And I thought I had problems before
Fri, 10 Dec 2010 68 Comments 
You have to laugh or you'd start crying. That is my lovely old floor after my painters started "painting". Not what I was expecting. It's a long and involved story that can be summed up simply ... they were cowboys. A supposedly reputable firm sends a cowboy crew to my home to "paint". First they didn't start in the room they said they would (the bedroom which we had stripped of furniture). They decided to start with the office and spray it (I was not informed this was how they were going to "paint"). I have seen rooms that have been professionally sprayed and they can turn out OK ... if the room is cleared of furniture, heavy drop cloths or plastic used, lots of masking and taping and covering up everything that isn't to be sprayed. This is what I found when I got home. I don't need to explain the carnage.
Painters had gone home for the day but quick as a flash I was on the phone. I remember threats and profanities were used by me and profuse apologies by the painter. "We'll fix it! I promise." I wanted to sack them then and there but they had the keys to my house and I was worried that they would take "payment" by way of computers or TVs when we weren't home. With trepidation I let them come back the next day to clean up. They were there when I got home. It was worse!
The floors that were covered in paint spots and a fine mist of white paint which they tried to wipe off turning it into a "whitewash" were now splotchy and discoloured. They had used methylated spirits, sponges and a scraper and preceded to ruin my floors even further if possible. "Don't worry we'll fix it with varnish." It was at that stage I screamed at them to get out :)
I have spent a day trying to fix the problem but I'm admitting defeat for the moment. My 150 year old cedar floors had been shellaced at some stage of their lives and the metho had removed the finish. Worse still it softened the finish and mixed it with the remains of the paint producing muddy white clouds of now reset shellac/paint all over my floor. The beautiful thick waxy finish is stripped away and well you can see the results. Wine helped last night and jam and cream donuts have made today's efforts a little more bearable but it's f*cked. Want to see what it was like before?
It was never perfect. There were some areas of slight discolouration, some scratches but there was also this lovely richness, a thick, smooth and silky finish underfoot darkened with age. Like a lovely old piece of furniture you have polished over and over. It was what I loved about these rooms. People have said sand it back, refinish it and most likely I will have to but what I will be losing is the history. The boards are cupped with age. You can see shallow trails worn into the timber over 150 years where people have walked the same path from door to door or door to bed. I love that. Now I'll have to rip its history away with a belt sander and have a "brand spanking new floor". I think I need another donut! Here's my before video. Goodbye floors. I miss you.
Reader Comments (68)
Oh man, Jo, are you sure you hired painters? They would make a splendid wrecking crew!!
My heart goes out to you and your floor........you'll need to walk a couple thousand more miles in that room to get it restored, I'm afraid.....what a shame.....
This will sound very American, but: can you sue? That wasn't done by painters - maybe they called themselves painters, but they weren't.
Why is it Max T that everyone wants brand spanking new? Old and aged, lovely and worn brings so much more to a room. Tricia Rose, not suing as such right now. More small claims tribunal and Fair Trading. We aren't as litigious straight off the bat here in Australia as you know.
Oh Jo, how horrible. That is just shocking. I'm glad you're following it through - with the number of people you reach through this site you could make sure they never paint again! Can you contact Shannon Lush, the Spotless lady? She might have some suggestions.
You should name and shame them, Jo. They should not be allowed to do this to any other unsuspecting person. We are outraged and they're not even our floors!! Sending you jam doughnut thoughts. xx
www.bsa.qld.gov.au
Oh gosh, that is such a shame. It is completely understandable for you to have cursed at them, I would have done at least that! Those were absolutely beautiful, and they ruined them.
I won't name the company straight away. At least not until I have spoken to the Department of Fair Trading on Monday and the ball is set in motion for mediation and compensation. The cowboys did this. I'm hoping that the "parent" company is as professional in their customer service as they claim to be. What about it Mark and John?
Does anyone have any experience with japan black? Maybe after some prep I could japan them?
oh Jo! That is terrible. I am so sorry that your floor has been ruined to the point that it has to be redone and you have lost the original charm. I just showed my partner (he used to be a painter) and he said he has never seen anything so atrocious.
I am not a fan of suing, but I think you should at least try and recoup the costs associated with fixing the damage that they caused to your home and furniture.
Omg, that hurts even my heart on the other side world. This is so NOT OK. :(
I hope there is something that can be done.
this is sooo sad..one thing i loved when you posted pics of your new house - was the beautiful dark floors.
Oh i so hope that a solution is found..something that wont totally ruim the history in the floor..hmm that soo sucks!!
:(
This is a terrible shame and I've never seen such destruction by "painters". I hope you get compensated in order to restore your floors in a way that makes them look old and wonderful again. Shame on them.
Chin up~all will turn out in your favour in the end.
yikes Jo...i totally feel your pain. we are renovating a 100-yr-old farmhouse in Uruguay and the unsupervised painters went ballistic and basically ruined the house: painted white (3 coats) the ceilings' beautiful exposed wood beams (which were supposed to stay wood), and rooms that were supposed to be white are now concrete color (literally cement and water), among many other little irreversible f-ups that had me in tears...so sorry about yours....at least the traumatic tales are woven into our "story" and one day we will laugh. right?
Oh wow, Jo... This was really bad! I feel for u. In Norway this would definitely be covered by the firms insurance company. Maybe it's the same for you?
When my parents renovated their 150 year old house inherited from my great grandparents, the floors were in a similar state. They used a machine to grind the floor (is that the correct word?), and then varnished it after. You can use all types of varnish, which Im sure you know. Really old floors are usually also really thick 8at least in Norwegian, which make them the best subjects to grind. Just thought you needed to hear a "sunshine" story right now. Good luck! <3
This is infuriating! The parent company is responsible for hiring competent and well-trained employees. They proved their lack of professionalism by hiring cowboys!
I hope you get compensated for your loss... I'm American and, well, in law school so I'm obviously a little biased when it comes to solving things through the courts, but this really isn't right!
Oh Jo! I must say, the only time I've ever heard of people spraying (indoors) rather than painting with rollers and brushes is when they want that super-shiny, high gloss look. Is that what you were going for? (If you weren't then it's a completely bizarre and unnecessary thing to do.) When it's done well, it can look wonderful, almost mirror-like. But it's a specialised kind of painting that your average house painter in Oz probably hasn't done before. It always costs more than "normal" painting (more equipment, more preparation) and tends to involve rather eco-unfriendly, non-soluble paints so damage is harder to undo. :(
Sorry, that's not helpful... What to do? Hmmm, as others have said, I think the floor will need to be fully sanded down, re-stained to match and re-varnished. It won't look the same but eventually it will wear in. When it does, it will wear in with *your* history; of you and your husband living in the house, of beloved, muddy pets running through, of friends visiting and spilling red wine at dinner when they've had a bit too much.Alternately, you could go completely in the opposite direction, accept that it will never be the same and paint the floorboards a vivid, shiny, crazy new colour, just in that room. Sometimes I think it's better not to try to recapture what's gone.
Either way, you definitely need to complain to whoever recommended these people (what's wrong with them!?!) and if necessary pursue the matter through Fair Trading. Re. better painters. Do you have any interior design connections nearby? An interior designer should be able to recommend a good painter they've used in Qld, one who can actually show you examples of previous work.
My condolences and good luck! madeleine
Oh and also. Make sure you have plenty of photos of the floor both before they painted and before you tried to clean up. You never know, the bastards could try and claim you did most of the damage afterwards!
That's outrageous - I hope you find some recompense. But the good news is I'm sure you can still create the lovely aged effect with a sand-back and revarnish - I achieved something similar on my floors - http://www.whatkatiedoes.net/2010/11/new-house-were-in.html
Shock, Horror, Fury. Do try and contact Shannon Lush as suggested above. From the Pics that house sure has a lot of karma/history in those walls.
They sprayed your room? THEY SPRAYED YOUR ROOM! What the hell did they think they were doing? Did they mistake your house for a car?
When you posted a few days ago about the damage I imagined some nasty drips here and there that would have to be painstakingly removed but this is just a train wreck. Don't let the company off the hook by putting the blame for the carnage only on the bozos who did this. The company knows very well what equipment they send out with their crews and never, never, never have I seen a spray gun come off the back of a truck at a residential job!
Based on what you had told me I knew it was going to be bad but I am still kind of shocked by these photos. Blown away actually. I'm glad I live all the way over here cause I would have sent someone to have their moronic cowboy asses kicked. And I'm sure you don't want to hear this but maybe now you have the opportunity to try out painting the floors (in that room anyway) white. :-)
that is effing unbelievable!!! i would have been screaming my head off at them!!hopefully you can inlfict some pain on them via your claim, hope so.
in the mean time, i reckon a bit of restorative work with a combo of this stuff http://www.ubeaut.com.au/flakes.html and loads of wax would probably do the trick. And perhaps you could use one of those little palm size sanders to do some light sanding where the paint is really bad and still keep the shape of the boards.
it's going to be laborious, but just might work!
good luck and more doughnuts to you darl.
Hello from Brighton UK. I had a similar problem a couple of years ago in my living-room. I contacted a French Polisher (not sure what they are called in Aus.) he stripped the remaining floor colour and using French Polishing "Alchemy"(building up wood stains/waxes etc) restored the floor to a wonderful new patina, you couldn't tell the difference between the existing floor patinas and the newly created one in the living room. Please, don't loose hope....you still have your floor - it's a piece of your house history now! :-) XX
I´m sorry: the old finish got killled by the methylated spirits. You may try all odd versions of staining or repairing the patches, but this wasn´t how it was "ment" to be. What would an ancient craftsman would have done?. A good traditional carpenter would have stripped down everything from the wood VERY (!) gently (because he would not have had some huge industrial sanders) and would rebuild the laquer with traditional recipes, e. g. most presumably several layers of traditional oil-based laquer with some kind of wax finish. Believe me: after some five or so years you won´t notice a difference. Summary: I would stay with traditional/old fashioned (in its best sense) methods. I hope everything will turn out fine.