Finishing the carpet to wood edge

[JIMMIEM]

I want a small micro-groove where the header meets against the rest of the boards, just not where the two header boards butt to each other.
I was joking about the $125. I was thinking more like $280. It's certainly going to eat up the day including the carpet work.

I've done what you did on jobs like you just mentioned. Hard to justify being more picky than the customer and going a bit overboard to impress them. When you do tho, it will come back in more work and recommendations by those customers.

I did the micro bevels with some fine sandpaper in a sanding block. Sometimes it's difficult to tell if the customer is impressed.

 

[Floorist]

Sometimes it's difficult to tell if the customer is impressed.

Don't think they realize or care how much extra effort it requires.

 

[JIMMIEM]

Don't think they realize or care how much extra effort it requires.

You have said it best.

 

[Ernesto]

If it's going to eat up a day, charge what you could at least make in a day installing flooring or why do it in the first place. That would run ya 4 to 7 hundred.

 

[Nick]

We both have the same colored sky in our world E .

 

[Floorist]

Probably $350 to $400 here.

 

[highup]

I'd be thrilled with $300 a day 5 days a week. I can't make money installing so I do a lot of my stuff hourly.

 

[Nick]

Raise your hourly price .

 

[highup]

Raise your hourly price .

Wow, that's cool. Now I'm making $50/hr. Thanks Nick.

 

[Nick]

My pleasure . That is the minimum you should be making .

 

[highup]

The customers are in their early 60's had relatives hanging out so I felt bad about my noise and presence, but they all seemed to be enjoying my project as it progressed. They'd pop over and check out what I was doing every now and then. He really wanted to have it done and was happy that I could be there to do it.
I had the floors protected with carpet pad and a drop cloth over the carpet and covered the pool table and things near by with plastic. I also used my shop vac next to the saw and router as I made the cuts inside. I went down stairs to the garage to cut and modify the header boards............. there was a LOT of trips up and down those stairs. I made the new groove in the floor with three passes from my narrow Wilsonart wing bit, and I slightly narrowed the bottom side of the tongue of the header board to match the new groove in the floor.
When I finished last night, I got a lot of wonderful compliments from everyone. His wife was extremely happy and asked if I could do two more 34 inch doorways downstairs some time after the first of the year. Nice feeling for highup to end the year on a high note like this. Glad it's over tho. It was really stressful whacking into a finished floor.

 

[Floorist]

The customers are in their early 60's had relatives hanging out so I felt bad about my noise and presence, but they all seemed to be enjoying my project as it progressed. They'd pop over and check out what I was doing every now and then. He really wanted to have it done and was happy that I could be there to do it.
I had the floors protected with carpet pad and a drop cloth over the carpet and covered the pool table and things near by with plastic. I also used my shop vac next to the saw and router as I made the cuts inside. I went down stairs to the garage to cut and modify the header boards............. there was a LOT of trips up and down those stairs. I made the new groove in the floor with three passes from my narrow Wilsonart wing bit, and I slightly narrowed the bottom side of the tongue of the header board to match the new groove in the floor.
When I finished last night, I got a lot of wonderful compliments from everyone. His wife was extremely happy and asked if I could do two more 34 inch doorways downstairs some time after the first of the year. Nice feeling for highup to end the year on a high note like this. Glad it's over tho. It was really stressful whacking into a finished floor.

Pictures?

 

[highup]

Pictures?

I can draw you one. I keep getting jobs here and there, This is the only job I've done since a few days before Christmas. My next job will hopefully start on Wednesday if the drywall guys are done. My phone doesn't have a camera, but it's screen is dying, so my new one will have a super high quality 1.3mp camera. .....so then I can take photos.

 

[JIMMIEM]

The customers are in their early 60's had relatives hanging out so I felt bad about my noise and presence, but they all seemed to be enjoying my project as it progressed. They'd pop over and check out what I was doing every now and then. He really wanted to have it done and was happy that I could be there to do it.
I had the floors protected with carpet pad and a drop cloth over the carpet and covered the pool table and things near by with plastic. I also used my shop vac next to the saw and router as I made the cuts inside. I went down stairs to the garage to cut and modify the header boards............. there was a LOT of trips up and down those stairs. I made the new groove in the floor with three passes from my narrow Wilsonart wing bit, and I slightly narrowed the bottom side of the tongue of the header board to match the new groove in the floor.
When I finished last night, I got a lot of wonderful compliments from everyone. His wife was extremely happy and asked if I could do two more 34 inch doorways downstairs some time after the first of the year. Nice feeling for highup to end the year on a high note like this. Glad it's over tho. It was really stressful whacking into a finished floor.

I found your last statement 'stressful whacking into a finished floor' interesting. I had the same stressful feeling when I had to add a stair nosing to a floor that somebody had not completed. I had to chisel out one of the floor boards and was praying that I wouldn't damage the abutting board and that there was nothing funky about how everything was attached. Big sigh of relief when all worked out fine. Good to know that I'm not the only one who gets stressed over this type of stuff.

 

[Nick]

Board replacements are easy money .

 

[highup]

I found your last statement 'stressful whacking into a finished floor' interesting. I had the same stressful feeling when I had to add a stair nosing to a floor that somebody had not completed. I had to chisel out one of the floor boards and was praying that I wouldn't damage the abutting board and that there was nothing funky about how everything was attached. Big sigh of relief when all worked out fine. Good to know that I'm not the only one who gets stressed over this type of stuff.

I worry too much, especially when a mistake could mean disaster. If this was something that I ran into all the time, it would be less stressful. I had one shot at the cut in the floor. I used the basic rule.......... measure 6 times, scratch head. Measure 3 more times, then cut once.

Board replacements are easy money .

If this was easy money, I wouldn't want to see a difficult replacement.

 

[JIMMIEM]

I worry too much, especially when a mistake could mean disaster. If this was something that I ran into all the time, it would be less stressful. I had one shot at the cut in the floor. I used the basic rule.......... measure 6 times, scratch head. Measure 3 more times, then cut once.


If this was easy money, I wouldn't want to see a difficult replacement.

Working on somebody else's house is a stressor....never know what's going to happen or what the reaction will be...some people are easily satisfied and some are never satisfied.

 

[highup]

Working on somebody else's house is a stressor....never know what's going to happen or what the reaction will be...some people are easily satisfied and some are never satisfied.

Here's why it was such a "stressor" . (self induced)
It was the nit picking and fine tuning of each individual board end and shimming them up so they were all equal and parallel. Once that was done, I cut the groove. Making them as accurate as I was able to do allowed me to make the edge look better.
I made the header piece end up a few thousandths of an inch or so taller than the floor....... maybe the thickness of about 3 recipe cards This allowed me to leave the header with it's microbevel, and the cut board ends with no microbevel. It looked much cleaner that way.

I didn't do any face nailing. I used blobs of Bostics Best and 6 narrow headed casing screws to hold the board in place as the adhesive set up. The screws were not "wrenched down" tight. Just enough to pull the header board snug against the existing flooring.
Decided a picture with 1000 words is better than one without. I think it's self explanatory.
.............and no, ...........the board ends were not as wavy as the ones in my drawing. A little embellishment goes a long way to make a point.

 

[JIMMIEM]

Here's why it was such a "stressor" . (self induced)
It was the nit picking and fine tuning of each individual board end and shimming them up so they were all equal and parallel. Once that was done, I cut the groove. Making them as accurate as I was able to do allowed me to make the edge look better.
I made the header piece end up a few thousandths of an inch or so taller than the floor....... maybe the thickness of about 3 recipe cards This allowed me to leave the header with it's microbevel, and the cut board ends with no microbevel. It looked much cleaner that way.

I didn't do any face nailing. I used globs of Bostics Best and 6 narrow headed casing screws to hold the board in place as the adhesive sets up. The screws were not "wrenched down" tight. Just enough to pull the header board snug against the existing flooring.
Decided a picture with 1000 words is better than one without. I think it's self explanatory.
.............and no, ...........the board ends were not as wavy as the ones in my drawing. A little embellishment goes a long way to make a point.

That was a lot of detail work....hope the customers appreciated it. Next time video tape the process and present it to the customer with the bill.