What did you do today?

[zannej]

Thanks for explaining that, Highup! I wonder if the different lots were manufactured at different factories. Obviously a different dye lot, but being thinner and the locking mechanism being different seems like it might be a different location for production. Unless they just used different machines within the same factor & they weren't quite equal.

So, Loctite is generally safe for vinyl plank in certain applications?

Looking at the #s on the boxes is a good idea. I'll have to remember to do that.

Thus far this morning (since I couldn't get to sleep), I watched Kid's Baking Championship and then posted on the plumbing forums. It made me happy to see Frodo posting & made me even happier when he replied to some of my posts. I've missed him.

 

[Lee Tucker]

Screw healthy. Life must be good no matter how short.

Zannej, Coretec planks are rocked and locked together on the long joint first, then the plank is tapped back towards the end joint of the previously installed one until the end gap fully closes and lock. Either the end joints were not tapped fully into place so they would lock or the floor was not prepped to be flat and level prior to the installation of the product. The floor appears to be flat, but the planks have been in place for 4 years so they have probably conformed to whatever shape the floor is.
I also noticed there were two different core colors in leftover boxes from the original installation. The locking feel of the joints when mixing core colors felt ever so slightly different.
The new bedroom room I just did with the exact same product was thinner and the joints did not mesh properly. The finish was less pronounced and the colors were more brownish instead of reddish like the originals. The new material was definitely manufactured differently. The joint system barely locked into the original materials joint in the doorway. I flooded that joint with Loctite wood glue then clicked it together. The difference in thickness was noticeable but anything looks better than a molding. Customer OK'd the difference in thickness issue.
Don't buy any laminate type flooring unless all boxes are from the same lot. Boxes have codes printed on them so you can check. 1000234 or something like that. It will be on a sticker along with the color code and coverage per box.

Don’t mix American made with the imports

 

[Tom Picciani]

I now strangely have the urge to see how Spam tastes with peanutbutter... We don't have any Spam right now, haven't bought any since we lived in Guam. It was extremely popular over there. Spam and Tobasco was so popular that they sold Spam with Tobasco in it, but the locals said there wasn't enough Tobasco.

My friends don't check their e-mails so I have to rely on private messages. I can't send texts through my wifi so I use FB. I'm trying to find a good alternative chatting thing though. Used to use ICQ but that was really vulnerable for hacking. For giggles I used to make friend's CDROM drive pop open through a hack in ICQ. I need to find a better messaging service though.

Tom, red oak stairs would be beautiful! You can always try to see if you can get the baseboard off in one piece. What shade of green for the paint? Will the ceiling and walls be the same shade or will you go lighter or darker on the ceiling? Do you have any friends that could help you move the couch? Is that a fireplace in the drawing?

Highup, how do you lock in the ends? I'm guessing it was something that hadn't been done before and that's why it came apart. Carpet edges in my doorways are all messy because the cats clawed them, but I discovered I have a whole bunch of carpet remnants in a bag in my loft (which has fallen, but I can't quite reach the bag). I'm going to try to get some grabber arms to see if I can pull on the bag and get it in reach- or grab some of the scraps that fell out. The area rug is a good idea. I'll have to remember that when I do my reno-- area rug over spots the sun shines in on. Mud & dirt- sounds like my yard.

The sliding glass door and sun thing reminded me that the cats tore down the custom blackout curtain we had over our sliding glass door. Need to see if we can put it back up or replace it.

I’m going for the look in the example. Someone called it sage green.

Tom P

 

[highup]

Don’t mix American made with the imports

For the original installation there were two different colored cores, so obviously different runs. Both came in an order from a Carpet One dealer. The top side and the surface colors looked the same, but the locking mechanism felt to me to be just a tad different when you locked in into the other. A tinsy bit looser when you locked one color into the other.
This new batch that I installed in a bedroom a week and a half ago was different in thickness and the locking mechanism was noticeably looser. The sheen was about the same but the texture on the surface was less rough, less real looking. This product is 4 years different from the original installation, but why they made these changes I have no clue.
Titebond isn't recommended for vinyl flooring. The core isn't 100% solid vinyl. I just used it as some added insurance in the doorway. It probably acted as much as a filler as it did and adhesive.

 

[highup]

I’m going for the look in the example. Someone called it sage green.

Tom P

I like that color a lot. It makes the room feel warm. Cool ceiling too.

 

[zannej]

Highup, that makes sense.

Tom, I normally don't like green walls but that shade looks good. It looks good with stained wood.

 

[highup]

Heading out for lunch with a friend/client. Shes 80 and has had a rough year. I should keep in touch with her more often. Her son reminds me of that. Talked to her yesterday and she asked me over for lunch.

 

[zannej]

Hope you had a good lunch and that your 80-yr-old friend is doing well.
I'm under-the-weather again. My brother-in-law picked up a nasty cold from Disney World and unintentionally passed it on to us. I was going to tease him about how he went to Disney and all he got me was this lousy cold, but I don't want to make him feel bad about it. I'm hoping it won't be like the cold I got in September that lingered until early December.

I got a "small spaces" air freshener and put it in the air circulating compartment for the air conditioner. There was some odd unpleasant smell coming out of the vents & I don't know what it was, but it was bugging everyone in the house. Almost smelled like the paste we used to use in kindergarten with a slightly sour note. I managed to get rid of it for a few minutes by spraying Gain scented Febreeze into the compartment. The small spaces air freshener seems to be doing it's job now. It's not overpowering & it neutralizes the other odor-- although, I can't smell much of anything with this cold.

In a bit of good news, my younger kitties are starting to bond with an older toothless orange kitty (his teeth fell out due to a plaque allergy). Their father is orange so they seemed to accept him on sight more than the other older cats. Two of the younger ones were sleeping next to him on a box. The youngest calico was chirping at me and rolling on her back for belly rubs. Even though they have been knocking things down, it's actually nicer having them loose because they don't get so excited when we walk through the front room & don't get underfoot as much or try to charge outside. They make good use of the cat tree. I think tomorrow I will try to clean up the front room a bit since they won't be in the way.

 

[highup]

We ended up just having coffee and talking for hours She's got 80 years worth of stories and I have 61............. OK, OK, neither of us probably recall day one...the wet, the chill, the yelling , screaming and the violence.

 

[DarisMulkin]

We ended up just having coffee and talking for hours She's got 80 years worth of stories and I have 61

I used to love sitting with my grandfather and listening to him. He couild remember dates, like back in 1931 we had so much snow we could walk across the phone lines, things like that. I'd love to be able and go back and do that again and just sit and talk.

 

[highup]

She said she remembered being on the front porch sitting on her grandpa's chest and combing his looooong beard til be fell asleep. When he woke up he would always ask her if she'd been good. She always said yes, so they went to the peanut cellar to get her some peanuts as a reward. Neat to have such a vivid story to remember. The beard was long and wide like that Oakridge Boys singer.

 

[Floorist]

Lost both granddads when I was 2. But my Dad told some whoppers.

 

[zannej]

I never met my paternal grandfather (he died when my father was a teenager back in the 60s). Paternal grandmother died sometime in the 1980s but she lived on the east coast when we were living on the west coast so I have only vague memories of one of her visits. My maternal grandfather died in the late 90s but we'd been out of touch since we traveled around and by the time my grandmother died in 2001, we'd been overseas almost 10 years. I remember my grandfather having a good sense of humor, a good singing voice, and telling lots of jokes with puns. My grandmother was a mean old woman when we were little (didn't think kids should make noise, climb trees, or play in the dirt- and I was a loud tree-climbing monkey of a kid who dug for worms in the dirt). When we first moved down here, we befriended an older couple (old enough to be my grandparents) and the lady was taking care of her elderly father. He would sit in a side bedroom by himself (with the door open) while the other adults drank coffee and chatted. I always liked and respected elderly people so I would go sit in the room with him and ask him to talk to me. I no longer remember any of his stories, but I was later told that he always looked forward to my visits because he liked having someone to talk to.

I dearly miss my elderly friend, Cordell (the son-in-law of the aforementioned gentleman). He grew up in a large family & his father was crippled at a young age and died when Cordell was only 16- so it was left to Cordell to financially support his mother and 6 sisters (he also had an older brother but the brother was married & moved out & felt no inclination to help). His nickname in high school was "Romeo". He joined the army during WW2 and went to China and India. He later worked at a department store and then as an insurance bill collector before opening up a fish & shrimp shop. He loved to garden and always had good fresh veggies and fruits. I used to pester him to tell some of my favorite stories over and over. When he got together with another friend, CG, I would just sit and listen to them chat about their childhoods. There used to be a group of at least 5 men who would come over and tease each other and talk about the old days. It dwindled as they either got put in nursing homes or passed away. In retrospect, I wish I'd had a camera and recording device with me to record some of the stories. I can re-tell some of them, but not with quite the same flair.

Other than making dinner and cleaning up dog crap, I got nothing done yesterday. I was up in the middle of the night and then went to sleep sometime in the morning and didn't wake until after 6pm. I made stuffing with corn & chicken again.

Edit: I'm still awake and was watching youtube vidoeos on flooring installation and came across this one. From what I understand, the man passed away in 2011 but man, he was skilled. He was entertaining as well.

 

[Floorist]

Well, I did it. I have a book that will be on Kindle in about 48 hours. "Death, Bad Dreams and other Fun Stuff." It is science fiction.

 

[highup]

........takes that long to load? You must be using my server.

....and other fun stuff. I like the title.

 

[Nick]

Good Luck..

 

[Floorist]

I just hope it is not stupid. I have read some bad stuff on there.

 

[highup]

Spent 8 hours yesterday and today "cleaning up" a new carpet installation. It was 1/4" thick woven from Karastan with alternating strips of cut and loop. Nice looking material. The carpet was cut too long in a lot of places and bunched up. I pulled it loose, restretched and trimmed it even. Ended up looking good simply because it was even.
From my own experience, not many installer do well with wovens. I think retailers ought to get some of their installers trained because it's so difficult.

First thing I noticed was the tackstrip was too far out. Easily detected by just looking at it. I replaced 16 feet of tackstrip in the hall and 10 feet on the landing. The original tackstrip was re-used, I believe on the stairs too. It was a minimum of 1/2 inch away from the base.
There were some staples with pad on them behind the tackstrip. Throughout the job I probably found 20 staples behind the strip.................... somebody's movin' too fast. Maybe because it a paltry $7 per yard. $15 would been closer not including the stairs. 3 bedrooms, a 16 foot long hall and a stairway with a middle landing Not all that difficult with a fuzzy carpet. Guessing the job was just under 100 yards.
There were bubbles next to the walls in a lot of places and bunched up or cut too long around door casings.
I "piddled" around for 7 1/2 hours fine tuning and did the best I could. Customer is happy.
I told the shop the job was just as difficult as the installer said it was. He cried and moaned and I now know why. I also said it was over his head. (mine too) I don't think they are going to back charge him. I hope not. ........ they pushed him to do it even when he wanted to walk.

 

[zannej]

I'm glad you were able to fix the bad carpet install.

I'm still sick but I did the usual of cleaning up after the pets, feeding pets, making meals, & then got called to go pick my friend's fiance up from work because she was being sent home sick. Even though she showed up, they told her they were treating it as calling in because she left so early in the shift. I took her to the store so she could get some meds from the pharmacy and then she grabbed something to eat at Burger King.

It was already down to 48 degrees (which is cold for here) when I left the house. It's currently around 38 degrees.

Editing to update that I went to the post office and the grocery store & helped my brother with some computer issues. I had to explain to him how to find out what sort of RAM his computer uses.

 

[Tom Picciani]

I started looking at miter saws. I need it to cut 11.5 inch stair treads as well as 4 inch baseboard. Under Dewalt they have the 779 and 780. 779 has no alignment aid but only costs $350. The DWS780 has the drop shadow system but costs $499 on sale. So I looked at Harbor Freight. The Hercules 12 inch professional saw is the same as the 780 but only costs $350. It’s been as low as$299. Going to look at it.

Anyone ever see this saw? See saw?