DIY: Because, Sometimes, You Gotta Smash It! #Hardwood #Renovation


If you follow me on social media, then you know, I have very lofty DIY ideas.

I have this old house, with beautiful bones, that I am desperate to uncover or renovate. Especially because the last renovation took place somewhere around when Jesus was born.

My latest lofty idea started when I found out you could paint tile floors. Being that I had the ugliest, crap tile stairwell floor in the galaxy, I was desperate to try something.

Anything.

Nothing could look worse then the tile...
As much as I wanted to rip it up, I had no idea what I would find underneath, so I searched on Pinterest for painted tile floors, then watched a bunch of YouTube videos on how to do it. The next morning, I was buying paint. (I'm a s**t or get off the pot kinda girl when it comes to my lofty DIY ideas.)

I started by taking the metal strips off the stairs so I could scrub the floors down completely before painting. When I removed the first strip, a huge chunk of tile fell off. There, underneath the tile and glue, was the most amazing thing. Beautiful hardwood.



I nearly died.

I started pulling up the tiles without much trouble. The hardwood looked amazing. Even in the center where stairs can become very worn looked fabulous.

I knew FTD was going to be stoked, but I wanted to see more of the floor before I got too excited, so I worked my butt off to clean the first step off as much as possible.



FTD Came home, took one look at and said, Well done, baby. Now what's your plan?

Me: SMASH IT!

We spent the night smashing tile, then scraping it and glue off the stairs and landing.

We were so stoked to see hardwood. I kept thinking, it's a small space, this is going to be so easy.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Wrong.

I went from watching YouTube videos on painting tile, to removing tile glue, including glue that most likely had Asbestos in it.

The plan for the glue on the stairs (not asbestos) was to use a pretty harsh stripper. I had to wear crazy gloves and eye goggles! For the landing, covered in asbestos glue, I had to "wet scrape" it. Which meant that I had to use my wallpaper steamer to reheat the glue then scrape it off the floor. By far, that was the most disgusting, stinky renovation project I have done to date.



From there, I scrubbed the floors, then FTD and I traded off sanding the stairs and landing. The glue leached into the wood so deep, we finally decided that we had to give up trying to sand it away.



We decided to paint the underside of the stairs white, then add a couple of layers of polyurethane to the stairs and landing to seal the floors, and be done with it.

For now...



So what's next?

My laundry room!  I want to paint the cold, bare concrete floors. I already have the design, and thanks to a friend, the paint!





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April is an award-winning writer and blogger. Her work has been published in over ten countries and four languages. From books to newspapers, to print/online magazines and everything in between, you can find her work. For more on April, Visit AprilMcCormick.com