House Renovations can be fun and profitable, but you do have to be careful.
Depending on how old your house is, and the extent of the renovations you plan, you may need to arm yourself with some protective gear.
We all know that you should wear dust masks when working in dusty environments, or removing old carpets etc, but sometimes you can uncover dangerous products unwittingly.
If you have a "demolition crew" like I did. You know the ones, the family and friends that are excited to take a sledge hammer to the old cabinets or walls (why does everyone get so excited to destroy but disappear when it comes time to paint and repair?), don't let them get out of hand.
Example:
We purchased a fixer upper, and planned many house renovations. My son wanted to lay a tile floor in the kitchen and hallway, but after close inspection, we realized there were already two layers of flooring on the floor. The decision was made, that the old layers had to come up, in order to do a good job of the new tiles.
He wore a dust mask and rented some equipment to help remove the old linoleum, that was stuck down quite well in some areas and curling up in others!. After removing the linoleum, he then chipped off what looked like peel and stick tiles. They came up quite easily.
After heading to the local building center store, we talked to the tile department, and they said they never remove any floor tiles from before 1980. They would come in and screw a new sub floor of plywood over the old peel and stick tiles and sandwich them in. We just blinked and looked at them, and said "why?".
Floor tiles created before 1980, most likely had asbestos in them, and that if we needed to take them up, we should get a hazardous removal team. We just stared at each other. We were all wearing dust masks, but nothing more. So, we will never know just how much asbestos was in those tiles.
So, if you are doing some house renovations, check the age of your house, and talk to some professionals at the building center, to see what you should be watching out for. Our house was built in 1972, so there have been a few products that we have upgraded, such as aluminum wiring etc. You need to know the age, to determine the building code at the time, and what possible hazardous materials you may just run in to.
We are now fixing up this tired looking house, and it will look great when we are done, we make sure and wear all kinds of protective equipments, and are going to get the ducts professionally cleaned soon too. This can get rid of years of old dust and dirt that have built up in there, and all the debris we have probably added ripping everything out. Take care with your house renovations, so that you end up with a nice house and a healthy you!
Depending on how old your house is, and the extent of the renovations you plan, you may need to arm yourself with some protective gear.
We all know that you should wear dust masks when working in dusty environments, or removing old carpets etc, but sometimes you can uncover dangerous products unwittingly.
If you have a "demolition crew" like I did. You know the ones, the family and friends that are excited to take a sledge hammer to the old cabinets or walls (why does everyone get so excited to destroy but disappear when it comes time to paint and repair?), don't let them get out of hand.
Example:
We purchased a fixer upper, and planned many house renovations. My son wanted to lay a tile floor in the kitchen and hallway, but after close inspection, we realized there were already two layers of flooring on the floor. The decision was made, that the old layers had to come up, in order to do a good job of the new tiles.
He wore a dust mask and rented some equipment to help remove the old linoleum, that was stuck down quite well in some areas and curling up in others!. After removing the linoleum, he then chipped off what looked like peel and stick tiles. They came up quite easily.
After heading to the local building center store, we talked to the tile department, and they said they never remove any floor tiles from before 1980. They would come in and screw a new sub floor of plywood over the old peel and stick tiles and sandwich them in. We just blinked and looked at them, and said "why?".
Floor tiles created before 1980, most likely had asbestos in them, and that if we needed to take them up, we should get a hazardous removal team. We just stared at each other. We were all wearing dust masks, but nothing more. So, we will never know just how much asbestos was in those tiles.
So, if you are doing some house renovations, check the age of your house, and talk to some professionals at the building center, to see what you should be watching out for. Our house was built in 1972, so there have been a few products that we have upgraded, such as aluminum wiring etc. You need to know the age, to determine the building code at the time, and what possible hazardous materials you may just run in to.
We are now fixing up this tired looking house, and it will look great when we are done, we make sure and wear all kinds of protective equipments, and are going to get the ducts professionally cleaned soon too. This can get rid of years of old dust and dirt that have built up in there, and all the debris we have probably added ripping everything out. Take care with your house renovations, so that you end up with a nice house and a healthy you!
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