cakes wrote: Mon Apr 28, 2025 6:49 pm

cakes wrote: Fri Apr 25, 2025 9:18 am Check this story out. Our good friends bought a house and we discovered some horrors immediately after closing. My wife and I were interviewed for this article.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchd ... t-poop-pee

Holy shit, this was the Sunday Sun Times front page!

That was utterly fucking INSANE.

Scorched earth nuts.

Isaac wrote: Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:57 am

cakes wrote: Mon Apr 28, 2025 6:49 pm

cakes wrote: Fri Apr 25, 2025 9:18 am Check this story out. Our good friends bought a house and we discovered some horrors immediately after closing. My wife and I were interviewed for this article.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchd ... t-poop-pee

Holy shit, this was the Sunday Sun Times front page!

That was utterly fucking INSANE.

Scorched earth nuts.

Totally. Seeing it first hand, watching my friends break down emotionally, knowing the hell that they were living in... heartbreaking. Utterly heartbreaking. We were there for them every step of the way. They even lived with us for 7 weeks while all that literal shit was removed from their attic and the ceiling was completely replaced, all the wood in the attic was painted with a special paint. Total insanity. I also never heard the word "turd" so much in my life.

They basically need to replace all the subfloors, rip out all the sheetrock, replace the framing around all their windows and replace the stuff that's wrapping around the house, under the roof where hte gutters are. The smell is down considerably, but on really humid days you can still smell it.

We just moved and it’s back to living in a building site for a while, while we refurbish. We kept and are renting our old place. I really loved that apartment but it was getting too small for us.

The new place is a ground floor maisonette with a garden, but we’ve really got some work to do to get it up to the same standard as our other place. It was rented to students by a typically shitty British landlord. Ten layers of paint over everything, cheap laminate flooring, just cheap cheap cheap all the way down.

Anyone stripped horrible layers of paint off door frames and radiators? We are living there so need to minimise dust. Paint stripper or a heat gun?

Gramsci wrote: Tue Oct 28, 2025 8:40 am Anyone stripped horrible layers of paint off door frames and radiators? We are living there so need to minimise dust. Paint stripper or a heat gun?

Heat gun for the door, get a proper tungsten carbide scraper like this:

https://www.bearingboys.co.uk/Paint-Flo ... r-483955-p

For the radiators - much more difficult and time consuming job, I’d be inclined to paint them again in a colour you like and save for new radiators.

We just got our bathroom redone (new tiles, floor, bath, shower & sink), very happy with how it’s turned out and feels much nicer to be in. Just need to paint the fucker now.

Thanks! Heat guns seem to come up as the best option. I’m a little nervous about that because it is a 1970s property and the paint could have lead in it… I’ll see if I can get it tested. If it did it would be the deepest layer.

Pretty common in US are swab lead test kits that you can do yourself. Not sure if that’s a thing across the pond?

Gramsci wrote: Wed Oct 29, 2025 7:23 am Thanks! Heat guns seem to come up as the best option. I’m a little nervous about that because it is a 1970s property and the paint could have lead in it… I’ll see if I can get it tested. If it did it would be the deepest layer.

There are some heat guns that specifically stop at a temperature lower than dangerous lead fuming... supposedly

twelvepoint wrote: Wed Oct 29, 2025 7:43 am Pretty common in US are swab lead test kits that you can do yourself. Not sure if that’s a thing across the pond?

Yup. I’ll get one.

Lead in paint in the US is a massive problem right? It might even explain the current political situation… à la ancient Rome.

TylerDeadPine wrote: Wed Oct 29, 2025 8:02 am

Gramsci wrote: Wed Oct 29, 2025 7:23 am Thanks! Heat guns seem to come up as the best option. I’m a little nervous about that because it is a 1970s property and the paint could have lead in it… I’ll see if I can get it tested. If it did it would be the deepest layer.

There are some heat guns that specifically stop at a temperature lower than dangerous lead fuming... supposedly

Kids in the house so I’ll err on caution

Nico Adie wrote: Tue Oct 28, 2025 7:14 pm For the radiators - much more difficult and time consuming job, I’d be inclined to paint them again in a colour you like and save for new radiators.

I concur here....or have some covers built. The number of paint layers you have on the outside is equivalent to the layers of rust you have on the inside of those bad boys. They could be rehabilitated, but I believe it to a massive undertaking, and unless they are really fucking charming you might do well to eventually replace.