Mildewed Bathroom ? No Problem !

We’re in my friend’s Brighton flat again. Anyone who’s ever lived in the city will know that the beautiful Edwardian/Victorian houses are prone to damp and that especially in the bathroom, keeping on top of mildew growth is a part of life. Part of the reason that the flats in Brighton tend to be damp is the fact that the buildings are generally built from the beach itself. This means that the walls are full of salt which draws water from the air. Add to this a total lack of damp courses and poor ventilation and you’ve got a recipe for at least mildew growth and at worst dry or wet rot.

My friend’s flat is generally pretty good in that it doesn’t suffer from rising damp. But it has been rented out for the last few years and the walls of the bathroom have a severe case of mildew growth.

Things are so bad that the paint’s starting to peel off the walls and there’s more mildew behind the peeling paint. Basically we are looking at inadequate ventilation and a total lack of maintenance (otherwise known as cleaning!)

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 1

First up we’re going to wash down all surfaces with a fungicide wash using a sponge. Wear adequate protection while you do this, gloves and a facemask are essential to stop you breathing in the fungus and protect you from the fungicide.

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 2

Next we remove all the old mildew stained paint from the effected walls. Large areas of paint came off when we washed down the walls so now we’re going to remove the rest of the paint using a metal scraper, sponge  and diluted fungicide solution in a spray bottle (diluted about 50/50 with water). This is unpleasant tedious work but it has to be done if you want the finished job to look good and stay looking good. Some of the paint comes off easily, some of it takes a significant amount of work. We took 2 days off and on to get the 3 affected walls completely stripped back to bare plaster.

Part way through scraping the old paint off the walls

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 4

We now re-wash the stripped walls and woodwork with fungicide, clean all surfaces with water and leave everything to dry out fully (24 hours).

Our fungicide of choice !

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 5

Unfortunately scraping off the old paint has revealed short sections of the galvanized steel corner strips which should be covered by plaster. The fact that they are galvanized means that they shouldn’t rust, but to be on the safe side we are going to prime the whole corner edge with universal primer. This is an oil based primer suitable for metal, wood or plaster and will stop the metal from rusting when the water based paints are applied.  Obviously water based wood primer is suitable for this job. We apply 2 coats, just along the very edge of the wall from skirting to ceiling. Each coat takes 16 hours to fully dry.

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 6

While we are waiting for the universal primer to dry, we fill any blemishes in the walls and ceiling with Polyfilla. Ployfilla can be sanded flush after 2 hours and primed after 24 hours.

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 7

We now paint the walls with one coat of “damp proof paint”. This is really a misnomer since the paint doesn’t really damp-proof the walls, what it does is stop the black stains left by the old treated mildew from showing through the new paint. Once the damp-proof paint has dried the mildew stains should be barely visible – if in doubt apply a second coat (in our case one was enough)

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 8

The damp proof paint takes 24 hours to dry. During this time we clean the woodwork using 100 grit sandpaper and wooden sanding block and apply 2 coats of water based primer undercoat (4 hours between coats).

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 9

So with the preparation done we can proceed with the fun part of redecorating. It is important that we use bathroom paint instead of normal emulsion paint. The bathroom paint resists condensation and mildew and, most importantly, can be scrubbed clean (coz with the best will in the world – Brighton bathrooms attract mildew). My preferred sequence is 2 coats on the ceiling followed by two coats on the walls and finally a gloss coat on the woodwork.  Don’t try and skimp and do just one coat, after all the effort we’ve put in to get this far it’s worth the second coat to ensure a perfect, longer lasting finish.

The redecorated bathroom

There we go, a dingy mildewed bathroom has been transformed into a pleasant place to be !

How To Replace a Broken Sash Cord

Antique sash windows look great but they often need a bit of TLC. If you live in a rented Victorian house with sash windows it’s pretty common to find that the windows don’t move properly and if they do move they either move awkwardly or just won’t stay up once open. Both these symptoms are due to broken sash cords.

What are sash cords exactly ? Sash windows slide up and down in their frames and should stay in which ever position you choose -  seemingly by magic. Actually there’s no magic involved, each part of the window has a cord attached to each side of its frame which runs up and over a pulley and is connected to a cast iron counter weight. That’s 4 in total for a typical window.

On this window, in my friend’s flat in Brighton UK, one of the sash cords for the lower panel has broken. This is how we fix it.

Sash Window Repair Step 1

First we remove the decorative strip which holds the lower window panel in place. We use a hammer and chisel to do this. The trim strip splits as we remove it, which is pretty normal, so we will replace it with new wood.

Sash Window Repair Step 2

We can now disconnect the panel from its weights and lift it out of the window frame. Obviously in this case since one cord is already broken we only need to disconnect the other one.

Sash Window Repair Step 3

Next we disconnect the cord from the lower panel and lower the iron counterweight down inside the window frame.  Then we prize out the 2 pieces of wood which cover the space containing the weights  (one either side) see photo.

Sash Window Repair Step 4

Now we carefully lift out the counterweight and detach the broken cord.  We thread the new replacement cord through the pulley and tie it to the cast iron counterweight which we place back in the window frame.

Sash Window Repair Step 5

If, like me, you damaged the trim strips when you removed them now’s the time to cut new ones to fit.

Sash Window Repair 6

Replace the Wooden panels which cover the space where the counterweights are.

Sash Window Repair Step 7

Next we replace the window panel in the frame, attach the sash cords each side of the panel and replace the decorative strips. Remember to make sure you knock the nails in so that they are below the surface of the wood. You then fill the small hole with polyfilla, by doing this you ensure that the nail head won’t rust and stain the paintwork later (see handy hints post)

Sash Window repair step 8

The final step is to that the window slides up and down in the frame correctly.  Luckily all is well so we now proceed to make good and prime the window frame ready for redecorating.

How to Clean a Grungy Electric Guitar

Each time you play your guitar its a good idea to wipe down the strings, neck and body of the guitar along with the metal parts using a soft clean cotton cloth. This both keeps the guitar looking good and stops the strings from corroding. This helps keep the strings sounding bright for longer. Also corroded strings will wear the frets more quickly.

With the best will in the world, eventually the guitar will get a dirty build up on the fretboard and handling marks on the body. This needs to be cleaned off now and again.

IF YOU DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS POST PLEASE READ THIS !

Q. Why shouldn't I use furniture polish on my guitar ?

A. Furniture polishes contain solvents and silicon. Some guitars (Gibson, top end Fenders and some other makes) use a thin Nitrocellulose finish which is softened and damaged by the solvents. The silicone in the polish also causes problems if the guitar needs to be refinished.

To be perfectly honest, if you have a cheap guitar with a poly finish and you aren't worried about future repairs being invisible you may as well use furniture polish on your guitar rather than buy specific products.

So what should you use to clean your guitar? The best thing is a dampened soft rag (an old T-shirt is ideal) it should be damp but shouldn't leave the guitar surface wet.

This guitar is about as bad as it gets. Apart from not being wiped down very regularly, it's been put away in its case after a gig, wet with sweat and left there for a few months. The result is that the guitar's finish is dull and stained to the point that a damp rag won't suffice. The fingerboard is grimy with a build-up under the strings and the frets are tarnished. This guitar definitely needs a bit of TLC.


When working on your guitar you should always be careful protect it from knocks and sharp objects. This photo shows my improvised "Guitar Tech's Workstation" which helps protect the guitar from accidental damage as you work on it.

Step 1

We remove the strings and wipe down the entire guitar with a barely soft, damp, cotton rag. Notice that since this guitar has a tune-o-matic bridge, as well as removing the strings , we have also removed the bridge and stop tailpiece. This is to ensure that they don't fall off during the cleaning process and avoid damaging the guitar's finish.

Step 2

Since this guitar has a rosewood fretboard, we are going to clean it with a few drops of “Lemon Oil” applied with a cotton rag.

A note about “Lemon Oil”

Many guitar shops sell lemon oil as a “fingerboard conditioner” which ensures that the fretboard is “correctly hydrated with natural oils”. This is not the case, although it smells nice and gives a glossy sheen to bare wood fingerboards it is a mineral oil like diesel or gasoline and be used sparingly to clean the fingerboard and the excess wiped off completely.

Bearing this in mind we use a few drops of  lemon oil and rub vigorously to remove the grime and dirt from the rosewood fingerboard. Once the fingerboard is clean we completely remove the excess lemon oil with a dry rag ( as always old T-shirts are my rag of choice ). If the fingerboard has accumulated a lot of dirt you may need to scrape it off. I have found that old credit cards are excellent tools for this job as they shift the grime without damaging the wood of the fingerboard.

Finished maple fingerboards should be cleaned with a dampened rag.

Step 3

This guitar's frets have tarnished very badly and have a greenish oxidised surface. We now proceed to polish the frets. First totally mask off the pickups using the widest masking tape available in our local hardware shop. This is very important since we are going to use wire wool to polish the frets. During the cleaning process the wire wool sheds tiny wire scraps. Since the guitar's pickups contain magnets, these tiny pieces of wire would stick to the pickups.

Once the guitar's pickups have been masked off (see photo) we proceed to polish the frets using a small pad of “0000” grade wire wool dampened with a few drops of lemon oil. Polish each fret individually working back and forth along the fret. It should only take a few strokes to clean each fret – don't get carried away here ! Take special care not to damage the guitar's finish in the area where the fingerboard is fixed to the guitar body.

If you need to polish the frets on a finished fretboard you should mask off between the frets to protect the guitars' finish from the abrasive wire wool (see this previous post). In the case of rosewood or ebony fretboards there is no need to mask off between the frets.

Once the frets have been polished we clean the excess lemon oil off the fingerboard.

Step 4

Once the fingerboard is clean and the frets shiny, we wipe down the guitar with a clean cotton duster. Since the finish on this guitar has been dulled by sweat we are going to use a cream cleaner which we are sure will not damage the guitars finish. I use a few drops of “Planet Waves – Restore” on a soft rag applied gently with a circular motion and then buffed off with a soft, clean duster. You shouldn't do this too often since nitrocellulose finishes are quite thin. If the guitar's finish is damaged or chipped then you should take care not to apply the cream cleaner to bare wood.

Step 5

We now apply a small amount of graphite grease ( Stewart MacDonald Guitar Grease) to each groove of the guitars nut. This helps keep the guitar in tune by lubricating the strings where they pass thru the nut preventing them sticking. I have found that the best tool for applying the grease is a short section of old guitar string. Scrape a tiny bit of the graphite grease from the tub with the tip of the string (see photo) and insert it in each groove of the nut.

Step 6

We now refit the bridge and tailpiece and fit new strings to the guitar. We then tune the guitar and check the “intonation” and “action”. When I have time I'll write another post which explains in detail how to adjust and check the intonation and action of your guitar.