Death By Asbestos

I know everyone is going to die sooner or later but am I going to kick the can "sooner" by trying to refinish old floors in this old church house?

I've learned a lot about old floors lately. Evidently you're not supposed to sand floors that have had asbestos tiles on them. I knew underneath these ugly old tiles was the original old floors and I wanted so badly to be able to pull them all off and sand the old wood back down to its original glory. Here's what we did:

Luckily, we just experimented on a small section....the new bathroom. We pulled up the first layer of tile, and cut out the layer of plywood that was underneath as seen below........




Underneath the layer of plywood was another layer of tile that was stuck down with this black tar adhesive........



It really wasn't that hard....it came up fairly easily with the right tools. Here's a close up of the black wood floors...you can start to see the lines of the wood floor........





Here, everything is cleaned up (including 1000 staples!) and all we need to do is take up that black stuff....but how? Here's where my life expectancy is shortened by who knows how many years. Any asbestos experts out there? Give it to me straight....how long do I have?




I sanded for about 5 minutes (yes, blowing dry particles out in the air and into my lungs) before I realized it was a futile endeavor. The sand paper quickly gummed up and I was getting nowhere. I decided to try the same adhesive remover we've used on previous projects and it worked pretty well. And yes, I sanded a little more.

I realized though that this would be a huge extensive project and there just had to be a better way. I got on the internet and did some research. I read about a few projects that matched exactly what we were up against and everything I read basically said the same thing...that the tiles and tar adhesive they used back in the 60's or 70's had asbestos and "WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT SAND"!

I ended up calling this company that has a heavy duty adhesive remover and cleaner for just this kind of stuff. I had a couple of questions so I talked to a guy who said some things that really stuck out in my mind. Things to the effect of (again).....

"WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT SAND"!

And "it's not a matter of IF the asbestos causes cancer....it DOES".

He told me of contractors coming in to do a project like mine and finding what we have, then walking off the job until an abatement company comes all dressed in their protective suits and gas masks (or whatever)....think of the movie E.T.

Great. I just felt sick. The guy also said it's almost impossible to get ALL of the black off anyway. And then that black will keep seeping up and staining the floor too.

Oh, FORGET IT!!!!


So our solution? Just cover the whole dang thing up with heavy duty plastic and put new pine floors in........

Two New Additions

Our two new additions are in full swing. I'll start with pictures of the framing and drywall phase.

I just have to add here what our little Ethan said when he came home from school during this starting phase. When he left, it was one big room but when he came home he was so surprised to see all this framing up. He stood there with his mouth open and asked, "Dad really knows how to DO ALL this stuff?" When I told him that he did he replied, "I want to be just like him when I grow up." I'm quite certain this made Dustin's whole year. :-)

Here's a shot from the kitchen area looking at our new pantry on the right and bathroom on the left (the door will be on the other side)........

This was our kitchen before. Notice the big blank wall in the middle........

And now this is the new doorway that will go into the mudroom, bathroom area.......

This is a shot of the new doorway but we took down the rest of the old wall and pushed it back 2+ feet in order to gain some more kitchen space. This will be the built-in fridge area
and cabinets.....hopefully fitting nicely into that extra two feet of space............

Pantry is shaping up nicely. We will have a transom window above the doorway and also above the hallway door. We've been carrying around these old, antique windows that we bought years ago so we are excited to finally be able to use them somewhere!.........

Here are some pictures of our cute electrician......no, I mean framer.....wait, I mean drywaller.......
I mean carpenter......I mean everything handy........

Now comes the drywall!!! I even helped put up a few sheets :-)

Now regressing a little bit to show the stages of the new bathroom that is down the little hallway from the kitchen (pantry is behind)................

Now the drywall. The little hole there will be by the tub/shower for shampoo and such.........

Dustin will put shelves in this long cubbie for much needed bathroom storage...........

I once read in one of my favorite home magazines (I even cut it out to save), "You can never have too much bead board" I have to agree. Here in the bathroom, the bead board goes up 2/3 of the wall and will be finished with base and crown molding.......


What do you think? More pictures to come!!!!!