Joys of home ownership

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  • atgcpaul
    Veteran Member
    • Aug 2003
    • 4055
    • Maryland
    • Grizzly 1023SLX

    Joys of home ownership

    Here I am lying on a foam mat in my kid's room taking a break. We got back 2 weeks ago but have only been at the house a few days. I ripped out the carpet in 3 bedrooms and a hallway, and the kids have been very helpful pulling out staples (in exchange for tablet time). Wife only got back 2 days ago and is only here a week before she has to finish up her work tour in Central America.

    I'm questioning my life decisions faced with a honeydo list that hasn't existed for 5 years overseas. Haha.

    We thought the wife and kids could paint the rooms this week and I started taking out baseboard. The base was pretty tall and as I started pulling (after scoring the caulk line), the drywall paper was pulling off, too. They only used a few Brad nails, but backed it all up with construction adhesive. So all the paper is pulling off the drywall. And since the base is taller than the new base I plan to use over the vinyl plank, there's no hiding it unless I get some really tall base which I don't want.

    So now I'm in it. I know what I have to do fix it before painting but we've just lost a day, and wifey is still out shopping with the kids. I need to get to HD. I'm also realizing how out of "homeowner shape" I am after not doing any DIY for 5 years. All those aches and pains are back but now made worse because I'm 5 years older, too.

    Such is life.

    Click image for larger version

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  • capncarl
    Veteran Member
    • Jan 2007
    • 3564
    • Leesburg Georgia USA
    • SawStop CTS

    #2
    Definitely a real pain in the bum when someone installs something like base molding that is normally intended to be removed multiple times in its lifetime with a destructive constructive adhesive. Some people just don’t take the time to locate the studs so they can attach the molding properly with finishing nails. Since you don’t want to use a stock tall molding you may have to use regular molding and shim it up enough to cover the damage.

    Comment

    • Jim Frye
      Veteran Member
      • Dec 2002
      • 1051
      • Maumee, OH, USA.
      • Ryobi BT3000 & BT3100

      #3
      Just baseboard? We bought a home in 1984 and the previous owner had finished the entire family room in rough sawn western cedar complete with a deer head. Apparently his wife wouldn't let him take it when they moved. Anyway, the room looked like a hunting lodge and the cedar was an absolute booger to dust. I removed the fake ceiling beams and the builtin bookshelves on either side of the fireplace. Then came the removal of the cedar wainscoting, 5" baseboard, and chair rail. Of course it all had been glued and nailed to the drywall with construction adhesive which shredded the drywall surface paper. Took me weeks after work each night to patch things so I could hang heavy vinyl wall paper where the wainscoting was. All of the woodwork was replaced with red oak stained and varnished. And the fake ceiling beams were replaced with oak ones because I couldn't patch the darn popcorn texture up there. I was lucky to find 4/4 red oak in 20' lengths so I didn't have to joint the new beams. I was able to recycle the cedar boards into solar panel roof mounts for the pool heating system I installed.
      Jim Frye
      The Nut in the Cellar.
      ”Sawdust Is Man Glitter”

      Comment

      • twistsol
        Veteran Member
        • Dec 2002
        • 2893
        • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
        • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

        #4
        It is said that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Home improvements are much the same.
        Chr's
        __________
        An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
        A moral man does it.

        Comment

        • atgcpaul
          Veteran Member
          • Aug 2003
          • 4055
          • Maryland
          • Grizzly 1023SLX

          #5
          Originally posted by capncarl
          Since you don’t want to use a stock tall molding you may have to use regular molding and shim it up enough to cover the damage.
          I'm not sure what the original flooring was, but this molding was definitely not the first molding applied. These moldings were covering up a paint line about 1" lower. I'd have to use a 5" or 6" molding to cover this up.

          I rolled on some primer meant for adhesion to drywall paper and followed that with joint compound. Tomorrow while I'm at work, my wife (fingers crossed) will knock down the ridges and sand. Hopefully I don't have to put on another coat but I think I will.

          I am all kinds of sore right now even with 2 Aleve. I had decent gel knee pads but all the up/down and then mashing on my knees has them screaming. Major kudos to those tradespeople that do this every day! I wish I had one of those little roller seats like a mechanic's crawler. That would have saved me today.

          Comment

          • mpc
            Senior Member
            • Feb 2005
            • 979
            • Cypress, CA, USA.
            • BT3000 orig 13amp model

            #6
            My current house had a similar glued mess. What was a boy's bedroom had dark paint with a rubbery texture (I have no idea what it was...) and mismatched pine wainscotting-ish boards glued to the drywall. Some furniture was jammed in one corner so this treatment just ended mid-wall near that furniture. The material used didn't even match: knotty pine for most of it, then clear pine for a short segment that apparently was added some time later. The upper molding pieces had different profiles too:

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            A friend of mine rightly dubbed this "the work of an unhandy-man." This is not the only example of screwed-up stuff I found in the house either. NONE of the electrical outlets were wired properly - all had reversed hot & neutral wires, none were properly pig-tailed (the house has aluminum wiring like all other houses in this tract... copper was going to the military when this neighborhood was built), etc.

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            Those two pics are what this room looked like before I started working on it... including those uneven edges.

            What it looked like after I pried the stuff off the drywall. Lots of torn drywall, lots of glue still stuck to the drywall. And different painted versus unpainted areas providing evidence of the history of this room.

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            By the time I got all of the glue off, it probably would have been faster and easier to have simply removed and replaced the drywall. I ended up doing a skim coat of drywall compound to re-level the lower wall, then I used spray cans to texture the lower third of the wall trying to match the upper third. Didn't work... so I sanded the WHOLE BLOODY WALL - removing the rubber paint and prior texture - and did my own texture. I thought about buying a texture gun at this point since I have a decent size compressor... but I continued buying spray cans. Those cans don't cover much. A texture gun might have been cheaper. Two coats of heavy duty primer covered everything. The room looks far better now.

            Oh, another "ya kidding me?!" in this room: some holes in the drywall, about tennis ball sized... "patched" with newspaper wadded up inside the walls and topped with caulk! Squishy-soft spots underneath that rubbery paint scattered about. I think I found them all and patched them properly prior to spraying the texture and priming the walls.

            So you're definitely not alone atgcpaul and it can be fixed properly with a bit of elbow grease. I spent 2 or 3 days on this one room. It has better blinds now, a proper baseboard, and trim around the window plus closet opening, etc. to match the rest of the house. And a proper ceiling fan + light to replace the baseball mitt-shaped-motor + baseball-bats-as-fan-blades contraption that was there when I bought this house. "That is one seriously ugly fan" according to that same friend. It was a Hunter brand too - a name brand. Probably a quality built fan that looked hideous. Rather than a typical round metal trim piece on the ceiling where this fan hung, there was a rather large "home plate" panel glued to the popcorn ceiling. Guess what else needed patching...

            mpc
            Last edited by mpc; 08-01-2022, 07:53 PM.

            Comment


            • atgcpaul
              atgcpaul commented
              Editing a comment
              Oof! That's horrible.
          • capncarl
            Veteran Member
            • Jan 2007
            • 3564
            • Leesburg Georgia USA
            • SawStop CTS

            #7
            Y’all do know that you can buy thin, 1/4”, dry that is sold for this purpose? Lots easier than mudding and multiple sanding the whole room.

            Comment

            • atgcpaul
              Veteran Member
              • Aug 2003
              • 4055
              • Maryland
              • Grizzly 1023SLX

              #8
              Originally posted by capncarl
              Y’all do know that you can buy thin, 1/4”, dry that is sold for this purpose? Lots easier than mudding and multiple sanding the whole room.
              Wouldn't you still need to mud and sand all those joints in the overlay panel?

              I scraped everything last night, showed my wife how to sand and patch (if needed), and maybe she'll be able to prime it, too.

              The worst is over for me. Luckily for me all this is happening 8" to the floor where any imperfections aren't going to be easily noticed (fingers crossed)

              Comment


              • capncarl
                capncarl commented
                Editing a comment
                Yes, you would still have to tape then mud all joints and corners just like it was new. It might be easier than fiddling with lots of damage. I think I read that it was used a lot in rehabilitating crime scenes and suicides.
            • twistsol
              Veteran Member
              • Dec 2002
              • 2893
              • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
              • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

              #9
              When the brown paper of drywall is exposed, you need to prime with a sealing primer first. There are also special products just for this purpose. The brown is just a bunch of really thin layers of paper and as soon as mud hits it, it will release from the layer below and bubble up making it nearly impossible to finish.
              Chr's
              __________
              An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
              A moral man does it.

              Comment


              • atgcpaul
                atgcpaul commented
                Editing a comment
                Yep, took care of that with Kilz Klear. After we do final sanding of the joint compound, we'll do another coat of Klear before painting
            • cwsmith
              Veteran Member
              • Dec 2005
              • 2737
              • NY Southern Tier, USA.
              • BT3100-1

              #10
              Fortunately, in my old 1887-built house, none of the past owners used construction adhesive on anything.. Tons of wallpaper and lots of those tiny finishing screws that look more like nails. They were a real PIA to get out when we put in the new kitchen. I took all of the redwood wainscote off the kitchen walls stripped and sanded it and put three coats of poly on it before re-applying it to the walls. My wife and I hired a guy to remove the wall paper that was multi-layed in every room, including the upper kitchen walls, bathrooms, etc. (12 rooms in all plus the walk-up attic). We also hired out the new hardwood flooring because we had to remove and dispose of the old ancient boards with holes everywhere. The only floors that were still decent were in the two bedrooms upstairs and the hallway.

              The living room had been expanded to include what was once the front porch. The way they did that was to knock down the front wall and put a beam across the ceiling, nice job there, but what was the porch, they layed down a double layer of ply and then carpet, leaving an not-so-nice two-inch difference in height between the old living room and what was the porch area. Also, they left two heating registers along that old wall area, which were an eyesore, not to mention the large cold air return right at the bottom of the stairway, that you had to step on. When we put in the new hardwood flooring all that was rearranged.

              I hired an electician to put in a new service kupdating the panel from and old 100 amp fused panel to a 200 amp breaker panel. That done, I have rewired as much as I could without tearing out the walls. Every receptacle has been updated and checked, with all new wiring in the attic, libraries, bathrooms, and the entire first floor... hmmm, I guess that leaves only the two second floor bedrooms that I couldn't get at.

              We also rewalled the attic, rearranged the kitchen layout, installed new cabinets, flooring, walls and ceiling, plumbing, lights, etc. New fixtures, floor, ceiling and walls in the bathrooms. Bottom line, I hired an electrician for the entry service, a painter who removed the wall paper and put an initial coat of painter everywhere, had all of the flooring redone and the stairs from the 1st to 2nd floor and up to the attic, and of course a plumber (I refuse to do plumbing).

              Old houses can be exhausting, not to mention the dent in the savings account.

              CWS
              Think it Through Before You Do!

              Comment

              • capncarl
                Veteran Member
                • Jan 2007
                • 3564
                • Leesburg Georgia USA
                • SawStop CTS

                #11
                The finish of the final coat of paint has a lot to do it’s being able to see imperfections. Put gloss paint on and you can see imperfections from across the street. Some friends of ours remodeled their house and removed a door from the wall. The drywall was finished perfectly, you couldn’t tell there was ever a door there…. Then they painted the wall a burgundy red color in gloss. You could see the whole door and even imagine where the knob was…. Awful.

                Comment

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