Fort Frederica may be closed, but Tom and I are still working on various projects.  One project we undertook together last week was cleaning the library floor.

Many years ago, no one knows how many, someone used a double sided duct tape to tape the rug in the library to the beautiful hardwood floor.  Soon after they did this, they realized the tape wasn’t in the right place for the rug.  Although they moved the rug, they did not remove the tape.  Consequently the tape residue has gotten dirtier over the years and become more and more of an eyesore.

Tom and I have worked at Fort Frederica for four years and no one during that time did anything about the tape residue.  The library is a pretty classy-looking place and they hold high level meetings there, so I would think the tape residue would be an embarrassment.  With the park closed, the library has become my textile workshop, so the tape bothered me every day when I went in there to work.

Finally I couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to do something about it.  I talked to our head maintenance guy, Ranger Tony, about cleaning the floor.  He suggested using Goof Off Pro Strength.  I took the bottle and armed myself with some industrial strength paper towels.  I opened the door of the library and set up a fan for ventilation.  Then I set about cleaning the library floor.

The Goof Off worked great with a few caveats.  It removed the tape residue and didn’t hurt the hardwood floor.  But as soon as the residue transferred onto the paper towel, you couldn’t get anymore off the floor.  It took two bottle of Goof Off and lots of paper towels to clean up the tape residue.  I got tired of doing it after a while so Tom finished up the job.  He did a great job of getting the last bits of sticky off the floor.  Then he polished it with a little WD 40.

Cleaning the library floor wasn’t hard – it just took time and determination.  And having it bother me enough that I got it done.  No one will ever notice the tape residue is gone – except me.  But I think it looks great!