

Hi, Kathleen: thanks for checking out the website. At first we didn’t know what to do with our radiators. They were painted over with gummy off-white paint. We tried applying chemical stripper to them and then heat guns, but had no luck. Some people remove the radiators from their houses and sandblast them clean. Ours are too big for that. We decided to scrape them clean with paint scrapers. We used the kind that have triangle blades, which were really good for getting into the radiator's design. We also used ice picks, old screw drivers, metal files--whatever bit into the paint. This took a long time but it worked pretty well—it got off the goopy paint and help rescue the radiators’ detail.

Our strategy was to reveal the detail, scrape off whatever our tools would budge. Then I took a wire brush to the radiators. And then I wiped them down with alcohol (90% or grain). The main thing is to get them clean—especially in all those crevices. I used alcohol-soaked rags, shoved around with long-bladed screw drivers.

We learned that you DON”T need a special paint for radiators. They don’t get hot enough. For a top-coat we chose Modern Master’s “metallic paint collection,” which is water based and comes in a wide range of colors. Jill likes to mix paints to make a richer hue. So that’s what she did for the radiators. For a couple of them, however, I also used Rustoleum’s American Accents metallic paint (gold), which is oil based and fairly toxic.

We primed the radiators with a tinted Kilz--the interior/exterior water-based variety that's compatible with latex or oil paint. You can buy tint at any paint department; it's a little tube of stain you squeeze into your paint gallon. You'll need more than one tube for white primer. The darker the primer, the less topcoat you'll need because you'll have less show-through. The paint on all of the radiators has held up well. I think the heat makes for better adhesion, though that could be my imagination. Good luck with yours! Ron

How Do We Strip This Paint?

Our new home--an 1890 Queen Anne Victorian--is by far not in bad a shape as your home was when you purchased it, but there are some things that we would like to restore. The major thing would be to remove the paint from the interior window seals, doors, and wood carvings . We can’t decide what would be the best way to go to get this project started. We do not want to damage the wood below the painted surfaces with the process of paint removal, because we don’t want to repaint the wood after we remove the paint. We like to only remove the paint, and than hopefully buff the wood up a little with polish etc.

All the information on the internet is so confusing …there are hundreds of paint removers out there, and they all claim to be the best. None of the products advertised mentions if the wood below the painted area will be damaged. Would you have any advice how to get started? Andre & Bobbi, Atlanta, GA

Hi, Andre & Bobbi: There's a lot to say about stripping paint (I devote quite a bit of time to it in my book). But here's a short answer: infrared heat is the way to go. We bought a Silent Paint Remover from Air-nailers. There are a lot of brands out there. They all do the same thing, housing two quartz heating tubes in a handled container that you hold up to your painted surface. These are the same quartz elements found in space heaters. They don't get hot enough to make the paint toxic (though you should wear a mask). And they heat a large shoe-box-sized area evenly.

If your woodwork has been painted over varnish, the heat will make the paint bubble and almost lift off. You have to practice a while with various tools to get the knack of lifting the paint off. Hot paint smears easily--you want to get under it and pry or flick it off. The removed paint (which cools quickly) will be as brittle as corn chips. The stuff can be ground to dust very easily, so you want to sweep it up as soon as possible.

We follow the heat treatment with a heat gun for the stubborn areas, then a rough steel wool dipped in high-content (90%) rubbing alcohol or grain alcohol. And then a light sanding.

No matter what you do, you will end up gouging and/or roughing up the wood. So you will have to do some sanding. That means you'll have to refinish the wood. I can talk about that too (at another time), if you'd like.

Another technique I use is a razor scraper. After the initial strip, I rub down the wood with the alcohol-soaked steel wool, I let the alcohol sit for a couple of minutes, then I scrape the wood with the edge of the razor blade. As soon as I get a minute I'll draw a picture of this and post it here. I scrape with a downward motion, firmly holding the scraper near the blade to get the most leverage.

The razor-scrape method has worked really well for me because it shaves off the slightest surface of the paint-saturated wood.

The main thing is to try a variety of tools and techniques. And wear a mask. Feel free to ask questions. And send us some pictures. Best of luck. Ron

P.S. Check out our video on paint stripping:
"How to Strip Paint from Wood"

FOLLOW-UP FROM ANOTHER REHABBER: I don't have an infrared heat gun, but love my regular heat gun for removing paint. The only problem I have is with windows - the heat breaks glass. After this happened to me twice, I just stopped using the heat gun on the windows and re-painted them. Kathleen. Baltimore, MD.

RESPONSE FROM RON: Yes, those heat guns get really hot. Jill and I have devised a couple of ways to work around this. Tape over panes of glass with cardboard covered with aluminum foil (shiny side out). Another method is to simply hold a piece of thin plywood (quarter inch) over the pane as you blast the trim with heat. Both methods have worked well for us. Thanks for sharing. Ron

What to do with a Wet Basement?

Ron, I've got a wet basement and I don't want to spend a fortune getting it fixed. What do you suggest? Suzanne. Monkton, MD

Holy cow, Suzanne. This is a huge question. Let me start with some basics: if your basement is underground (fully or partially),then the first thing you want to look at is drainage around the house. Concrete and masonry are really porous, though they don't look it. Let me give you a very simplified drawing to illustrate the concept.

The basement wall could be sealed also, on the inside with a product like DryLoc and on the outside with any number of waterproofing products, the most basic of which would be tar.

If the leaking persists, then you'll want to install something called a "french drain" in the basement itself. The concept inside remains the same as the drainage technique outside: you'll dig a two-foot trench--just inside the wall, all along the perimeter of the basement; then you'll put in gravel, a perforated pvc pipe angled to a sump-pump at the back of the basement; then cover the pipe with gravel. The gravel trench acts as a barrier to break the flow of moisture across the basement floor.

There's a lot of info. you can pull up online about techniques. There are few things more unpleasant--and potentially hazardous--than a wet basement, so you're right to seek some remedies, Suzanne.