Is anyone busy?

[Floorist]

I know I'm supposed t be retired, but I need the money. Nothing going on here at all. Talked to another installer today, he has had one day's work in the last two weeks. I know that our local big box, only has a guy in the flooring dept 4 days a week.

 

[Ken]

I cover about nine "L" stores. They are all pretty slow right now but that's the same every summer around here. Im doing more work on my own right now but it seems to be cyclical. When theyre slow, Im busy, and when Im slow, theyre busy. I try to give all the work from the stores that are a little further than I like to drive to my other crews and stay pretty local myself. To be quite honest, Im enjoying the break, lol. I know its going to get insane again in a few weeks.

 

[Nick]

Slow here to .

 

[DarisMulkin]

Binding and a couple of repairs have kept me pretty busy. I landed a school binding job that consist of about 32 10x12 rugs. I have to cut the carpet then bind. I cut 17 yesterday and bound 9 today from 11 to 3. Will finish the rest up next week. Then who knows, its back to one day at a time.

Daris

 

[Dan]

I've been busier with wood floor inspections than I've ever been. Granted, most of these floors have been down since sometime in the spring.

 

[highup]

Been fairly busy. Shop called me late yesterday, begging me to do a job, but I didn't think it would fit into my timeline. I have jobs scheduled tomorrow (Saturday) and another on Monday. Next week is full. That gave me today, and Sunday to do this job........... sight unseen.

..........a little more begging from the store owner made me give it some thought. The job is 50 minutes away, and so at 6:30pm yesterday, I drove down to look at it to see if I could do it in two days. If not, I was going to say no. Without actually seeing the jobsite and conditions, I just couldn't take a chance on agreeing to do it. I hate surprises, especially when out of town.
I was initially told it was just a living room with one seam. Furniture would be moved and there was tear out to do. It's a softback carpet with a very soft 5/8" nap. (heavy)

Well, I got down there last night to find out that it was a living room with a seam ...........plus a hallway. (the plot thickens)
The hallway and the living room have a total of 30 feet of transition areas. 5 doorways with tap down metal, plus three doorways that would need to be turned and tacked or Z-bar.............. plus an entry that had laminate with 3 angled faces to turn and tack, or use Z-bar.
The old carpet had tap down metal plus tackstrip in all of the doorways.

I bit the bullet and said yes to the customer. Furniture was already moved out, and the carpet needed to be installed because there are a lot of friends and family coming next weekend to celebrate this lady's, husband's, big '60' It's partly a surprise party.

Long story short. (I do this a lot, don't I?)
I drove down to the job last night to look at it. ............then out of guilt, agreed to do it, then drove back to town to pre-cut the carpet to shape, and also pre-cut the pad to lengths so it would be ready to go in the morning, and loaded the materials into the van.

I took a lot of time ripping out all those doorway metals and the accompanying tackstrip............ I can't believe the size and number of nails some installers use for metal and backup.
Got the metal removal and new replacements done, the main run and hallway in place and then the hallway completed. I doubled up al the strip because of the softback. I also had to straighten 60 inches of the entryway's laminate floor with my Fein Multimaster. The boards were installed way to random for a finished edge.
I vacuumed it all up, loaded up all of my tools and the old carpet, and got back to town at 8pm. Then I went to the warehouse to re-roll tomorrow's carpet without it's tube, so it will bend as I carry it in. (This is my Saturday job...... just a one piece bedroom)
In the afternoon, I need to make a router guide for Monday's job.
Sunday I'll drive back down and complete today's job, then Monday is most of a day doing a repair/for the store. The installer did a lousy job fitting carpet to a prefininshed wood floor. I think that I'll use my router to make a groove into the underlayment to make a shallow gully so that the carpet will tuck deeper below the wood floor. The carpet is thick, the flooring ain't.
Tuesday and the rest of the week will be playing second fiddle to an out of town slum lord who needs to resurface his rental's roof and prep and paint the outside of it. There's also 3 to 5 courses of water damaged siding to replace, and maybe new downspouts too.

I got home a almost midnight last night, and after 8 tonight. I'm hurting. (shameless plea for sympathy and support)
I don't do well with long days, but need the $$$. I'm taking it while the work is till flowing.

(oh, and that hall I got done today with all those doorways? ............it's 5'5 by 13'. I made $30 for a 7 hour day. (NOT)

 

[Nick]

I get those jobs a lot from a long time friend.

I charge him extra for it to .

 

[DarisMulkin]

High if you are looking for sympathy, you will find it between **** and syphilis in the dictionary. At least that was what my ex-partner always told me.

Daris

 

[Floorist]

Been fairly busy. Shop called me late yesterday, begging me to do a job, but I didn't think it would fit into my timeline. I have jobs scheduled tomorrow (Saturday) and another on Monday. Next week is full. That gave me today, and Sunday to do this job........... sight unseen.

..........a little more begging from the store owner made me give it some thought. The job is 50 minutes away, and so at 6:30pm yesterday, I drove down to look at it to see if I could do it in two days. If not, I was going to say no. Without actually seeing the jobsite and conditions, I just couldn't take a chance on agreeing to do it. I hate surprises, especially when out of town.
I was initially told it was just a living room with one seam. Furniture would be moved and there was tear out to do. It's a softback carpet with a very soft 5/8" nap. (heavy)

Well, I got down there last night to find out that it was a living room with a seam ...........plus a hallway. (the plot thickens)
The hallway and the living room have a total of 30 feet of transition areas. 5 doorways with tap down metal, plus three doorways that would need to be turned and tacked or Z-bar.............. plus an entry that had laminate with 3 angled faces to turn and tack, or use Z-bar.
The old carpet had tap down metal plus tackstrip in all of the doorways.

I bit the bullet and said yes to the customer. Furniture was already moved out, and the carpet needed to be installed because there are a lot of friends and family coming next weekend to celebrate this lady's, husband's, big '60' It's partly a surprise party.

Long story short. (I do this a lot, don't I?)
I drove down to the job last night to look at it. ............then out of guilt, agreed to do it, then drove back to town to pre-cut the carpet to shape, and also pre-cut the pad to lengths so it would be ready to go in the morning, and loaded the materials into the van.

I took a lot of time ripping out all those doorway metals and the accompanying tackstrip............ I can't believe the size and number of nails some installers use for metal and backup.
Got the metal removal and new replacements done, the main run and hallway in place and then the hallway completed. I doubled up al the strip because of the softback. I also had to straighten 60 inches of the entryway's laminate floor with my Fein Multimaster. The boards were installed way to random for a finished edge.
I vacuumed it all up, loaded up all of my tools and the old carpet, and got back to town at 8pm. Then I went to the warehouse to re-roll tomorrow's carpet without it's tube, so it will bend as I carry it in. (This is my Saturday job...... just a one piece bedroom)
In the afternoon, I need to make a router guide for Monday's job.
Sunday I'll drive back down and complete today's job, then Monday is most of a day doing a repair/for the store. The installer did a lousy job fitting carpet to a prefininshed wood floor. I think that I'll use my router to make a groove into the underlayment to make a shallow gully so that the carpet will tuck deeper below the wood floor. The carpet is thick, the flooring ain't.
Tuesday and the rest of the week will be playing second fiddle to an out of town slum lord who needs to resurface his rental's roof and prep and paint the outside of it. There's also 3 to 5 courses of water damaged siding to replace, and maybe new downspouts too.

I got home a almost midnight last night, and after 8 tonight. I'm hurting. (shameless plea for sympathy and support)
I don't do well with long days, but need the $$$. I'm taking it while the work is till flowing.

(oh, and that hall I got done today with all those doorways? ............it's 5'5 by 13'. I made $30 for a 7 hour day. (NOT)

Too much work for me. Could not do all that at my age.

 

[highup]

Too much work for me. Could not do all that at my age.

You and Daris could run circles around me. I was just looking for sympathy and shoulders to cry on.
I've been used to doing repairs and working shorter days, so putting in full days or working 7 in a row is whoopin me.
I need to get a job with the lottery writing up the new numbers each week. Anyone want to go halvsies with me?

 

[Nick]

I can't tell you how many times i asked Jon to send me the numbers being that he is a day ahead of us .

 

[highup]

Be sure to use a throw away phone.......... or like I do, cups and string.

 

[rugaddict]

im about a month ahead---lots of rubber stair treads lately----no idea why