Flooded House!

[culicine]

Well looks at some stage we might be able to get back into our house to start cleaning it. About the lower 30 cm of the wall paper will be dirty/ruined. The builtins / kitchen will be stuffed as well. I'm thinking or removing the lower portion of the wallpaper and replacing with a row of tiles - nice ones. Just incase of more flooding and don't want to remove all the wall paper. We might later cover that with timber veeneer as the wallpaper and underlying concrete isn't that great anyway. Are there any good methods / products for removing wallpaper from concrete, bearing in mind its the water proof cleanable type.

I'm assuming we should use a lot of bleach or other disinfectant for cleaning the floors - any suggestions? Thinking of buying a high power cleaner too.

Best of luck to everyone else cleaning up their place.

[Litlos]

For removing wallpaper I have used a steamer unit in Australia, hired the unit and worked well. No idea if such a thing is available in Thailand and where to hire it from. Try the shops who do wallpaper install as they probably have some experience on removing existing wallpaper. I seem to remember there was a brush on compound as well for releasing wallpaper. However if is the waterproof type this probably will not work.

I did a google for "wallpaper steamer thailand" and found some references for both the steamer and liquid remover.

Best of luck in the clean up.

Cheers

[TommyDee]

easy way is take a stanloey ( modelling knife) and slash thru the waterp[roof layer of the paper, then soak with a sponge, will peel off really easy. as many slashes as possible will make it easier, try one drop, you will find it works

[mrbojangles]

easy way is take a stanloey ( modelling knife) and slash thru the waterp[roof layer of the paper, then soak with a sponge, will peel off really easy. as many slashes as possible will make it easier, try one drop, you will find it works

Yep. Scoring the paper first ensures the water or steam gets behind the waterproof part of the paper. A good sharp scraper and lots of wrist power is needed.

Good luck and I hope there isn't too much damage. Especially of the expensive type.

Now don't laugh here. But what is house insurance like in Thailand? I've not had the experience yet.

[culicine]

easy way is take a stanloey ( modelling knife) and slash thru the waterp[roof layer of the paper, then soak with a sponge, will peel off really easy. as many slashes as possible will make it easier, try one drop, you will find it works

Yep. Scoring the paper first ensures the water or steam gets behind the waterproof part of the paper. A good sharp scraper and lots of wrist power is needed.

Good luck and I hope there isn't too much damage. Especially of the expensive type.

Now don't laugh here. But what is house insurance like in Thailand? I've not had the experience yet.

Hi we have insurance as part of out house loan, however it won't cover the wall paper or the built-ins we put in afterwards. Scoring the paper is a good idea, as I'm thinking of now putting a tile edge all along the bottom, about 30 cm high, which was about the height of the apparent flood over the floor. However I haven't been inside my house (we tried to seal it as best as we could), so I'm not sure of the extent of the damage. Probably we will check the built-ins in favour of tiling / plastic cupboard doors, lol. Don't want to go through it again. We are quite lucky - my car was well away; and the village I left 2 years before (in patum thani went under 1-2 metres or so). The water is about ground level so will try and get in there next week.

[rak sa_ngop]

easy way is take a stanloey ( modelling knife) and slash thru the waterp[roof layer of the paper, then soak with a sponge, will peel off really easy. as many slashes as possible will make it easier, try one drop, you will find it works

One tip that can work well is to mix up aome traditional wallpaper paste. Brush this all over the surface of your porous wallpaper and leave. The jelly-like nature of the paste will slowly allow moisture to penetrate into the wall paper. After a few hours the paper can be easily peeled off the wall.

It's been a long time since I stripped wallpaper but it worked a treat for me then.

[culicine]

On another point; my wife just phoned from our house. It's as bad as I thought. built-ins gone; even the large display cabinet we wrapped in plastic to keep out water somehow fell down. Doors seem swollen as well.

My advice to anyone not flooded yet is to get ALL wood products off from the ground floor now. Luckily I did remove many things upstairs. I can get the place cleaned for 7000 baht and might be easier than me doing it myself. I have to go in Saturday and do some cleaning anyway.

Best of luck to everyone and thanks for the ideas here.

[chiangmaibruce]

OK one issue is moisture absorbed into the walls - this will take a while to evaporate out, and of course you will get bubbling on painted surfaces etc.

I don't know if you can do much to speed this process other than ceiling fans on and windows open. But until the walls dry out then I would hesitate with tiling the lower part of the walls. I think this will just cause the damp to travel higher up the wall to come out, plus may cause problem with long-term adhesion of the tiles. With timber veneer you might even get mould underneath if it can't breath.

We only had water in a short time and I have already scraped off the worst of the bubbled paint. I am waiting now to repaint (inside and out) so we can bring everything down from upstairs and finish putting the house back together. In some places there are chalky patches so I will have to hunt out some special undercoat to help bind and seal - any recommendations gents?

Edited November 13, 2011 by chiangmaibruce

[mrbojangles]

so I will have to hunt out some special undercoat to help bind and seal - any recommendations gents?

Gloss paint, being Oil based can do the trick on sealing stains.

[stgrhe]

OK one issue is moisture absorbed into the walls - this will take a while to evaporate out, and of course you will get bubbling on painted surfaces etc.

I don't know if you can do much to speed this process other than ceiling fans on and windows open. But until the walls dry out then I would hesitate with tiling the lower part of the walls. I think this will just cause the damp to travel higher up the wall to come out, plus may cause problem with long-term adhesion of the tiles. With timber veneer you might even get mould underneath if it can't breath.

We only had water in a short time and I have already scraped off the worst of the bubbled paint. I am waiting now to repaint (inside and out) so we can bring everything down from upstairs and finish putting the house back together. In some places there are chalky patches so I will have to hunt out some special undercoat to help bind and seal - any recommendations gents?

Radcon Formula 7 from the Australian Company Radcrete. The product is available here in Thailand.

http://www.radcrete.com.au/

[TommyDee]

one of the problems will be that it isnt pure water that flooded your home, it was water and garbage and God knows what. i would be wary of painting yet and put up with the ugliness to allow the wall to dry properly, maybe 2 months. If the place was under water for more than a few days I would actually gash the plaster off the first few feet, water depth, and re plaster. the chances are that it can end up stinking, especially when you get into the hot season.

[culicine]

one of the problems will be that it isnt pure water that flooded your home, it was water and garbage and God knows what. i would be wary of painting yet and put up with the ugliness to allow the wall to dry properly, maybe 2 months. If the place was under water for more than a few days I would actually gash the plaster off the first few feet, water depth, and re plaster. the chances are that it can end up stinking, especially when you get into the hot season.

Went in to clean over the weekend - water must have been in the house at least 2 weeks. We have cleaned most things, and had ozone treatment. I still need to remove more of the wet cupboards but that was difficult to do in the time frame. Lots of dam_n mould everywhere - If I had known the mess 30 cm of water would make I'd have moved absolutely everything upstairs. I've cleaned the wall paper as much as possible - it's waterproof so could stand some hard scrubbing. Not all the stain is out but at least it's presentable until we do something more with it. I'll be sure to dry it all out before we move back. Still need a boat to get into the place lol

[chiangmaibruce]

Radcon Formula 7 from the Australian Company Radcrete. The product is available here in Thailand.

http://www.radcrete.com.au/

Thanks, I'll try Homepro first and see if they have it