What did you do today?

[Tile Tom]

Looks like he used cut ends for his butt joints too. I’d guess someone with no experience, no skills, and didn’t even have time to watch a YouTube video… Boss said put the floor down so he did… Probably thought it looked good when he was done…

Guys like that keep me busy. I don't even feel bad when I'm getting the sob story from someone that had to pay twice for the same job.
And we all know that I'm way more expensive than the schmuck that sold them on that the first time!

 

[highup]

They've been tryin to get me to do this bathroom for a couple of months, but I've been too busy. The bathroom needed new plywood before the tub was put in and the floor needed prep before that was done. Expense was not the issue, they just wanted the floor done. I think their handyman did it. I can tell from the way it looks. I'm not sure what he's handy at, maybe he's just handy at being there.
Yup, those are cut ends. If you were running short, you could probably get away with something like that but..... It would help to have a sharp knife ...and make the cuts perfectly square ...and butt the ends together instead of leaving a gap.

 

[C.J.]

If I need a perfectly square/ clean butt end I’ll use my miter saw to cut the plank because score n snap doesn’t always leave an acceptable edge for a butt joint. Now all you have to do is to replicate maybe 6” of a micro bevel and nobody will ever know the job was short.

 

[Incognito]

If I need a perfectly square/ clean butt end I’ll use my miter saw to cut the plank because score n snap doesn’t always leave an acceptable edge for a butt joint. Now all you have to do is to replicate maybe 6” of a micro bevel and nobody will ever know the job was short.

Some of the vinyl planks were pretty easy to doctor up for that micro bevel just by running a flat head screwdriver across/into the seam with enough force to tweak down the finish. Kinda like we were taught to leave the knifeblade width gap in a lino seam then drag the tip of the lino knife across to visibly close the seam. That slight change of angle on the surface layer reflects the light different enough so it can in some cases suffice for the look you're after. Most guys I worked with made zero attempt to replicate the micro-bevel. That's part of the commercial mentality------good enough -----and no one notices or looks that carefully anyways. They win, I lose in that sense but I saw no point in doing inferior QUALITY work just to finish a few minutes earlier.

Rather than the table saw for cross cuts to a net fit you can snap, score and sand with a bevel to square and clean up the rough score cut. Mostly I would use a small block sander but I've actually also use a palm sander

 

[kwfloors]

I use a mallet to that drop lock and it does lock. Can't just drop it and done.

 

[Tile Tom]

I use a mallet to that drop lock and it does lock. Can't just drop it and done.

I'm over the drop lock systems. Either the lock break's when trying to seat it or down the road they start smiling at you. Their a terrible design.

 

[C.J.]

I was bored today so I went into the shop and made several cutting boards outta all the scrap we have laying around. Christmas presents, right The checkerboard one is a mutt of a board. 23”x24” so it’s a good size chunk(s) of wood. The dark wood is Walnut but the light squares are a combination of Ash, Birch, Hevea and some other yellowish chunk of something I found while scrounging around for scraps. I gotta fill some splits n gaps with epoxy then I can flatten it and get on with finishing them all.

 

[Tile Tom]

I was bored today so I went into the shop and made several cutting boards outta all the scrap we have laying around. Christmas presents, right The checkerboard one is a mutt of a board. 23”x24” so it’s a good size chunk(s) of wood. The dark wood is Walnut but the light squares are a combination of Ash, Birch, Hevea and some other yellowish chunk of something I found while scrounging around for scraps. I gotta fill some splits n gaps with epoxy then I can flatten it and get on with finishing them all.

View attachment 15619View attachment 15620

The cat is an attention whore,

 

[C.J.]

The cat is an attention whore,

They all are

 

[zannej]

Highup, I've seen much better DIY jobs than what you showed on that bathroom floor. Hell, I've done better DIY jobs on flooring while helping my friend.

CJ, beautiful cat and gorgeous cutting boards!

My cats are all attention whores, but its so hot today they are outside or in cooler parts of the house.

AC is on the fritz-- heating instead of cooling. Couldn't sleep well because it got too hot. Set it to cool only but it just got hotter-- way hotter than it is outside. I read that turning the fan off might help bc it was just blowing hot air around. So I tried to shut it off with the thermostat but nothing happened. Had to shut the entire unit off because it wouldn't work. I even tried flipping the breaker on and off to see if it would reset it somehow. I don't know if the thermostat is bad or what. I checked filters- they are good. I poured bleach down the condensate line and capped it off. It got a little cooler after that but not much and then it shot up to 87°. My brother just came out of his room bitching about the heat and turned it back on. I wonder if we need a new thermostat or new wiring or some kind of coolant.. It was working fine until Mom turned the heat on when it got below 30° for two days.

I binge-watched the Obiwan Kenobi series (only 6 episodes thus far and that was the whole season. I enjoyed it. Went to Samsclub, grabbed food from Wendy's, dropped something by my friend's house. Meant to just drop it off and leave but my brother was with me and went inside despite me reminding him we have frozen food. Toddler was happy to see me. Almost got him to say "Hi" but he managed a "Ha" ending in gurgling sounds. He now runs to me when his mother is mean to him. Kid doesn't speak or understand a word but she was hitting him for something and he was crying and not having a clue why he was getting hit. It's alarming bc at over 2yrs old he should be able to speak at least 50 words and be able to understand basic concepts.

Got home, unloaded groceries, fiddled with the thermostat, and now I'm trying to cool off with 2 fans blowing on me. Had trouble getting my sweaty legs into pants to answer the door for UPS. Mom's laptop got sent back. Need to hook it up to see if it works properly now.

 

[Tile Tom]

Highup, I've seen much better DIY jobs than what you showed on that bathroom floor. Hell, I've done better DIY jobs on flooring while helping my friend.

CJ, beautiful cat and gorgeous cutting boards!

My cats are all attention whores, but its so hot today they are outside or in cooler parts of the house.

AC is on the fritz-- heating instead of cooling. Couldn't sleep well because it got too hot. Set it to cool only but it just got hotter-- way hotter than it is outside. I read that turning the fan off might help bc it was just blowing hot air around. So I tried to shut it off with the thermostat but nothing happened. Had to shut the entire unit off because it wouldn't work. I even tried flipping the breaker on and off to see if it would reset it somehow. I don't know if the thermostat is bad or what. I checked filters- they are good. I poured bleach down the condensate line and capped it off. It got a little cooler after that but not much and then it shot up to 87°. My brother just came out of his room bitching about the heat and turned it back on. I wonder if we need a new thermostat or new wiring or some kind of coolant.. It was working fine until Mom turned the heat on when it got below 30° for two days.

I binge-watched the Obiwan Kenobi series (only 6 episodes thus far and that was the whole season. I enjoyed it. Went to Samsclub, grabbed food from Wendy's, dropped something by my friend's house. Meant to just drop it off and leave but my brother was with me and went inside despite me reminding him we have frozen food. Toddler was happy to see me. Almost got him to say "Hi" but he managed a "Ha" ending in gurgling sounds. He now runs to me when his mother is mean to him. Kid doesn't speak or understand a word but she was hitting him for something and he was crying and not having a clue why he was getting hit. It's alarming bc at over 2yrs old he should be able to speak at least 50 words and be able to understand basic concepts.

Got home, unloaded groceries, fiddled with the thermostat, and now I'm trying to cool off with 2 fans blowing on me. Had trouble getting my sweaty legs into pants to answer the door for UPS. Mom's laptop got sent back. Need to hook it up to see if it works properly now.

So, is it a possibility it might still be on heat mode?

I've done bone head things like that more than once.

 

[zannej]

So, is it a possibility it might still be on heat mode?

I've done bone head things like that more than once.

The display on the thermostat was set to cool, but something internally was wrong with the thermostat so it wasn't turning heat mode off. $178 later plus gas for a 2hour trip (1hr each way) and new Honeywell thermostat has been installed. It started cooling off almost immediately. I wasn't sure if it was because it got colder outside, but it is holding at the temp we set (72). Hopefully it will continue working. Its now a nice comfortable temperature and the cats are piling on me. My friend had a bad headache but he still managed to make sense of the wiring. One of the 7 wires was unused so it got taped off. Hopefully this thing will last because I like it. I can actually read the screen very easily. Old one you had to look at just the correct angle, needed a flashlight or good light, and some of the text on it was too small to read (at least for me). My friend could read stuff I couldn't even see was on the screen at all.

So, that ate up most of my day. My brother and mother are in much better moods now.

 

[Floorist]

Voted today at the county clerk's office.

 

[highup]

......but what if you change your mind in the next two weeks?
I have my ballot, just haven't waded through the voters pamphlet yet.

 

[highup]

Finally got around to redoing an access hatch in a master bedroom closet.
It's the one that an installer hacked in a few months ago.
I just cut a new hatch from some 3/4" plywood. I made it a half inch bigger so I could cut a new edge that was straight and square. Turned out nice.
Im not reinstalling the handle. It looks tacky. I told them I'd drill an 1/8" hole on the rear edge so a screw could be inserted if it ever needed to be lifted out. Either that or a plunger might work.
I thought a had a better 'before' image of the hatch. I could only find close ups

 

[C.J.]

Damn, that’s a rough lookin trap door the other installer left the customer with. Nice job cleaning that up!

 

[highup]

I don't know if he charged extra for doing it. When I measure the job everything was carpeted and the trap door was covered. Being that was hidden under the carpet he could have just said "that's going to cost extra" I think he's had too many jobs going on not to mention the fact that .....he's not capable of making it look any better.
It wouldn't have been that difficult to make it look a little bit better even without trim. If I was the customer I'd put a little carpet runner over that anyway.

 

[C.J.]

I don't know if he charged extra for doing it. When I measure the job everything was carpeted and the trap door was covered. Being that was hidden under the carpet he could have just said "that's going to cost extra" I think he's had too many jobs going on not to mention the fact that .....he's not capable of making it look any better.
It wouldn't have been that difficult to make it look a little bit better even without trim. If I was the customer I'd put a little carpet runner over that anyway.

If for some reason I wasn’t supplied T- moldings for that trap door I woulda found another work around to seal that deal otherwise I’d have a pissed off customer or I’d have to make a return trip for free.

If the actual trap door is say 16”x24” I would have dry laid the planks out over the top of it and traced some lines that were say 18”x26”. The laminate portion of the trap door would be bigger than the actual trap door itself. This would help to stop, a little bit, cold dirty air from creeping in from the crawl space. If you cut clean lines with your saw then leave a 1/8” gap between the lid and the floor, you’re golden. Yeah it woulda taken an extra half hour to 45 min but that’s the kinda stuff that separates the men from the boys.

I ask myself why it is that a product that is so easy to install has an abortion rate that is through the sky. Do shops need to start giving away complimentary area rugs to cover up the worst of it? Sad thing is the **** work isn’t in the middle of the room, it’s all about the details which are around the perimeter of the room. Base, transitions, trap doors, toe kicks, stairs…

 

[Incognito]

......but what if you change your mind in the next two weeks?
I have my ballot, just haven't waded through the voters pamphlet yet.

Good example of what's wrong with having the system we have where one political party pretends to be two with only "social issues" that are really nothing more than wedge issues dividing and conquering the will of the voters.

There's a better way.
There's GOT to be a better way.

 

[zannej]

I went and voted. Noticed that at least one of the people running was not actually the political party he claimed to be on the ballot (I read up on the candidates and their stances).
Came across this gem:

Do you support an amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude except as it applies to the otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice? (Amends Article I, Section 3) [ ]Yes [ ] No

”

The latter part was not on the ballot. So, the option is to make it illegal to use slavery as a punishment for a crime except when it's legal to use slavery as punishment for a crime. Slavery is illegal except when it's illegal. The person who initially proposed the amendment was unhappy with the wording and said it's too confusing. His intention was to make slavery/involuntary servitude illegal. Currently, even people who are still pending trial (not convicted yet) can be put on chain gangs and forced to do manual labor.

I fed kitties, got gas, got got groceries, got cow food, fed the cows, got hooked in the side by impatient cow, cooked, and am resting.

One of the cats peed on Mom's mail-in-ballot so I asked the election workers and they said if she isn't going to vote by mail she can still come in and vote physically. They don't want a ballot with cat pee on it.

I'm fed up with both political parties right now. Although, I am sad to hear about Pelosi's husband being attacked in their home. I don't care what the party affiliation is, someone breaking into a home, zip-tying up an 82-yr-old man, and bashing him in the head with a hammer is not acceptable. People are cracking jokes about it but I don't find home invasion and assault of an elderly person the least bit funny. Even if it happened to someone I extremely dislike, I would not be ok with it.