In 2009, a great flood caused by Typhoon Ondoy ravaged our village and submerged our 1 story home in fine grained mud. As we struggled to get back up on our feet as our loved ones survived, I had to move my office which was in the same village, and we lost a car and all our belongings, we had the house cleaned, but for some reason missed the 6 inch gap between the indoor ceiling and the roof.
This mental lapse came at a cost to our health as the indoor air pollution finally caught up with us as family members were getting sickly. We finally traced illnesses to the mud that got stuck in between the indoor ceiling and the roof… now fine fine dust trickling down to our indoor air.
To survive in that home I resorted to buying an expensive dedicated air cleaner apparatus and a 3m filter in our air conditioner. The children and my wife avoided that house and stayed in the adjacent house instead. We were getting ready to have the house ceiling fixed when our son got into a health disaster which was in the making for many years due to incompatibility with regular cooked food… our resources and attention were diverted. Now that our son is almost well, we point our attention to the ceiling repairs.
The carpentry work has been completed. The carpenters brought down 8 sacks of mud / dust from the ceiling. Wow! That much. That much can make anyone sick.
Now for the finishing. But of course we wanted complete indoor pollution avoidance. We know that oil based wood stains are toxic. And common varnish is toxic. My wife’s nose will definitely notice for months. Unacceptable. I scrounged the internet for non-toxic brands, I went to the local builders store and they had nothing non-toxic. So those commercial non-toxic options are still not available here in Manila? It was to time to make our own.
A few more searches and I came up with using instant coffee for wood stains! Wow. Cheap! And non-toxic. We tried it on a sample wood board, it works!
For the wood finish, the choice was 1 part beeswax and 4 parts olive oil mixed together and heated in the toaster oven. Tested it on the wood board with the coffee stain and yes, it works too!
The finishers will come in tomorrow morning. Here’s hoping in 4 days we can move in back to our now clean breathable home.