Showing posts with label KILZ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KILZ. Show all posts

Thursday, August 04, 2011

It Could Be Worse

Remember how hard I've been working, ripping up carpet and pads?  I've also been removing a LOT of staples.  


Additionally, I feel like we've moved at least 3 times this week.  One day we moved everything out of 2 bedrooms, most of it going into the dining area.


The day after that the carpet guy, Dan, gave me a day to return those rooms to something near normal, and to clear out (remove carpet, pad, etc.) the living room.  So, all the living room things went into the dining area for the day while he carpeted the living room, hallway and stairs.  Afterward we got the living room put back together.
I thought it was looking nice.





Dan was supposed to return today (Thu) to finish up the master bedroom but Tuesday afternoon he called and said he could come a day early.  Yay!  Wait?  I wasn't ready!  Thankfully, Sam was home and helped me move the king size bed, dressers, etc. and shove them into the previously carpeted bedrooms.  So much for those rooms looking nice!  We ripped up carpet, pad... you know the way it goes now.  Oh yes, after that I painted the KILZ on any stains that could be from a pet.

I was sooooo happy Tuesday night as most of my work was done and we were ready for Dan to come and finish the job.  Whoopee!  I was ready to get the house back in order.  I showered and got ready for bed, feeling jubilant.  Just before I went to bed I noticed something odd at one spot on the top stairway carpet...



Yes, that is a spot with no fibers.
Instantly, I thought of Bode and his chewing but upon inspection, that didn't seem to be the deal.  Even the fibers around that spot seemed loose.  Then, I went around to other rooms and tested the carpet fibers.  I tugged on individual fibers, finding that some stayed put but some just pulled right out.  They came out as easily as pulling small weeds from moist, heavily mulched earth.  I can't remember that I've ever tried to "pluck" a carpet but I was pretty sure that I shouldn't be able to do so.





Well, I'd like to say I felt calm and cool about this but I DID NOT! 
I am glad to tell you that Mike did remain calm and tenderly reminded me that, although this was not good, in the big picture of life our troubles could be much worse.

The next morning, when Dan came expecting to finish up the project, we showed him our find.  Because the carpet is a frieze (shag with a twist) it was easy to miss the gap until the fibers were moved aside a bit.  Dan agreed that this was not acceptable or normal.  We paid him for the work he'd done, as well as for the day's work he'd planned to do for us.  He'll be back but it may be awhile.

When I spoke with the owner of the store where we purchased the carpet, she was horrified.  She treated me with great respect and came out herself to test the fibers, take pictures and cut some of the left-over carpet to ship back to the manufacturer.  It looks like something went wrong with their gluing process.  Hopefully, they will quickly see the problem and send new carpet.  I'm expecting they will also pay for Dan to rip out this carpet (I really don't want to do that again just now!) and lay the replacement carpet.

So, that was a bummer, but eventually it should be made right.

Now, we wait.







Saturday, July 30, 2011

A Wonderful Kind of Mess!




The news at our house is, EVERYTHING IS A MESS!

I'm very happy about it!

What?

We're getting new carpet, at least upstairs.  The basement will have its day but not yet.  I decided that since I don't have a regular job right now, I could do the carpet rip-out.  I must be using some rather dormant muscles because I wake up SORE!

  It's hard work but rather satisfying.



To make it more manageable, I cut the carpet into strips.  Then, I just pull and pull until I have a piece off.  I roll it up and put it in a big garbage bag, then, I start  pulling up the padding.  It doesn't pull up smoothly so I always have to go back and pick off the broken pieces of it.  I learned to do that part quickly as Bode, it turns out, believes carpet padding is yummy.



Next, I got a little stool and sat down with a pair of pliers and hand-picked the staples out.  There are tack-strips around the edges of everything but I'm leaving those in place for the attachment of the new carpet.   It is a bit risky as those tack strips have little nails pointing upward.  It's really best to NOT step on them.  Trust me, you know when you've done that!



The man who is laying our new carpet heard that I was plucking staples by hand and kindly offered a scraper tool for me to use.  I declined.  In fact, he offered it several times and I continued to decline, stating it wasn't that hard to pluck out the staples.  One day, he just couldn't stand it anymore and brought the tool over to me.  What do you know?  It is a job that now takes just a few minutes. You slide it across the floor and it pops out most of the staples.  Those that don't pop out are sheered off.  Either way, all I have to do is sweep them up!



Next, I'm painting KILZ over any spot on the floor that looks like it may have a pet stain on it.  If you ever need to use KILZ, you need to know there are several kinds of it.  If you are dealing with pet stains, don't wimp out and choose the water-based KILZ.  I did that in our basement and learned that it just doesn't do a good job.  This time, I chose the oil-based KILZ and it works well.  However, good ventilation is a MUST.  It has a very, very strong odor that lingers.  I opened all windows and it still took a full day to remove the odor after I'd just painted the floor in 2 rooms.

Our carpet-layer-guy has already completed those 2 rooms.  He is working us in between other jobs so Monday he will return to do a bit more and then later next week come back to finish the job.  The biggest mess is simply that I have to pile everything from the rooms being carpeted into the dining area.  The Rose Room has been the worst.  This is the room where I have miles of fabric and skeins and skeins of yarn, not to mention oodles of containers with our jewelry-making supplies.  It is my favorite room, but all those things made for quite a mess in our dining area!


 I don't mind; I'm just so excited to have new carpet!





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