Stripping a Bedroom

Starting removal of the popcorn texture.

Aftermath of removing popcorn.

This weekend I worked on stripping things in 1 of the bedrooms. The bedroom has a linoleum rug, popcorn ceiling, and painted doors and molding. The popcorn in this room comes off easier than under the stairs. I wet the ceiling in 4x4 patches with some water mixed with vinegar and detergent and the popcorn comes off in big clumps. The only problem is that there's still a lot of patches of texture that need a 2nd and 3rd pass but I get all the main texture off fairly easily.

All done.

While I rest my neck and shoulders from scraping, I then go back to the infrared heat to start stripping the baseboards and window sashes. I try a stronger chemical stripper on one sash and have lackluster results. First the chemical immediately starts burning my flesh when I spill some of it on my hands. My fault for not wearing gloves, but the burning isn’t worth it, because it doesn't do a great job of removing the paint for all of its flesh-burning power. It appears to raise the grain of the woodwork so I will stick with the heat and the citrus stripper in the future.

Previously I removed all of the staples from the removal of carpet so things are clear to remove the linoleum rug. I'm nervous about rolling it up since it appears very fragile, but I have to get the rug up to see what condition the floors are in. There's also a layer of newspaper under the rug which is stuck to the floor from age and dirt.

The Congoleum (linoleum) rug.

Newspapers under the rug.

The rug has a few tears that someone nailed down as a form of repair, so I rip the nails out before rolling up. After removing the nails, I'm able to roll up the rug without too much tearing. After the rug is gone, I start removing the newspapers. There's 2 batches of dates: 1962 and 1947. The floor is painted right up to the rug and under the rug, the floor is just varnish. The middle newspapers come up easy, but all the newspapers on the edge are stuck to the floor. I can't tell if they put the newspapers down while the floor paint was still wet or if it's just age, but they seem sealed to the floor. On the back of the rug I notice that the manufacturer is Congoleum. Congoleum was a competitor to linoleum, was founded in 1886 in New Jersey. Linoleum was a trade name for flooring that was made out of linseed oil and a mixture of other fillers on a canvas backing. Linoleum is now refers to any vinyl type floor tiles and usually carries an image of a 1970s kitchen, but real linoleum is appropriate for Victorian homes and is environmentally friendly. Similar to other turn of the century technologies that relied on organic or natural materials, Linoleum was made out of all plant materials rather than plastics or manufactured materials which makes them biodegradable and less toxic. Congoleum still exists, and are still based out of New Jersey but the products they offer now are vinyl-based and aren't the older linseed oil version. Linoleum isn’t as durable as modern flooring materials, but is the trade-off worth it for materials that are going to sit in landfills for centuries and require fossil fuels to manufacture?

Starting to strip the woodwork.