May 19, 2013 editor1 Concrete

Stained Concrete Floors Part II

Ok… we have this post as a warning to other would-be concrete floor stainers. We have effectively discovered nearly everything not to do.

Before we began the process, we had looked around online and in local stores to find good products to use. During our visit at the Lowe’s in Carlsbad, the paint dept. manager convinced us that their Valspar products would work very well on our house interior. Well… the etching product seemed to work fine, so we thought all was good.

Yesterday morning, with plans for an easy day, we began early spraying the “stain” on the prepared floors…

Mistake #1: Failing to test a small inconspicuous area before continuing with the rest of the house.

Yes, being generally optimistic and very hopeful, we sprayed the entire house in quick time. As we were checking it out as it dried, we were concerned that the stain didn’t seem to be penetrating the concrete at all… the more it dried, the worse it looked.

Mistake #2: Believing the sales personnel when they said products clearly marked as exterior products were fine for interior use.

When we called Valspar, we discovered (to our dismay) that the products we had just covered our floors with were not suitable for interior applications, even though the sales staff at the Lowes had heartily recommended them.

NOTE: Do not use on interior applications!!!

Mistake #3: Thinking that product labeled “Semi-transparent Stain” would actually be either semi-transparent or a stain. It looks like concrete floor paint, sprayed over concrete in a (very ugly) spray pattern.

Conclusion: We are now in the process of removing all the “stain” from the floors with a rented buffing machine, TSP solution and bristle brushes. This is not an easy process. We are about 1/3 finished with the removal project, and guess we have another 10+ hours of hard labor before we get the floors back to the way they were before our staining adventure.

Tips on Removing Concrete “Stain”:

Needed tools/materials:

Rented buffer
Stripper pads (buy at a janitorial supply place — here it was the Southwest Cash and Carry — at the rental place it was nearly $10 apiece. At the Cash and Carry, they were $14.50 for FIVE)
Squeegee
Wet/Dry Vac
Mop and bucket
Palm Sander
Scrub brushes
TSP (trisodium phosphate — sold in the paint section of hardware stores)

1. Use commercial style buffing machine to remove stain. Use TSP solution (1/2 cup to 2 gallons hot water) to lubricate the buffer.

2. Buff a section, then squeegee the buffed floor to assure complete removal before moving on.

3. Use wet-vac to remove liquid from floor.

4. (VERY IMPORTANT) Mop any remaining drips, residue before it dries. If you fail to do this last step, you’ll find yourself redoing parts of the section again later (Ask me how we know this!).

5. Remove remaining paint around edges of the rooms with hand scrubbers or palm sander.

NOTE: This assumes you have not applied any sealer to the stain. It will require other products and be much more difficult to remove the stain if you have already sealed it.

Going Forward

We have ordered products from thestampstore.com, which we are confident will work better. We spoke to a salesperson at the Okla. location and got his advice on what to use and how much to buy.

And… do you think maybe we’ll try out a small, inconspicuous area before we stain the entire house next time???

May 18, 2013 editor1 Construction

RTA Cabinets Delivered

As I mentioned in a previous article, Discount Kitchen Cabinets, RTA (Ready to Assemble) cabinets are a cost-effective way to get good quality cabinets at a much lower cost. We ended up ordering our cabinets online from myCabinetPlace.com, a company out of Minnesota. After checking and double-checking final measurements for Kitchen, Laundry, Master Bath, Two bathrooms for the boys and the Powder bath, I made a call and spoke to a very nice and helpful person (with a definite Minnesota accent) at the company phone number. He answered all my questions about specific details and what he could offer for concerns with installation, etc. The company offers free shipping on orders over $2000, plus the no sales tax benefit of ordering out of state. Our shipment was large enough to warrant a freight truck delivery.

Our color choice for the entire house was: Gander Maple

The company’s online description of the cabinets makes them appear very attractive:

“Burnt Sienna” stained baked finish on maple
Completely stained, baked finish inside and out
Exposed sides are stained to match
Greater assortment of cabinet sizes and accessories provides high end design without high end price
High Quality All Wood Construction
Face Frames: 3/4″x 1-9/16″ Mortise & Tendon Construction
End Panel: 1/2″ Plywood
Top and Bottoms: 1/2″ Plywood
Shelves: 3/4″ thick Plywood edge-band on front
Back: 1/8″ Plywood, Sink base cabinets may have an open back or may require holes to be cut in the back for plumbing
Hang rails for wall cabinets: 1/2″ Solid wood
No particle board!!!
Doors and Drawer Fronts are Solid Wood, 5-Piece construction with raised panel
Drawers are Solid Wood Dovetail Construction with full extension under mount self soft-closing drawer glide system
Six-way adjustable fully concealed, European style hinges
Full Overlay Doors and Drawers

As we passed through the local Home Depot, I happened to look at their in-stock cabinets for comparison… at similar prices, their cabinets were made up of particle board primarily. These RTA cabinets, while requiring assembly, are much higher quality.

Just for a comparison, I looked up what HD had to offer that would be of similar quality. Their RTA cabinets are almost entirely made up of particle board, so I didn’t think it was a fair comparison. Their Home Decorators Online Cabinet line seemed of similar quality, although they arrive fully assembled. So, to do a quick comparison, I looked up the cost of a Base Cabinet, 24″ in their Lewiston Toffee Glaze. Their price (which will also have the additional sales tax added) for this base cabinet was $469. The cost of the same cabinet from myCabinets.com was $166 when I ordered it. The pricing of their other cabinets and accessories was similarly different for the rest. In short, we were able to get everything we need for 42″ high wall cabinets, crown molding, under cabinet light rails, decorative posts, etc., etc., for the entire house for a price of only $9626, delivered. I think we would pay nearly triple the price for a similar product from HD, or any other cabinet company locally.

Note: Since we ordered our cabinets, our particular color has been discontinued. The Kingston maple cabinets are similar.

So, the cabinets came in, delivered by a freight delivery company. Unfortunately, we had bad luck with the delivery. Out of the two double pallet shipment, we had 16 boxes with visible damage (scraped, crushed, forklift driven into it) and, upon opening the boxes, lots of unseen damage was found on the cabinets due to the rough handling (dented cabinet fronts, etc.).

One thing to keep in mind when you order RTA cabinets is that you are responsible for documenting any damage when you get them and working with a long-distance company to get the issues resolved. It took me a good couple of days to go through every box, looking at all the individual pieces to assess the damage. While I was doing it, I had to keep in mind that the boxes had to be re-packed (like a puzzle) so that the carton could be returned if necessary.

I made a complete listing and have submitted it to the company, requesting replacements of some of the worst damage and touch up paint for the more minor scratches.

All that being said, I love the cabinets and am very impressed with the high quality of the construction. Had they not been damaged in shipment, I would be ecstatic.

I still think this is a great way to get high-quality cabinets for less… but it isn’t without its costs in time. More to come as we wait for the replacement parts… Here are a few pictures:

Cartons crushed on pallet — One of two double pallets arrived

IMG_2642 item 25 — bathroom vanity front

May 17, 2013 editor1 Construction

Stained Concrete Floors Part 1

We decided early on that we wanted to have stained concrete floors throughout the bottom level of the house. For one thing, the finish is beautiful and durable. For another thing, we really do not like wall-to-wall carpeting at all. Lastly, it is a very low-cost alternative to ceramic tile and easy to do relative to other alternatives.

To prepare for this, we asked our concrete guys to give the foundation a machine finish after it was poured. It has a very nice glassy finish already on most of the house (along the edges of the foundation, there are a few less-smooth spots, but nothing bad).

Also, since we knew this was the plan, we tried very hard during all phases of construction not to get it dirty with building materials, etc. Particularly once we started the mudding and taping, followed by paint, we covered the floor with tar paper (a much less expensive alternative to the expensive cardboard rolls they sell in the hardware stores) throughout the house.

However, as hard as we tried, we still had a lot of work to prepare the concrete for staining. We spent a good two days cleaning the floors, sweeping, vacuuming, scraping off any bits of drywall mud, removing the drips and overspray from the paint process. and finally mopping every inch of the house. After that, we had to mask the lower parts of all the walls to protect them from the stain and etching compound. That was not a pleasant job, but not a difficult one.

To mask the walls, we cut 18″ strips from the roll of painter’s plastic (10 feet wide) that we used to mask during the texturing and painting processes. After cutting the strips, we taped them around the walls and woodwork, using blue tape on the tops and on any woodwork and regular masking tape on the bottoms of the sheetrock, where the woodwork will eventually be installed.

One thing that helped with paint removal was using brush cleaner (for latex paint). By painting it on the overspray or drip, and then scraping after a few seconds, the job was made much easier. This was a relatively inexpensive product. We only needed 2 quarts for the bottom floor our house (2600 sf to be stained), at a cost of about $7/quart.

After the floors were relatively clean, it was time to use the cleaning/etching product we bought to prep the floors to accept the stain. We looked around online and at the local paint store, as well as our local Home Depot. We ended up going with the Valspar products sold by Lowes. We found some very knowledgeable staff at the store down in Carlsbad, who were able to clearly explain just how their products worked and what we would need to get to have all the tools at hand for the process.

Today we finished the etching process for the entire project.

The process is simple:

Dilute the solution 1:1. Wet down the floor first (we did this with a mop and bucket). Spray (using an all-plastic pump sprayer) the surface well. Scrub into the surface with a natural bristle brush on a broom handle. After the fizzing is done, mop the floor several times to remove all the residue. (We found three times to be about right). Use proper protective equipment (goggles, facemask, gloves, shoe coverings or rubber boots, and optional protective suit).

That is basically it… Here are some photos:

Tools of the trade: pump sprayer, protective suit, face mask, goggles and rubber or latex gloves, Etching solution.

Wet down the floor before spraying solution

A few more views of cleaned floors:

Tomorrow we stain the floors!

May 13, 2013 editor1 Construction

Home Tour — with Paint

Here is a YouTube vid of a quick walk-through of the house.

May 5, 2013 editor1 Construction

Painting Like a Professional

Now that the entire house is primed, we are preparing for the rest of the paint project. However, here are a few tips about the priming phase:

1: Especially when using a big pump sprayer, you will want to dilute the paint a bit for priming. To do this, you need a couple of empty 5-gallon buckets (no problem, since we did our own mudding and taping). Using the buckets, you will add 2 gallons of water for each 5 gallon bucket of primer. You will pour the water and paint back and forth, mixing the paint and water until you get a uniform consistency. This is a traditional painter method called “boxing”. In the old days, when paint colors were not mixed so precisely as they are today, painters would do this with the paint to assure a uniform color when working on a job. It is still a useful technique for today’s equipment and products…

2. The primer needs to be backrolled for good coverage after spraying. We used a very large roller on a long pole to get this done efficiently. The roller costs about $20, but is worth it in the time saved. You can wrap it well in plastic if you need to pause between priming sessions. This big roller takes a lot of work to clean, so wrapping it is a welcome time-saver.

3. Another tip: Even if you are buying the plain white paint, have them mix it for you at the store before you buy it. Saves you the time of mixing and assures the complete and even mix you want.

4. Preparing for spraying the entire house. Obviously, all doors and windows must be well masked. We used a roll of painter’s plastic for all the big areas, including windows, doors, wood pillars, etc. We also used tar paper to cover the entire floor before we mudded and taped, so it was ready to go for painting. Since this was the priming phase, we used regular masking tape on windows, etc. For painted surfaces, use the blue tape later on; the regular masking tape can sometimes pull off the paint when you remove it. We used brown paper to mask all the electrical outlets, can lights, light boxes, vents, etc. This will lessen the cleanup later.

Backrolling Equipment — Large Paint Roller

Since we want our ceilings to remain white, instead of buying regular wall paint for the second coat – Behr’s Premium Plus ($125/5 gal), our painter friend recommended Behr’s primer ($50/5 gal) instead. He noted that Behr’s primer is not a completely flat white, but has a bit of sheen to it. He wouldn’t recommend this in areas likely to see high humidity (bathrooms), or kitchens or in homes with smokers. We decided to do this, since it looks great and will work fine in most of the house. Just a little note: Although they aren’t accustomed to doing it very often, primer paint can be tinted like any other paint. Our friend said that people have used primer paint (tinted to their color choice) for the entire house, walls and ceilings and had good results. It won’t hold up against heavy wear, so it would never work for us on the walls, but maybe for some folks.

Preparing for the Second Coat (color)

Getting all the equipment you need will help. Here is an array of the basics:

You’ll need:

1. Good 3″ brushes for cutting in
2. A small wire brush to clean the brushes well between uses (this really helps get the brushes looking like new)
3. At least a couple of 2 gallon plastic buckets (sold in most hardware stores)
4. 2 gallon size bucket grids (or screens) to use with the 2 gallon buckets
5. 6″ mini rollers and roller frames (these fit well in the 2 gallon buckets)
6. Good pencils and sharpener
7. All purpose caulk
8. Painters’ cloths (for the caulking and for wiping drips or mistakes when painting — keep them moist)
9. Paint, stir sticks, openers, bucket opener for the 5 gallon buckets

Note: When you buy your tinted paint, ask for an extra printed label with the exact ratio of the tints needed for your paint. Stick it to the back of a color card and keep it in your records. If you ever need to buy more for touch up, etc., they will be able to match it exactly.

Cutting in: Recommended on seams between colors (like between a white ceiling and colored wall): run a bead of caulk to get a nice, clean line. No matter how precise you are with a brush, the raised surface of the texture keeps the line from looking completely straight without caulk. We tried it both ways. When I have a strong wall color, I found the caulking absolutely essential for a nice look. To keep your caulk from drying out between uses, a small electrical cap works very well.

Even for the main color, some thinning is a good idea. Rule of thumb: 3 quarts of water added to a 5 gallon bucket. A little less than 2 1/2 cups of water can be added to single gallon cans. I pour the gallon can into the 2 gallon plastic bucket, add the water to the paint can, close it up and shake it well to get as much paint mixed in as possible. Then, add the water mixture to the bucket and mix well, returning the diluted paint to the paint bucket after mixing.

Cards with printed labels — Keep records of your color choices

After the caulk has dried (about 2 hrs, in my experience), use a nice pencil to mark the corner line. Then, using a 3″ high quality paint brush (angled or flat as you prefer), cut in the paint along the line. Using a small roller, carry the color down about 1 foot from the ceiling to allow ease of spraying without risk of overspray.

Cutting in — Pencil line on top of caulk... cutting in

Here are a few photos of the cut-in walls, ready for spraying:

May 4, 2013 editor1 Construction

Texturing and Priming complete!

As of Wednesday (May 1st), we have the entire house completely textured and primed…

Pantry - primed — Pantry Walls Textured and primed

A few notes about mudding and taping and texturing. We found the buckets of Joint Compound (green mud) to be very convenient to use for banjoing and the first coat of mud. Mixing it well (and adding no water at all) was the key to smooth mud for the banjo and also for using to apply the first coat to screw heads and seams. Early on, we tried adding a bit of water to the mud to make it more easy to use… it was completely unsuitable for use in the banjo and ended up making more work for us. We had to cut out several strips of paper tape and re-apply it using regular green mud. We ended up with bubbles with the diluted green mud.

The blue mud (in the cardboard boxes) is more lightweight and easier to apply, get smooth and to sand. It, however required a bit of diluting to get it to the right consistency. We added two cups of water per box of mud to get it to work very well.

Texturing required the extreme dilution of the blue mud to work properly. We added 10 cups of water to one box of blue mud this purpose. The whole process was made pretty quick by the use of our friend (and contractor) Joe Tufano’s texturing machine. It was made by Graco and really worked well. It was very important to get the mud to the right consistency and to clean the machine thoroughly after the work was done.

We bought a pump for spraying the paint. It has already saved us so much time! Our pump is a Graco Tradeworks 170. With this pump, the painting goes so much more quickly. It really pays for itself. Considering what it would have cost us to hire a painting team, the investment in this machine was well worth it.

Here are a few more photos of the last part of the house we primed this week:

Stairwell primed — Stairwell - Textured and Primed

Dormer windows — Hobby room textured and primed

Hobby room primed — Hobby room textured and primed

Wall closeup - dormer — Dormer wall closeup

March 10, 2013 editor1 Construction

Mudding and Taping

We have been working on the next part of the drywall experience the past two weeks. We began on our own in the garage (which was a good thing). Then, starting on Feb. 28th, we had the help of a professional to get things done right in the main living area of the house. In the past 7 workdays, we have made pretty good progress.

We began with patching the heads of the screws on all the sheetrock panels using “green” mud, also known as all-purpose joint compound. Apparently, this stuff is harder (and more difficult to sand) and is used on the first layers of nail/screw heads and the taped joints.

We found a great tool for applying the seam tape called a “banjo”. This simple tool allowed us to more quickly apply the tape and joint compound along the seams with much less muss and fuss than without.

After putting the tape on seams, beadboard on all corners, and a first coat with the “green” joint compound, we moved into the finishing up of feathering out seams to prepare for texturing.

For the finish coat (and also for texturing), the “blue” mud is used. This is lighter in weight, smoother and easier to work with than the “green” mud, and will be easier on the sanding process.

February 7, 2013 editor1 Plumbing

Shower Pans

Being a bit uncertain as to how much time it would take to do these, we decided to hire this part… Having never done it before, and wanting to be very sure the shower pans don’t leak, we got a quote from the same fellow who did the workshop for us before we came here. For three shower pans, he charged $500 for labor (not including materials). In hindsight, we may have overpaid, considering that it took one guy (plus a little time by the boss) one day to do them (and it wasn’t an early start — 10 a.m.). But, we are happy to know that it was done correctly and it did save time and irritation (learning curve woes) to have it done by the subcontractor…

Photos of the process:

January 21, 2013 editor1 Construction

Rockin’ the Walls

We began hanging sheet rock on the walls. Thankfully it is much quicker than doing the ceilings, with the exception of interior closets. They seem to slow the process down with the many smaller sections and cuts. Using the Roto-Zip tool on the wall edges, door and window frames saves the heartache of making exacting measurements on the edges. In those areas I simply add a bit of overhang and zip the excess off. Many of our walls are slightly less than 12′ wide, so the need to match edges along a 1 1/2″ edge was minimized. It also will make the mud/tape process easier since there will be fewer vertical seams to feather out. I began on the top section with as long a section of 4×12 as I could fit and covered the window openings. I used the Roto-Zip to cut out the windows. This gave me a continuous section with no seams above the window headers. I was able to use the cut out section for the inside top window edge after filling the window-wall gap with open cell foam for added insulation. I then rocked the window inside edges left and right.

I found the most time consuming process to be the measuring and layout. Looking at the image of the rock tools you can see I drew a 3D diagram of two walls and laid out the studs and windows ensuring I maximized a 12″ length where possible. This way i only had to measure once. On a few occasions I failed to locate and mark the electrical outlets. Bummer, but if you guess right, you can find em pretty easy as the rock bulges out and the electricians usually place the socket at a standard height.

We loaded all of our rock into the largest central room and used the stack as our layout and cutting table. I did not buy any saw horses. It was only problematic when measuring and cutting the last few pieces as the stack is close to the ground and one has to kneel down to measure and cut.

January 18, 2013 editor1 Uncategorized

Attic Insulation

Well, after the Christmas break, we got back to it, finishing up the attic insulation.

Initially, we had thought we would subcontract this job, never having attempted it before ourselves. So, we got a quote on the job from a recommended subcontractor. He quoted us a rate of $1.50/sf for R-30 insulation blown in to the attic. For approximately 2600 sf (just the main part of the house — not the WWII museum and research center), this equates to a cost of $3900. We actually wanted more insulation — up to R44, so we decided to see how difficult it might be to do it ourselves.

It turns out not to be very difficult or time-consuming. Oz went to the local Home Depot, where he found out they allow use of their machine for free if you purchase the insulation material from them. They calculated how much material would be needed for the 2600 sf for R44 insulation. Lo and behold… it came out to be only about $1700 total. Not knowing for sure how much extra the contractor would have charged for R44 vs R30 insulation, we don’t know exactly how much we saved, but we figure it is about $2500 (certainly no less than $2200).

The job does take two people — one to man the blower end in the attic — one to load the machine continuously. It is messy work, requiring goggles, facemasks and gloves to be worn. However… all that being said, we were completely finished in only two days. We figured it was a good use of our time and well-earned sweat equity on the house. We have found a definite difference in the constant temperature inside the house since it was done, even though we haven’t finished all the mudding and taping of the sheetrock to seal the cracks.

Here are photos of the machine and the result in the attic: