HEALTHY RECIPE BLOG

I have two old pieces of teak furniture, a side table and a dining room table. Together they are blemished with assorted food stains, glass rings, heat marks, finger marks, spills and normal wear. How can I restore the original appearance?
The first thing to do is clean the teak with a soft cloth moistened with mineral spirits, paint thinner or Varsol.

Pay particular attention to dirt marks and grease spots. Then rub the finish in the direction of the wood grain with a pad of very fine (No. 0000) steel wool. Don’t be afraid to press firmly where the finish is blemished. Turn or replace the steel wool pad as necessary.

Any light areas can be darkened with a little stain. I have found gelled stains easiest to apply. A “fruitwood” color is a pretty good match for teak.

Apply a small amount with a soft cloth, rubbing it into the open grain and spreading it out to blend with the surrounding finish. If you don’t like the way it looks, simply wipe it off with a cloth moistened with a few drops of mineral spirits and try again.

Let the stain dry for at least a day, then use a cloth or brush to apply a coat of Danish oil or teak oil to the entire surface. Let this stand for 15 minutes or so, then wipe the surface dry with a soft cloth.

We live in a highrise condominium apartment that is about 20 years old. It is carpeted throughout in an off-white color. Most of the edges of the carpeting have developed a black discoloration. What causes this, and how can we prevent it?

This is a fairly common problem in apartment buildings. It is called “black edge” or “draft marking,” and is caused by dirty air blowing through the pile around the edge of the carpet.

Sometimes it comes from a crack along the bottom of the wall and behind the baseboard, but it can also be produced just by walking on a carpet that has a thick, spongy underlay.

The fibres at the edge of the carpet catch the dirt particles, which eventually form a black line along the edge of the carpet.

This discoloration is difficult to remove, but it can be done with patience and a good carpet-cleaning solution.

One step that can be taken to reduce the problem is to remove the baseboards and fill the crack along the bottom of the walls with caulking compound.

The bathroom in our old house has red plastic tiles on all four walls, and I am tired of looking at them. The tiles are stuck to the wall with a hard, black glue. How can I remove them?

That sounds like an asphalt adhesive. This can be softened enough by a hot air gun to allow the plastic tiles to be pried off with a broad putty knife or similar tool.

But it would still be a very difficult job to remove all the adhesive that remains on the walls well enough to be able to paint or paper over it. Any asphalt left on the wall would very likely bleed through either of these finishes.

You could simply paint the plastic tiles with an alkyd enamel, but for a complete change I think it would be better to cover the tiled walls with gypsum board panelling, then tape, fill and sand the joints to get a smooth new wall surface ready for painting or papering.

I have a fireplace in the basement, directly below the fireplace in the living room. Every time I have a fire going in the living room, I get a strong smell of smoke in the basement. What causes this?

Your house is too tightly sealed. A burning fireplace pulls a lot of air out of the house, and this has to come in somewhere else. One large opening is the flue of the unused basement fireplace.

And because both flues are close together at the top of the chimney, smoke from the living room fireplace flue is pulled down into the basement. The simple remedy is to open a window a few inches to equalize the outdoor and indoor air pressures.

The floor in front of our kitchen sink gets very cold during the winter months. It feels as if cold air is pouring out of the cupboards under the sink. Can you tell me how to correct this?

There are several places where cold air may be coming in. One is the gap around where the sink drain pipe goes into the wall. This can be sealed with polyurethane foam insulation/sealant from a spray can.

You can also insulate the wall at the back of the undersink cabinets with an inch or two of the common and inexpensive white foamboard insulation simply glued in place with a compatible adhesive.

But much of the cold air around your feet may come in through gaps in the floor/wall joint under the back of the bottom shelf of all the kitchen counter cabinets.

You can reach this spot by removing the kick strip under the front of the cabinets, but it is still difficult to get at. Seal the crack back there with anything that will stop the cold air coming out — putty, Plasticine, polyurethane spray foam, even old rags.