Monthly Archives: August 2013

Step 1: Hire a stripper

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Well, we hired our stripper! No not that stripper, this stripper

stripper. With such delicate woodwork throughout the building we felt that we needed an experienced hand and that is what we got. Charles has been diligent, hardworking and meticulous with all the lacy ornament in the building. While we are concerned about the time it is going to take to complete the job and the cost, I have seen way too many developer/contractor renovations in the neighborhood where they have either demolished all the original wood detail or added a fifth coat of paint rendering all the detail virtually unrecognizable. In our opinion this damages the value of the property far more than what it will cost to restore the woodwork. While some woodwork does look good painted, I often feel that the lacy Victorian wood details look best when they are just rubbed with oil rather than caked with paint.

The first step in stripping is removing all the gunky layers of paint that have been caked on over the years. This is generally done with a heat gun. This loosens the paint, which is then scraped off with steel scrapers. It is important to be careful not to burn the wood with a heat gun and a skilled hand certainly helps. At this point a thick coat of stripper is put directly on the wood. This dissolves any leftover paint, along with any varnish or stain, as it turns into a thick slimy goop. Care must be taken to not get any of the stripper on the floor as it will damage the finish. The goop is then scoured with steel wool leaving a residue behind that looks like peanut butter. Care must be taken to choose the right steel wool because if it is too course it will scratch the wood and if it is too soft it will wear out the stripper. Sometime later the remnants of the peanut butter is wiped off with denatured alcohol and soft rags leaving nothing but the original wood behind. The tools of the trade look something like this.

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From the initial results that we have seen we are really excited about the prospect of this portion of the renovation. We think this will help get a premium on the rental revenue of the building and bring some of the original luster back to the living spaces. 

DOB Ep. I

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Today I went to the Department of Buildings for the city of New York with what I thought was a relatively simple objective, drop off one check and one form. A relatively straight forward exercise in most locales. All I can say is that it was an amazing experience.

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I love old buildings.  There is something about them that has always captivated my mind.  Perhaps it is the way they either age with grace or fall to the ravages of time like an old city in which there is the ability to not only imagine what might have been, but what could be. Often with old homes that have had a few owners, there have been multiple renovations during the course of time. Some good, some bad.  While prepping for the wood stripper I had the task of deconstructing a couple of fin tube radiators so that he could easily scrape and remove the stain, varnish and paint hidden behind them. Removing a radiator is a relatively minor operation, but a simple piece of advice is just make sure you cut the pipe at the higher elevation to avoid the gusher that so ardently washed the sweat from my brow. In removing the radiators I noticed that one set of them were fastened to a piece of plywood. Curious as to why there was plywood behind this particular set of radiators and not oak paneling, as was the case with all of the other radiators, i decided to remove the plywood.

Wall Cavity Window

Unbeknownst to me, someone had installed a vinyl window inside the wall cavity between the plywood paneling and stone masonry. Perhaps as an alternative to providing proper insulation, perhaps, well who knows… Your guess is as good as mine. As an architect, and the son of a contractor, I have seen my share of mesmerizing solutions to problems that arise in the process of construction. While I was not in the room when this decision was made it is nonetheless a problem that I am left to deal with.

What was done was not acceptable and is indicative of buying old homes.  When you purchase a building in need of a renovation and a little TLC, you hope and pray that there are no hidden problems. I tell this to clients all the time and I have heard it from contractors a thousand times over “you never know what your going to get when you open the walls”.

Frog Tape

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While I am not sure what Kermit would think of the ole Frog Tape, it is a great product to protect walls and mouldings from paint and wood stripper. In an effort to reduce the renovation costs, one of the things we have been doing is all the prep work for the workmen. It also allows the job to move very quickly without having them stop and do all the tedious work of prepping each room prior to stripping the paint off the wood, which is a gummy and tedious process.

shopping

Do not use the blue stuff. It is not nearly as good as the green and doesn’t hold as well. This is what the fruit of our labor currently looks like.

IMG_0989After the paint has been removed with a heat gun and scraper, stripper is applied to the stain revealing the original oak mouldings in their natural state. The Frog Tape and paper helps to protect the walls and floors from the stripper. Tomorrow I am hoping to bleed the heating system and remove the rads so that we can get at the paint hidden behind them… We’ll see how that goes…

 

Noodles

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Today we pulled a pile of noodles out of the walls and from around the doors and window casings of our brownstone. Once a single room occupancy (SRO) every room in our building has its own dedicated phone jack and cable outlet with the requisite wires and television cables strewn about the mouldings and stapled to the exterior of the building. As an architect, I hate unsightly wires dripping, drooping and hanging from the exterior of a brownstone and pretending to hide beneath the surface of 3 layers of paint and wall paper. It just looks like clutter and a bowl of old noodles. Just ask Jean Loretto, she knew the deal. While this spaghetti monster is going to be tamed and brought under control, this pastafarian is no creationist, just a modernist in sheep skin.

wilesheep

Its an astonishing amount of wire we pulled from just one floor.

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Well maybe not as much as they ate in Anaheim, but it sure makes a difference just looking at the walls. While pulling wire may seem trivial and i have seen others just go for that 4th layer of paint, we feel that removing the antiquated wire, old telephone jacks and cables outlets littered all over our beautiful oak moulding makes a big difference in the livability of the spaces. Especially prior to stripping the wood.

While the invention of the telephone was certainly a great day in humanity along with the introduction of premium cable and 700 channels, with modern WiFi and cellular service there is little need for the infrastructure of copper land lines and cable service in every room. At current count there have been 3 separate phone lines installed in our building. I assume one in the 10’s, one in the 60’s, and perhaps another in the 90’s. While I like to think of all the conversations and incredible moments in history that were carried through these metallic noodles, I sure am happy to be rid of them and see the beauty of the building as it once was.