we are finally in!

[dragonfly]

Or at least we will be tomorrow!

Picked the keys up last Thursday and have spent the week turning a jungle back into a garden (well nearly). Haven't found anything too scary so far,except for some big spiders. So far we have had woodwrom sprayed ( not as extensively as first quote led us to believe - thanks Matt), wasps nest exterminated and several ants nests treated. Amazing what 3 foot grass can hide! Found out that the kitchen had been flooded (just to a depth of an inch) in late June. Funny how the estate agent managed to forget to tell us - even went so far as to have the keys left at the property for us to save us the trip into town to pick them up. That'll be because the door had swollen so much that we just about had a 9 inch gap to squeeze through! All starting to dry out nicely now and no apparent damage to kitchen cabinets, just very musty.

Inside has been a slog of cleaning, de-cobwebbing, more cleaning.... You all will know how I am feeling after a week of grime!

A couple of questions for the seasoned campaigners:

We have a brick and tile floor in the kitchen which I am assuming is bedded on packed earth. some of the 'grouting' (not sure of the technical word for floors) has come away, what should I patch it with as the remainder is so filthy I can't tell what it is? On the same note, is there anything I can use to clean/ buff the floor which will enhance the bricks without sealing them?

The bathroom has been painted in the most vomit inducing green i have ever seen. The bathroom is in the back of the house in the 100 year old timber framed extension. Whoever painted it has used vinyl silk emulsion directly onto 300 year old brick (one wall) and I assume plaster board on the others. Will it do much harm to paint over the green in a lighter shade as a temporary measure, and if not, how do I get the paint off the brick without doing too much damage.

Cheers
dragonfly

 

[Juju]

In terms of the painted brick, I wouldn't paint it - do a search on other forum posts about the problems of getting paint off brick. Modern emulsions are impossible to get off. Might be best to live with it and investigate what sort of paint is on there and how you might remove it - adding another layer of paint will just add to problems.

PS I had old emulsion paint removed from the front of my house with water pressure thingy but it was a bit of a messy job - fine outside but maybe not so good indoors! So a stripper might be best option.

 

[Moo]

Strippers of Sudbury, of course.

 

[Nemesis]

You could paint over the awful green, temporarily, on the plasterboard it won't make much difference, but on the brick it is, as said above, adding another layer to later remove.

You could try a coat of distemper, which should go on top of emulsion, and isn't as hard to remove as modern plastic paint.

Try Rose of Jericho, who should be able to supply simple emulsion and distemper.

Floors - try cleaning a small part and see what the gaps are filled with. I like Ecover floor soap for sloshing on tiles.

 

[Penners]

It seems a shame to go to all the trouble of putting another coat of paint on to the bricks, when you'll eventually be stripping it all off again. I think in your shoes I would bite the bullet and strip it now.

As Moo suggests, Strippers of Sudbury have a range of different stripper formulations for different jobs. Have a look at their "I want to remove..." page (click here) and click on "brickwork, interior".