Remodeling, decor and home improvement for old homes
When I first bought my vintage tulip table and chairs, the steel bases were pocked and rusted… the fiberglass shell chairs were dirty and dingy… and the laminate tabletop and rubber edge were yellowed and soiled. How did I get them to look like new? Secrets revealed today! Heck yeah there is more →
A reader wrote to ask how to bring the luster back to her vintage laminate countertops. Paste wax, maybe? To get the answer, I turned to expert Grace Jeffers. She is the writer, design historian and materials expert responsible for restoration of the Ralph Sr. and Sunny Wilson House – including its gorgeous Mondrian-style kitchen, above. Grace wrote back pronto:
Do use them with COUNTERTOP MAGIC. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT USE WAX. Plastics do not like wax, they like oil. In the Wilson house I used almonst an entire can of countertop magic for each 4 x 8 panel. Let it soak overnight and then polish with a clean cloth in the a.m.
Grace Jeffers
Readers, I actually bought some of this stuff — and my DH, the cleaner of the house — really likes it. We use the liquid spray, not the aerosol. We bought it from Amazon, as we could not find it locally:
Thanks, Grace! And reader – oopsy, I lost your email, thanks for your question!
This is a hot topic: Readers are hearing from floor sales people that they need to polish and buff their newly installed vinyl composite floor tiles like the professionals do in office buildings.
Kitty Mommy Susan, and others, have asked how to clean terrazzo shower bases and walls. Here is a start: Some pages from a great book, Twentieth-Century Building Materials, done by the National Park Service, edited by Thomas C. Jester. It’s out of print and wicked expensive, so I just got a copy from my library a few weeks ago. I try not to show pages from books – but will make an exception for this conservation reason.
If I get a chance soon — or perhaps a reader can pursue this? — I think another route to get a good answer is to go to Crane. The two big makers of terrazzo bases seem to have been Crane and Fiat. And now, Crane owns Fiat. They still sell these today — and they are a BIG RECOMMENDATION of mine! — so they must have cleaning instructions. If anyone gets to them before I do… can you post the answer here? Many thanks, and good cleaning!
Double click for big, readable image:
After Zep
Before ZEP
How to clean old grout in retro bathroom floor tiles? Sleeping Bee Alice plays the role of Queen of Clean. Thanks, Alice, very impressive. I do want to caution – as I have been doing cleaning research, too — to be very careful about what you use on the glazed tile itself. That glazed finish can come off, even with a scotch brite pad, so treat it very carefully. More on tile cleaning to come.
Read on for Alice’s solution (pun!) —> Heck yeah there is more →
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