prompted by this post in !mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world I decided to ask you about my predicament.
I live in the attic of a rundown house that’s close to 200 years old. looked like shit when I moved in, I’ve made it livable, I add and fix things here and there when I can, by youtubing stuff and using the tools I have.
recently, a cheap electric kettle caught fire and burned for several minutes, incinerating nearby items and the (plastic) base it was on. the result was a black smoke so dark you couldn’t see light from the windows, vantablack type of deal. once I dowsed out the flames (and surely inhaled that crap in major unhealthy doses) it took ages to air the place out.
in the aftermath, every surface was covered with greasy, black residue that you can’t just wipe off/vacuum.
I’ve thrown away most things that were covered with it, cleaned others over the past months. only upside of this mess is, it sticks to the surfaces so it doesn’t fall down and/or circulate in the air.
now I’d like to paint the walls. tried cleaning them with anti-grease and sponges and paper towels and stuff; that worked on kitchen cabinets, but it’s a no-go here, just makes a mess and dissolves the stuff underneath (lime-based paint with god knows how many layers).
I figured, if I paint the walls and the exposed wood beam with the right type of paint, it’ll just cover/trap the whole mess and I’d be done with it. then I’d like to clean/paint the ceiling paneling somehow.
can’t afford to move into healthier dwellings and the owner has zero fucks to give about the situation and is fine with whatever I come up with, including leaving it as is; even with the fire damage, the place is in way better shape now than when I moved in.
doable? tips? ideas?
edit: images
edit2: I wish lemmy’s UI would state the what the image limits are, it gets tiresome guessing how large is “too large”.
Try scrubbing the walls with TSP (or most likely ‘TSP substitute’), you can find it at any paint or home improvement store. Then coat it with a good primer like KILZ to seal it all in. You can throw whatever cheap paint on top of the primer (grab a mistint from the paint store).
Save your receipts and anyone but a horrible landlord should let you deduct that from your rent.
I’m also living in the attic of a 120 year old house learning to fix stuff via youtube and This Old House reruns.
I knew a painting contractor and he swore by KILZ if there was anything like nicotine or smoke on the walls beforehand. He said any regular primer and it would seep through but KILZ would block just about anything.
Another vote for KILZ. Bought a house from a bed ridden woman who only had smoking I guess. Layer of tar on everything. Striped carpet out, scrubbed walls with some denatured alcohol, then KILZ on walls and subfloor.
We did have to replace some of the ac ducting, but now you’d never know someone literally chainsmoked to death in here.