What did you do today?

[highup]

Getting up at day break to mow tomorrow. Heat index 101 in the afternoon.

When I hear you talk like that, I honestly cannot begin to imagine that kind of weather. We don't get a heat index............. we are not worthy.
68% humidity and 78 degrees is like what?
I don't know if we even get that very often.
Summers highs are 65 to 70, with lows of mid 50's to 60ish.
Yes, we get a few 80's 90's and a very rare 100 in the summer. Our warm/hot/above normal weather usually comes from an offshore flow............. dry inland temperature shift and make us warmer and drier than normal.

 

[highup]

His job.
........pull up the old floor which is on concrete and on 2X4 sleepers and replace or remake the floor.
My job was to to glue down new carpet and install new 6" rubber base. Removal and installation of new base was figured in............ and a few hours of prep, not knowing what I was going to deal with. ......other than the obvious.
It has turned into Hell with a time line. I probably have 15 to 20 hours into this job assisting the shop's handyman. He was supposed to get the floor ready for me.
No way was that gonna happen because of the surprises we uncovered after the boss left for Iceland. I need to be fair when billing for a situation none of us could have ever envisioned.
I have some images, but not sure how well they will show the situation.
This is a "boss is gone" and a "have it done when I get back" affair.
I think we will make it.

 

[highup]

The job I mentioned bis a bit weird.
It's an office in a Ford dealership.
It's the "bosses office"
It's Oregon's oldest Ferd dealership. Actually I have known the owners for 30 years.
The office is adjacent to a sidewalk. Problem is, the room is 5 inches below the level of the sidewalk outside. The room has a wood floor on sleepers................... 2x4's layed flat on their sides, then 3/4 inch treated plywood screwed onto that.
The initial problem was the old plywood got soft and spongy........... meaning water was getting in.
We carpeted this office 20 years ago.
OK, so the handy man tore out the old carpet and plywood floor and what we saw was a bit ugly.
I ended up scraping, wire brushing, making concrete forms to seal out water. Way over my pay scale............... but it had to get done.

This is the outside wall, viewed obviously from the inside. I needed to make a concrete form about 6 inches tall to get above the sidewalk level outside. That will keep water outside from traveling down into this office.
Never in my life have I seen a pour like this. BAD!
I removed a lot of loose rocks and was literally digging out sand so I could pack concrete into the void as far as possible so water couldn't intrude from below ground level.
You see, ..........we have a big problem here. Downtown here is just a few feet above high tide.
So if you add together, high tide coinciding with heavy rain, plus the vibration from log trucks traveling next to the business........................... It's almost like liquefaction, .....literally pumping water into this office. ......not always, and not in the summer and maybe just at high tide when accompanied by a lot of rain. We are hopefully fixing a problem based on guesses and first hand analysis. IE: crap shoot
The image after the large river stones is the concrete form in place.
Lastly is the form in place and filled with concrete.
I made a concrete vibrator using a Makita square sheet sander and some 1/4" steel bent to shape. Touched the sander to the rod and the vibration was amazing. Amazing how quickly the poured concrete settled, shrink then disappeared below the top of the form.
Once vibrated, I just added more to bring the level back.

 

[highup]

Here's a closer up of that outside wall in the office. Look at the studs and the lack of them being encased in concrete or having a wood sill. This concrete floor is 5 inches below the sidewalk outside of this wall. I'm thinking that it should have had a footing made of concrete even way back in 1914. Just my take.
The building has been reconfigured many time over the years.
I used 4 / 60 lb bags of Quickrete to fill the 8 foot long concrete form that I made along this wall.

I think and work slow, so sudden emergency crap like this isn't my forte....... But I think I done good. I think we will meet our deadline.
7 days seems about right for a 9 by 15 carpet job?

 

[zannej]

Takes $1800 to get the car back? ....being careful, you can get a decent ride for $1800 outright, then invest $400 per month into the car at will ..........buying tires, new wheels, a fancy stereo etc. If you don't want to add bling you don't have to. I can't relate to $400 car payments. That's nuts unless you are a business owner, doctor, lawyer etc.

Yeah. I thought my friend was absolutely nuts to agree to it-- but he wanted to make his fiance happy & she was so excited about the car at first. She was also employed at the time & $400 was literally half of her pay check so it was supposed to be coming out of her pay. Unfortunately, she lost her job due to major anxiety attacks triggered by some crackhead co-workers. My friend tried to get her to pick a less expensive car but she insisted it *had* to be that one. She loved it at first but after she lost her job & couldn't afford to get her nails done or buy toilet paper or food she realized it's not worth it & she doesn't want it now. It doesn't help that they charged almost new price for a used vehicle that had to be taken into the shop almost 3 times within the first couple of weeks & has about 8 recalls on it. I wish they'd listened to me about getting something less expensive.

Anyone know the rules on what happens if someone put down a deposit & the vehicle gets repo'd within 3 months? Do they get any $ back? the $5k was roughly 1/3 of the price plus the other payments that were made.

They could have bought a whole car outright for what they've already paid for it. It's a relatively "new" vehicle-- 2018 so it didn't need new wheels or fancy stuff. They are currently loaning it to a friend who had a death in the family & couldn't afford a rental car to go to the funeral in another state. Their insurance covers other drivers if it gets damaged/totaled in a wreck.

Fixing the bosses office floor looks like it turned into a major fiasco. I hope the guy appreciates the work you've done.

Tom, I wish I'd had something to clean up when my brother knocked over a bucket of paint in my kitchen & then didn't even tell me about it-- I found it 10 minutes later. A-hole didn't even pick up the bucket or even attempt to do anything. He just said "f-it" and walked away. Which is pretty much how he approaches anything in the house that he's supposed to take care of. I'm a bit ticked at him right now bc he left a mess for me to cleanup yesterday. Not only will he not take out the trash, he doesn't even bother to put trash in the trash can so I slipped on a damn cheese wrapper.

 

[highup]

Yes, the guy appreciates the "help". He's pretty much just watching and learning. He does cleaning painting fixing and patching. He's been working there for ever. He's not what we would consider contractor level. More of a getter done guy.
The actual owner of this dealership is pretty much retired. His daughter runs the place now.
He popped in while we were digging out the rocks and sand, so he knows what we are dealing with. I've known him since the early 80's when his dad owned the place.

 

[havasu]

Where is everyone?

 

[Floorist]

Where is everyone?

I am here.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Did some cleanup today. I put tack strips behind baby threshold in bedrooms. Carpet was still stiff because of glue from carpet tape. But it looks pretty good. That lets me hold off getting carpet for bedrooms.

Started tearing out carpet on stairs. What a pain! He put 2 inch nails in corners through the carpet. They have to be cut out. I should have 7 steps done today.

 

[Floorist]

Did some cleanup today. I put tack strips behind baby threshold in bedrooms. Carpet was still stiff because of glue from carpet tape. But it looks pretty good. That lets me hold off getting carpet for bedrooms.

Started tearing out carpet on stairs. What a pain! He put 2 inch nails in corners through the carpet. They have to be cut out. I should have 7 steps done today.

Sounds like the "installer" was a moron.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Sounds like the "installer" was a moron.

Yes. And he didn’t use finishing nails because he knew it would be carpeted. But I got upper set done.

 

[Tom Picciani]

I made a stair template.

 

[Floorist]

Looks good.

 

[highup]

I am here.

I'm here. Hey Ernesto........... stop holding out. We miss your input.

 

[highup]

Did some cleanup today. I put tack strips behind baby threshold in bedrooms. Carpet was still stiff because of glue from carpet tape. But it looks pretty good. That lets me hold off getting carpet for bedrooms.

Started tearing out carpet on stairs. What a pain! He put 2 inch nails in corners through the carpet. They have to be cut out. I should have 7 steps done today.

A hair drier softens the tape so you can tuck it in. Just protect your new floor with a few layers of poster board and aluminum foil or whatever you can dream up.

 

[highup]

I made a stair template.

Nice job. I've made a few different kinds over the years. My best, and most accurate one involved a piece of sheet metal, strips of poster board and hot glue. Not sure if I have any images of it.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Sounds like the "installer" was a moron.

I bet the edges were turned under about an inch on both sides. That is the way I was taught back in the 60's. The nails[blue lath] pulled the turn down tight. So maybe he wasn't a moron after all.

 

[Tom Picciani]

I bet the edges were turned under about an inch on both sides. That is the way I was taught back in the 60's. The nails[blue lath] pulled the turn down tight. So maybe he wasn't a moron after all.

That's exactly what he did.

But I have a method now. I take the cutting tool and run it straight down each side of the stair. Then I pull the carpet off. More learning curve stuff. Should have the last of it done in the next day or two.

I'm getting my carpenter friend to cut off the nosing though. Too many nails near the spot where I would plunge cut with the circular saw. He knows how to deal with that I think.

 

[highup]

I cut 2 inches away from the walls inside a motor home once to remove the majority of the factory carpet. Paneling is installed on to of the carpet in those. Tacked down with 1/4 inch crown 18 gauge staples.
I was then able to use my Fein Multi-master saw to cut the staples flush to the underlayment and the slide out the 2" strip carpet. Getting most the carpet out of the way allows you to get at the fasteners.
I pulled up carpet metal from an entryway at a sliding glass door entry once. It was fastened with framing nails.
Yes, the house had a 2x6 subfloor.

 

[highup]

I made a stair template.

Tom, I did take images of a template I used a number of years ago.
I had a sheet metal business cut and bend a scrap or galvanized steel to fit these steps. It was short of fitting the sides and the backs.