Last week finished up most of the plastering; initially I was thinking of working on flooring, but as with all of old house projects, things got a little derailed. First up was a visit from the plumbers to do some work on the bathroom fixtures. I want the existing fixtures replaced with nicer pipes and what’s used for the tub now is a goofy mix of elbowed pipes and a PVC drain. I order a matte nickel set for the tub and the plumbers recut the tub’s lines to match the placement of the new pipes. While we’re at it, I also have the sink rerouted to drain through the wall rather than through the floor. I had it draining through the floor with an S trap, but the proper way to do it is through the wall with a P trap. A P trap is better at stopping sewer gasses through the drain. The negative of this approach is that the plumber needs to rip out the lath and plaster to reroute the pipes. To add to the work, I also have a Moen Flo valve installed to provide remote shutoff of the water to the house. Suffice to say, this ties up most of the day for bathroom work.

When the plumbing is done, I have my brother and fiance work on ripping up the vinyl floor. They use a SpeedHeater to peel off the top layer and then another application of heat to get the glue off. This is tedious work that is mostly just scraping and waiting for the Speedheater to melt the glue. While they do that, I apply some Durabond and mesh to the lumpy areas of the medicine cabinet area. The dips in that area are pretty significant and I don’t think it would be wise to build up with just more plaster. We also start wiping down the door molding with TSP and some light sanding to get ready for a mix of BLO and turpentine.

The biggest win comes with the rust removing solvents. I buy 2 different ones. Evaporust and Rustoleum’s spray gel. The Evaporust is a liquid that you submerge the metal in for 1-12 hours. The problem is that I bought it online and the container is a lot smaller than I thought. So I can’t cover all of the leg in one shot. But what I do get covered works great and I’m easily able to wash off the rust.

The Rustoleum gel is also effective, but is a bit stronger. It smells of rotten eggs and is only supposed to be on the metal for 10 minutes. I’m able to get some good progress on the tub and I’m hoping I won’t have to resort to using a sanding disc too much on the exterior if I can get the rust gel to work.