What did you do today?

[Mark Brown]

Based on most of the work I see, that about sums it up.
Round about 5 or 6 years ago I just decided one day that i install tile... Mostly because I knew it would not be worse than the "professional" tile installations i saw on a regular basis. Now I am good at it and wonder why i ever do anything other than tile.

 

[Floorist]

I did tile for a few years but quit. I could make more doing carpet and vinyl.

 

[Floorist]

Thanks, that helps a bunch. I is now a tile installer.

Thanks for calling, that was fun.

 

[highup]

Based on most of the work I see, that about sums it up.
Round about 5 or 6 years ago I just decided one day that i install tile... Mostly because I knew it would not be worse than the "professional" tile installations i saw on a regular basis. Now I am good at it and wonder why i ever do anything other than tile.

There's too many things I don't know about tile installation. Mainly the substrate prep. Years ago I read this specifics on deflection rate allowable for a floor. Nobody ever measures deflection in the floor. They just get in and gitter done. I'm sure that works fine until 6 months later some grout starts coming loose... And you fix the grout problem.... And every 6 months till eternity the grout keeps coming out in that spot.
Nope, there's too much I don't know that could cost me too much. so I'm guessing right now I have a really fancy Rock saw.

 

[highup]

Thanks for calling, that was fun.

 

[Mark Brown]

It really is not complicated high up. Basically it goes a little something like this.... all tile floors are installed wrong on plywood substrates because tile dummies are dummies. After you get that part down, learning the deflection calculation chart for plywood subfloors is a 10 min affair that is easily referenced by our good buddy the internet. Then all you do is use Mapie LFT for EVERYTHING and you will be ok.
I have 10's of thousands of feet of tile installed on my current phone number, wall tile, shower tile, floor tile, glass tile, mosaic tile, ceiling tile, exterior tile, backsplash tile, waterproof tile, water holding tile... you get the idea and so far that phone has not rung once to say "hey, come fix these tile" the only call i get is come lay some more tile. It pays out the snout and I do not charge an arm and a leg for it and more importantly than all of that, I still like it. It is very creative, mildly artistic and it is one of those things that when i am done i can stand back and be proud of. Every time i do carpet and the like i say to myself, yup, its fuzzy alright.... not much magic in that. Still takes a great deal of skill to do properly, i am not saying that, but a ****** carpet job looks the same as an amazing carpet job on day one and frankly i am not gonna stand around a clients house for a year or two to be able to see the magic of a proper carpet install
I use to thoroughly enjoy hardwood but with engineered plywood, sorry hardwood, it takes all the wood out of it, not to mention pre finished removes all of the craft that hardwood truly is and just turns it into a job. Still like it more than carpet, but it lost the flare.

 

[Floorist]

Every DIYer does their own tile here. So there is no money in it for the installers. The local lumberyard sells a lot of it and loans out wet saws.

 

[highup]

Naw Mark, too late in the game for me. Maybe if I'd started 45 years ago.

 

[Mark Brown]

The local lumberyard sells a lot of it and loans out wet saws.

Really?? I mean good on the lumberyard for thinking of a strategy to find a way to generate sales. That is a rather nifty strategy.
I love the DIY tile crowd, it looks like complete garbage and they are so proud
I install it with a 1/16 lip and I am Judas
There is no love

 

[highup]

Does the direction of the lip go parallel or perpendicular to the light source.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Does the direction of the lip go parallel or perpendicular to the light source.

Diagonally in a crisscross pattern.

 

[Floorist]

Does the direction of the lip go parallel or perpendicular to the light source.

Doesn't matter, they will still trip on it.

 

[highup]

Well it wasn't cutting a squares I thought. The reason this thing was heading to the dumpster is because it dropped hard and from what I can tell it bent the arm. The arm is hollow with reinforcements molded into the two sections.
The lower section mounts to the base with four bolts. It also has two 3/8" alignment pins so it can't twist around.
Well, the alignment rail on the base was tweaked as far as it will adjust and that wasn't quite good enough.
I took the motor and arm off and drove out the alignment pins.
Putting the arm back in with its four bolts, there's a tiny bit of slop now. I twisted the arm counterclockwise and snugged up the bolts. A tiny bit more adjustment afterwards has a cutting pretty good. I had a nearly one foot square sample of a composite stone countertop. I cut one half inch off of all four sides.
Measuring corner to corner I was off about 1/32. Measuring straight across at two points, each direction I was off less than 1/64th in 10 1/2".
I'm guessing that's close enough for general tile work. It's a 24 inch saw so I'm not sure how far off it would be with a cut like that. I'm not I'm not going to go buy a 24-in tile just to find out.

 

[zannej]

Today I took my brother to a doctor's appointment, stopped to see a friend but the friend was too engrossed in his video games to be social. Grabbed takeout food (good thing bc no cooking what I planned to cook tonight). Went home & was checking my e-mail when I started smelling something burning. I looked around my room, headed into the kitchen and saw the NuWave cooktop & some stuff near it were on fire. Somehow one of the burners on the old stove we can't use got bumped and turned to high. Since we have limited space, the NuWave sits on top of the defunct stove (which is hardwired so we can't unplug it). I came out to see fire & melting plastic. I immediately turned the burner off. Then I searched for the fire extinguisher-- which I just set in a place so I could find it the other day but it was gone. I knew I needed to get the fire out asap so I unplugged the Nu-Wave and grabbed a bucket & filled it with water and dumped it on the fire. Risky bc I know water & electric don't mix, but it was that or it would continue to burn. Really bummed bc they don't sell those things for a decent price anymore. Opened windows & turned on fans to get the smoke out. The melted plastic is awful. Messaged my friend about it & he called to check on us.

He's going to help me figure out which breaker the stove is on so we can disconnect it. It's not the first time a burner has gotten bumped before but it's the first time it's set something on fire. In the past I've always caught it in time (my brother has a bad habit of bumping controls).

With replacement prices of the cooktops being so high, I figure we might as well suck it up and try to find an actual stove that works. But, our older model is 30amp and newer ones are 50 so we will need to change some electrical and get a plug back there. Removing the old one is going to suck.

I'm probably going to find the fire extinguisher next time I look in the kitchen. LOL.

 

[highup]

Wow, good thing you caught it when you did. Reminds me I should have a fire extinguisher in the house but I don't. It's just a few steps out the door to a coiled hose that would reach anywhere in the house, so right now I'm thinking up an excuse not to get a fire extinguisher. Probably not a very good excuse.
Anyway glad you caught that in time and got it put out.

 

[highup]

I'm going to title this one don't take a knife to a gunfight.

 

[Mark Brown]

I think it would be more aptly titled "run like hell when someone brings a bazooka to a gun fight"

 

[DarisMulkin]

Here you go Z.

bvvbvvvb

 

[Floorist]

3/4” Plywood Standard:
March 2020 - $37.98 /sheet
February 2021 - $72.49 /sheet
March 2021 - $83.49 /sheet
April 2021 - $95.98 /sheet
(Copied from a Real Estate site and the price is from Canada)
HUGE price increase on one of the most used piece of common lumber for construction. https://www.homedepot.ca/.../west-fraser-3-4.../1000401027

 

[DarisMulkin]

I just checked at HD the other day and 3/4 was 49.99. Oak was 59.99 and 1/2 osb was 32.99