I’ve gotten quite a few questions about stripping and restoring historic homes. There are concerns a historic home owner may have about preserving original parts of the home.

During the holidays, I had the pleasure of restoring these stairs with my fiance! We were asked to come and see what we could do because these stairs were part of a historic home. The stairs and molding needed to be stripped and traditional sanding can cause undue damage to the wood, so we used a method called “soda blasting.”

Soda blasting uses Sodium Bicarbonate to strip the paint and is much easier on the surfaces beneath. We use a tight containment and negative pressure system to make sure we don’t cause a mess in your home. Then with some delicate finish sanding we’re good to go to stain it and finish. It’s inexpensive and environmentally friendly. It’s a service we are uniquely qualified for in historic homes as she is a restoration expert and I am a finish carpenter, each with decades of experience!

Here are some photos from the work in progress:

“It’s a service we are uniquely qualified for in historic homes ”

Here is a link to a DIY article on Soda Blasting if you think you want to try it out or are just interested:

https://www.doityourself.com/…/using-soda-blasting-for-pain…

If you do need some restoration work on your historic home or your home requires some delicate care, give us a call (517) 819-0429 or shoot me an email at zischkebuilders@gmail.com and I’ll come out and take a look. You can also follow us on Facebook. We love to work together and truly love restoring historic Michigan homes!