Hello my readers. So much done over the past week and a half that I didn’t even have a moment to stop and type out a note to everyone. Well, I did it. I learned how to strip the floor in the sunroom and it was actually pretty fun. Aside from using a citrus scented product and about gagging myself out of the room with my friend that was helping me, it was done relatively quickly. I also started the process of getting a lot of the rooms in my house painted (there are 7 rooms to be painted or to finish painting). I also called Empire flooring for a consultation for a free estimate on carpet for my living room. I like the word free. I feel really good about what was accomplished and I will admit I had a set back this week about a few things, but I got right back on the band wagon and got it done. Side note* While typing this out Liam rolled over for the first time, yay!
I actually enjoyed stripping the floor I think it’s the fastest start something and see results that I’ve ever enjoyed, second only to painting. So the stuff I used is called “Citristrip” which takes about 30 to 40 minutes after you put it down to do its thing. As a reminder the floor in the Sunroom had been painted and then carpeted to there was carpet glue on the floor. I think my favorite part was after putting it down on the floor and leaving it there for about 35 minutes I went back out there and the floor was all bubbled up and weird looking. I used a putty knife and my friend used a scrapper. To be honest it kind of looked like snot as we were going along. Here is a reminder of what the floor looked like and what I used to strip (incase you plan on stripping something)
This next set of pictures was the process of letting the stripper set up on the floor. A small side note this stuff is really slippery so be careful if you are going to strip a floor and also it doesn’t burn right away if it gets on your skin so be sure to wear protective gloves and eye protection. I used chemical gloves to get the job done and I used a towel to keep the goo off my shoes and to keep from sliding all over the place. To be honest I wasn’t sure if it would work so I did a section by itself first. I’d say a (lol) 4×4 space. The product said to use a natural paint brush so we squirted the stripper on the floor and pushed it around with paint brushes until there was probable a 1/8th of an inch thick amount on the floor and left it with a timer. The fumes from the citrus smell was very very strong, I opened all of the windows, the door, and there is a ceiling fan in the sunroom that was on full blast, if you can’t ventilate it that well in the space that you’re doing use a big fan pointed away from you and a ventilated face mask.
After 20 minutes I scrapped up a small section to see if it was ready, it seemed to be but just to be sure I didn’t scrap all of it up until after 35 minutes. It came up really easy and in the picture it’s really hard to see but there is a huge difference. Originally the floor pictured below had an orange color to it. And if you look closely you can see the scrapings in the bucket in the top left of the picture.
In between scrapping the floor we taped the edges in the house so that we could paint the entry way and the hallway. The entry way is pretty small so it didn’t take long, in the picture the white on the wall is wallpaper glue. Originally we were going to strip that off with a steamer but that really would have taken forever so instead we sanded the wall and used the glue to make a cool texture to the wall. It worked.
Literally from start to “finish” (had to get a paint brush from the store for the edges) took about 20 minutes. The color we used is two shades darker than the living room and I’d just like to say I LOVE it.
I have a long way to go but I’m getting there. Stay tuned for more. Keep going and see you in another 4×4.
FeyWild Photography 