Hi everyone. I've been a silent regular for a while and just signed up (should have done ages ago).
My Fiancée and I bought our first house in May this year, which happens to be a complete renovation.
We are well in to it so far and doing pretty much everything going ha!
When we got the place the main bedroom had 3 stains on the floor. Was an old couple (original occupants), so it could be anything....Let the mind wander, he was also a truck driver I believe from a few awards in the old garage before he passed away in a care home.
I've pretty competent at most things but this one is still just playing on my mind for the best route to take.
I bought a moisture meter (cheapy thing) and most boards around it read 1-4%... however on the stained areas they read 25-38%... Now we have been testing since before and since getting the house constantly and it’s not changed. However the other day we dipped the meter in to pure water expecting to see 100% and it only went up to 38% still. So that’s puzzle 1.
Secondly sometimes light depending with daylight the patches can seem to change colour or look darker but it may be a UV effect or just our eyes? No mains electrics still yet so its just based on natural light.
I’ve tried high heat with a heat gun, sanding the surface with a belt sander in localised area, we’ve tried salt on it to see if its moisture to draw out, sawdust. All sorts and it just doesn’t seem to change.
My uncle wonders if its Glycerol/ glycerine based. Apparently its found in many products which draws in water to it. I doubt its P**s as it’s a dark colour. He was a truck driver so I wonder if it’s a mineral or oil or something that was in the wardrobe (was a built in before) as it doesn’t look like it went under the wardrobe and looks like it fell away from the doors as it spread but I’m not 100% on that also..
I can’t work out what to do and have a number of ideas….
* just sand all the floor back ( the patch sanded doesn’t seem to react to light now) and then have a re-assess.
*Prime/ sealer over it like Zinsser BIN
*Overboard it with 3mm ply or hardboard for the room
*Take up the affected 10 floorboard runs and try get some reclaimed ones and replace.
*Take the entire room flooring up to the nearest joist to the inner partition walls and then lay chipboard flooring for the complete room instead.
*Lift the floorboard planks flip them 180 degrees and then re-fit the under surface on top. We had all the ceilings down below and managed to moisture check them with above said meter and they are a dry golden colour reading 2% (again don’t know if the tools accurate or not but 2 is better than 38%).
Images are uploaded here that have been taken from May 20th – a week or so back.
//www.diynot.com/network/3DGuy/albums/18796
As you can see it’s a real brain scratcher so I’ve included some photos of the various stages we have seen them at. Obviously the colours changed a bit with dust on top and such since getting the house.
Any thoughts or ideas would be incredibly appreciated and thanks to anyone that can give some insight or thoughts on this.
Many thanks,
Chris
My Fiancée and I bought our first house in May this year, which happens to be a complete renovation.
We are well in to it so far and doing pretty much everything going ha!
When we got the place the main bedroom had 3 stains on the floor. Was an old couple (original occupants), so it could be anything....Let the mind wander, he was also a truck driver I believe from a few awards in the old garage before he passed away in a care home.
I've pretty competent at most things but this one is still just playing on my mind for the best route to take.
I bought a moisture meter (cheapy thing) and most boards around it read 1-4%... however on the stained areas they read 25-38%... Now we have been testing since before and since getting the house constantly and it’s not changed. However the other day we dipped the meter in to pure water expecting to see 100% and it only went up to 38% still. So that’s puzzle 1.
Secondly sometimes light depending with daylight the patches can seem to change colour or look darker but it may be a UV effect or just our eyes? No mains electrics still yet so its just based on natural light.
I’ve tried high heat with a heat gun, sanding the surface with a belt sander in localised area, we’ve tried salt on it to see if its moisture to draw out, sawdust. All sorts and it just doesn’t seem to change.
My uncle wonders if its Glycerol/ glycerine based. Apparently its found in many products which draws in water to it. I doubt its P**s as it’s a dark colour. He was a truck driver so I wonder if it’s a mineral or oil or something that was in the wardrobe (was a built in before) as it doesn’t look like it went under the wardrobe and looks like it fell away from the doors as it spread but I’m not 100% on that also..
I can’t work out what to do and have a number of ideas….
* just sand all the floor back ( the patch sanded doesn’t seem to react to light now) and then have a re-assess.
*Prime/ sealer over it like Zinsser BIN
*Overboard it with 3mm ply or hardboard for the room
*Take up the affected 10 floorboard runs and try get some reclaimed ones and replace.
*Take the entire room flooring up to the nearest joist to the inner partition walls and then lay chipboard flooring for the complete room instead.
*Lift the floorboard planks flip them 180 degrees and then re-fit the under surface on top. We had all the ceilings down below and managed to moisture check them with above said meter and they are a dry golden colour reading 2% (again don’t know if the tools accurate or not but 2 is better than 38%).
Images are uploaded here that have been taken from May 20th – a week or so back.
//www.diynot.com/network/3DGuy/albums/18796
As you can see it’s a real brain scratcher so I’ve included some photos of the various stages we have seen them at. Obviously the colours changed a bit with dust on top and such since getting the house.
Any thoughts or ideas would be incredibly appreciated and thanks to anyone that can give some insight or thoughts on this.
Many thanks,
Chris
