If you roll heavy things around...get rid of your rugs. (Flood report 10.1.26)

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

 

This is part of the cine' film archive. It used to have carpeting in the room. The room had a mildew smell to it unless you kept it aired out regularly. The room is part underground. From what I gather, anything built subterranean can have issues with moisture. The room got flooded in June 2026. I ripped out the wet carpet and pad. I was going to put in floor tile but found out it has a sealed concrete for subfloor. Tile can come lose from sealed concrete unless the sealant is ground off. Acrylic adhesive does not help. It was too much $$ to fool with, so I went with plain concrete floor.

About the only good thing from this mess is that I can now roll around heavy shelving with ease compared to hardly budging the shelving with 2 people before. In fact, sometimes the casters would break off as it was so hard moving heaving shelving on the carpet. I will send in a post on casters sometime.

I spent weeks on my hand and knees scraping, wire wheeling, sanding, polishing, hand scrubbing and mopping the concrete floor. It is not perfect, but much cleaner than when the rugs were pulled up with all the paint spills and adhesive that was under the rugs. Here is a sample of what concrete flooring can look like under wall-to-wall carpeting. Plus, the perimeter had nailed in carpet strips when removed leave pock mark holes all around.

 

When construction is done the workers don't care if they drip paint or drywall mud and make a mess on concrete if they know it will be carpeted. The arrows show the glue trail they put down to anchor the carpet padding. It was very hard to remove. And chemicals would not touch it. You also have to be careful what chemicals you use on sealed concrete or you can cause blooming.

Here is an example of blooming on sealed concrete caused by a 16mm film reel with vinegar syndrome sitting directly on it that happened over a few weeks.

 

 

I thought about LVP floor. But flooding or moisture creeping was an issue. And if you roll heavy loads over it, you can have plank separation. Epoxy floors are nice, but they won't stick on sealed concrete. You have to grind off the concrete sealant 1/8" - 1/4" to get at bare concrete. If and when another flood hits the concrete floor won't have many issues except to shop vac it up and mop it down a couple times.

...as long as everything if off the floor.

 

Well, that's the score on 10.1.2026. Back to moving the cine' film back in....I'm finishing up the 'H' section.

Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography