The Carnage Has Begun
And I don't have any pics for you. I know. I suck. This is what happens when I blog at work.
Anyway.
So, this weekend, we attacked the tile floor with a rotary hammer with chisel attachment, and, by God! does that thing rip them up. Eyeball estimate is that we removed about 200 square feet. We are more than half way done ripping out all the tile and, in fact, we can stop for now, as we removed all of it from the kitchen. Everywhere else is just a bonus - we can get to that later.
The unfortunate part of this process is that mortar is stuck on the slab like jujubees to your teeth. The rotary hammer does a decent job getting it off, but it's rather time consuming. Also, it seems that if you WHACK! it with a baby sledge hammer and/or cold chisel, it will come off. This is also time very consuming and tiring. But progress is being made. I have been taking 30 minutes or so each day since to chisel away at it, which is dusty as all get-up, but it's coming off.
And the dust situation is bad. I wore a dust mask for some time this weekend during demo, but they really don't make them for small people. It didn't fit right and I found I was unconsciously making weird mouth and jaw movements to keep it from hitting under my lower eyelids. This was giving me a jaw headache, so I gave up and took it off. I ended up with mortar dust all inside my nose hairs. Nice. At least they are doing their job, collecting particles before they hit my lungs.
I hit the Depot this morning and ordered me some windows. Three windows = $502. Windows aren't cheap. No sir. These three are different from the rest of the house (white vinyl versus black aluminum). So, my plan for the rest of them is to replace a two or three at a time, so that I can spread the pain across many months. I'd much rather get poked with a needle each month for a year than get whacked over the head with a wrench and pay six grand at once.
If only I were Hermoine Granger with my magic wand and could fix all this up in a jiffy. [Sigh]
Anyway.
So, this weekend, we attacked the tile floor with a rotary hammer with chisel attachment, and, by God! does that thing rip them up. Eyeball estimate is that we removed about 200 square feet. We are more than half way done ripping out all the tile and, in fact, we can stop for now, as we removed all of it from the kitchen. Everywhere else is just a bonus - we can get to that later.
The unfortunate part of this process is that mortar is stuck on the slab like jujubees to your teeth. The rotary hammer does a decent job getting it off, but it's rather time consuming. Also, it seems that if you WHACK! it with a baby sledge hammer and/or cold chisel, it will come off. This is also time very consuming and tiring. But progress is being made. I have been taking 30 minutes or so each day since to chisel away at it, which is dusty as all get-up, but it's coming off.
And the dust situation is bad. I wore a dust mask for some time this weekend during demo, but they really don't make them for small people. It didn't fit right and I found I was unconsciously making weird mouth and jaw movements to keep it from hitting under my lower eyelids. This was giving me a jaw headache, so I gave up and took it off. I ended up with mortar dust all inside my nose hairs. Nice. At least they are doing their job, collecting particles before they hit my lungs.
I hit the Depot this morning and ordered me some windows. Three windows = $502. Windows aren't cheap. No sir. These three are different from the rest of the house (white vinyl versus black aluminum). So, my plan for the rest of them is to replace a two or three at a time, so that I can spread the pain across many months. I'd much rather get poked with a needle each month for a year than get whacked over the head with a wrench and pay six grand at once.
If only I were Hermoine Granger with my magic wand and could fix all this up in a jiffy. [Sigh]
Sounds like fun! I can't wait to see photos!
ReplyDeleteYou are a tile removing fool! A dental mask would work for you! They are soft and pliable. So are you doing your own exterior work to place the windows?
ReplyDelete