Saturday
Dec112010
Why renovating a house is a never ending story of joy
Sat, 11 Dec 2010
Help! Look what the painters did to my floor! I have spent all day trying to save it but I admit defeat. You can see more of the carnage on my page. Perhaps you can help with suggestions on improving this sorry state of affairs? My suggestion is a jam and cream donut.
Reader Comments (37)
Thanks everyone for your support and suggestions. The process here is a little different to the States if you are in dispute with your tradesman or any service provider for that matter. If conciliation/negotiation/compensation etc is not possible with the tradesman and all avenues of recompense are exhausted or unavailable eg professional associations and standards bodies then we go to the Department of Fair Trading where a government mediator is appointed to negotiate a settlement. If this is not to the consumer's liking it then goes to the Small Claims Tribunal whose purpose is to arbitrate a settlement. Only then if the tradesman is found to be at fault and does not pay/do what is dictated by the tribunal is a lawyer involved. It keeps costs down and also provides a government register of cowboy companies.
Don't worry. I have every intention of pursuing this company for compensation. I do not wish for them to continue to attempt to "fix" the floor themselves. I have not paid them a cent and will not be paying them. This is a master/servant situation so any damage caused by a crew sent by the umbrella parent company is the parent company's responsibility.
I intend to explore ways of restoring the floor to a finish similar to what was there before. I do not want to sand it back to bare wood and treat it like a new floor. I'm not keen on painting it either. I need to remove the damaged shellac finish and also hand remove gently the other paint stains that are still there. I like the idea of exploring restaining and resealing whether with shellac then polish or an oil to seal. Old floors and polyurethane finishes do not go well in my book.
This morning I woke up with a jam and cream donut hangover which has been helped by a great coffee from my new coffee hangout and then on to the farmer's market where I met a man who I worked for in one of my first waitressing jobs (putting myself through med school) about 30 years ago. He was the same wonderful, funny and food obsessed man I remember and he piled me high with the most wonderful artisan Italian produce. I have forgotten all about my floors for a few hours and I will try to do so for the rest of today (Sunday). My fight continues tomorrow when the Department of Fair Trade opens for business again. In the meantime we will take a break from painting. People have suggested that I DIY the painting. My problem is that I have 13 foot ceilings (higher in some areas), I'm 48 with a bad back and "catholic" knees and it is a little beyond me. I guess I could manage painting up to an 8 foot mark maybe :) We had a number of quotes from other painters originally and we will explore these in the new year. I have put off setting up home in my house because I wanted the walls perfect. I'm not putting it off any longer. I'm bringing everything out of the boxes and living my life with what I have now, mould, flaky paint, ruined floor and all. And I feel good about this :) So if you don't mind I'll step away from the computer for the rest of the day and enjoy the moment and maybe have another donut!
I don't know if you have home owner's insurance, but if you do, i would consider putting in a claim for that. If you have an H.O. 3 policy, damage that is sudden and accidental is covered under your policy. I work for a public adjusting firm and we face common claims such as these (allianceadjustment.com). I would also advise you to hire a public adjuster to look at the damage to see how much it would cost you to fix your floors. Unfortunately, it would either be getting money to replace the floors (even though you love them so much!) or getting the money to re-finish them (sanding, sealing). Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions! I don't think my company is in your area (PA) so, we won't be able to help, but I love letting people know about public adjusters because so many people don't! =P best kept secret~
I agree with many of the comments. If these were professional painters this never should have happened. I just had my kitchen cabinets refaces, no paint at all, and each day they covered the entire floor in drop cloth. Even when I paint my own rooms I do this, it's just common sense. If they didn't offer to already, I would make sure you contact whoever you have to in order to get your floors repaired, free of charge to you. You should not have to pay for this!
I only suggest you,clean the floor with cold water (if it´s a water paint) and pray!!!!
Your blog is perfect!!!
I follow you from Spain.
Jo, good ideas.
One more suggestion - don't leave trades people with your keys or unsupervised. I've caught many a nightmare early (but they still suck, just far less). Perhaps the new painters can start in the room with the terra cotta tile (as you are not as keen on it).
Also, please do remediate the mould before unpacking. That could be a long, painful and sickening problem, which will not allow you to live your life well at all.
Enjoy and all the best!
Hi Jo
It makes me so sad to see your beutiful floors like that. Try and make sure those painters never work again! Is there a consumer network or something over there that you can report them to?
Like people have mentioned before me I believe that sanding the floors would be a great option. It is abig job, but floors usualy look great afterwards! We will be starting ours in january... It is no small job, but the bonus is that you get to choose the varnish. We will be using oil which give the floors a beutiful glow.
The other les expensive route would be to paint the floor a high gloss paint like we do in Scandinavia. I have seen examples on here before. They look great but it is of course a different look all together.
Best of luck,
Anne-Lise
Thanks again everyone for your support and comments. The process of making these bastards pay has started but will take a little time to come to a conclusion. In the meantime a big hug to Ellen for thinking of insurance. As it happens we may be covered for some of the repair (after excess). An assessor is coming. Owe you a donut Ellen.
Unbelievable! I would be livid!! These are professional painters? Have they heard of drop cloths?
Best of luck with getting this mess fixed!
There is a product that contains orange oil. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it, it has been a while since I needed it, however when I was faux-painting for a living I kept two containers of it on hand just in case the sh*t ever hit the fan (because no matter how careful you are, at some point, paint will get on something.) Anyway, it takes off acrylic paint forever and oil paint up to 7 days, without damaging the finish below. (It also takes it off carpet and skin without burning or stinking to high heaven and isn't toxic - I personally have never found Goof-Off to be non-damaging of wood. It changes the sheen of the finish.)
I purchased it at Home Depot and it came in two varieties, one being liquid, and one looking like baby wipes. I hope they still make it, if they do, potentially you could put a baby wipe type on a swiffer base and mop away.
That said, oh wow, how heartbreaking. I am so very sorry. =(
We have black japan floors in our house (in the swich too) and they were also covered in paint. After weeks of scraping we then rubbed the floor with metho and steel wool for another week or so. The metho dissolved the black japan and with tedious concentric sanding motion with a cloth and steel wool you can achieve a more consistent finish across your floor. You can then either re-apply another coat of black japan and/or tung oil and beeswax. This takes a long time but but maintains that old antique 'patina' that your floors have. Once you sand the floor, you can never get that look back.
Don't worry! This is fixable. Mineral spirits work wonders on dried paint, and should not damage the floor at all (test an inconspicuous spot first, of course). I do renovation work and this is a problem I've had to remedy many times; never once have the spirits damaged the original surface.
Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. Things are moving slowly (as they always do in cases like this) but they are moving. I am having a furniture restorer come round to throw around some ideas and test some patches together. I'm getting caught up in the idea of tackling this job myself, at least the "stripping" back stage before restaining and finishing. I think I may be kidding myself but I want to see the job done properly and somehow doing it myself seems the only way. This crazy idea will probably change by the time Christmas is over or my knees give out whichever comes first :)