1790 Center Hall Restoration

[jimg]

Wow...very nice! Its surprising to find the the original door h/w. I really like the side lights A LOT!!

 

[DAP]

Robert ... we tested for lead and found it. Not uncommon for a house that spans 2 centuries. We vented while we worked and both had the double canister masks on. Commerical chemical wood strippers jumped back into the can when we tried them here. It was the only way short of dismantling the stairs and trying a chemical dip. I've seen this done also and the wood takes a beating. This kind of stair, if dismantled would probably never go back together quite right again. After careful consideration and a need to complete the task, we did the best we could with what we had as safely as possible.

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[RobS]

Wow Doug, that is gorgeous! Great work, you and your wife should be very proud. Where can I learn more about the floor cloths? That would be a nice addition to our home /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[DAP]

This, so far is the only room we used any stripes (striped paper) cause the chair rails were relatively straight. There taint another straight line anywhere else in this home!

Nothing flat, nothin straight, nothin centered - just need a string! Rulers, levels, plumb-bobs, lasers, stud finders - all useless here! (Well almost) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Were just the stairs tested or did they test the whole house? What was the results after the work was done? It really isn't that big of a deal if there are not going to be young kids in the house but if there will be (especially kids 5 years and younger, babies that crawl are the worse since they will be playing where all the lead dust has settled). I would feel bad if they got poisioned because of it. I don't blame you for doing what you did but knowing how harmful lead dust is to young children and seeing the affects first hand (we do a lot of work where kids are handicapped because of lead poisioning) I would hate to see someone elses kid get hurt over something that still can be taken care of (maybe you already did). Hepa vacs (not the ones you get at Wal-Mart) do a good job of cleaning up after lead work but you also need to wash everything, the ceilings, walls, floors, windows, window sills (inside and outside) and any other square inch of the room and hopefully you had the room sealed off good enough that the lead wouldn't have contaminated any of the adjoining rooms too bad. The room looks great after all the hard work you guys did. I know how hard it is to get it all done and to look right so I know exactly how much work you guys did. Take care.

 

[DAP]

Rob .. heres a few links to the floor cloths. Most use updated materials and techniques, but the idea lives on. Ours are canvas.

First Link

Another ...

Some decorative ones ...

Last one, nice!

 

[DAP]

Thanks for the voiced concern Robert. We've found lead in some other rooms as well, mosly sills, floors and door jambs. For better or for worse, and not so atypical, most of the paintable surfaces have been paper over raw plaster.

In most cases, it is reasonably safer to SEAL and cover lead painted surfaces rather than try and remove them in my opinion - unless your prepared for extreme isolation and decontamination - beau coup dinero.



We have lots of kids, but most of them live in the barn (no **** sapiens in the house cept the 2 of us.) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Not that that would make a hill o beans difference to the CEO. She has much more respect for animals than **** sapiens. Hard to blame her sometimes! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I agree with the cover before remove treatment. We do a lot of work for the county and the cheapest way to get the most work done is to cover up the lead. That means cover over the walk ways that have wood trim, Cover stairs with vinyl, if we can not cover something with wood or vinyl we use an encapsulant paint to cover it first then we paint the finish color over it. The encapsulant is like a rubber so if the paint below it starts to flake off it will come off in one big sheet when it is ready. Is a lot better then individual chips coming off and small kids finding them.

 

[Hank]

I like the sidelights as well, but especially the walnut 8 panel door. From the lock closeup, it appears the raised panels are 8/4" which gives a really heavy raise and rich appearance.

I always thought the 8 panel door was better looking than the more common 6 panel. In the old days, the nickname for the 6 panel was "cross and bible"....for the pattern of the inner stiles at the top (cross), and the two panels at the bottom (bible). The 8 panel's nickname was "double cross" /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[DAP]

Thanks Hank, I hadn't known their was any historic jargon for doors. Makes perfect sense though, seems to be a name for everything!

Learn a few things every day...