What did you do today?

[highup]

Did a restretch yesterday and today. Sometimes it's a balance between engineering, physics and surgery. You need to take things apart, then leave them better than you found them.
I've never installed this kind of carpet, but the warehouse guy hates it. The backing is so slippery on the carpet machine I watched him unrolling it and instead of going from one side to the other, it fed down between the rollers. Its stretchy like a dishrag. Why can't they just leave new backings off the table? No new backing has ever proved itself better than a good quality action back.

 

[highup]

Anyway the restretch was a bit of a nightmare. A long hallway with a bunch of doorways. The carpet was turned and stapled in a bathroom doorway against some lvp. The carpet next to that same wall was also stapled to the tack strip.
I decided to stretch away from that area and take a seam apart in the opposite direction, requiring me to cut open a seam across the hallway.
I'm glad I thought long and hard about how I would go about this doing this restretch without causing problems. That's a large modular home and there's angled walls, offsets, entryway just all kinds of weird stuff. It would have been difficult to installing this carpet originally.
Removing some wrinkles became a lot of effort and time because of the shape of this house... Late model modular homes have angles and weird stuff going on making the job much more difficult.
..... And the staple jockey

One image here will show the corrected issues in the hallway, and spare bedroom / sewing room doorway. I never took any before pictures so just picture wrinkles in the doorway.
It was obvious to me in the spare bedroom / sewing room that somebody put a seam together and then stretched the carpet. You're supposed to stretch across the doorway first before putting the seam together but some people just don't give a.......... flying f.
The job was done by a staple jockey stapling the carpet to the tax strip in the closet which of course I had to pull back, remove staples, and then restretch before doing the same in the doorway.
I should have taken before and after pictures of the hallway part. It don't look like much but........ very time consuming with a lot of forethought. If I stretched the hallway section too much that would affect what happens on the other side of the wall in the dining room. I took that picture standing in the dining room and you can see the carpet folded back to the left.
I had to stretch enough, but not too much. That's all I got done did yesterday. It's an hour and a half drive.

 

[highup]

Today was the dining room and living room
From the kitchen across the dining room to the side glass door is about 11 ft. I didn't stretch excessively because the carpet was turned and stapled where it meets the kitchen LVP.
Once I got past that area, I started stretching much harder. I doubled up the tack strip also because of this weird backing. It doesn't feel like it would hold a stretch, maybe it does but.... Doubling up the tack strip gives reassurance.
I got to do what I got to do.
The wall here in front of sliding glass doors continue down to the other side of the house, probably another 15 ft. I probably average an inch and a quarter of stretch the carpeting has probably been in for 5 years. Large home, to occupants, one is no longer with a living.

 

[highup]

Have you ever done this or seen it done with a cool glide?
The seam across the hallway was done the same way as this seam in the living room. Instead of using the T position on the cool glide, they opted to put a piece of tape at the end of each seam.
Seems like a lot of effort for a staple jockey that uses the knee kicker.

 

[MSLI]

Seems like a lot of effort for a staple jockey that uses the knee kicker.

Seaming seems to bring out his creativity but he’s lost the concept of tackless. Unless, it was a crazy stiff backing, then I would understand.

Nice work LO Highup

 

[JPfloor]

Is that another house with no baseboard?

Me no likey...

 

[DarisMulkin]

Why is there a seam on th nose area of a step??? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[JPfloor]

Why is there a seam on th nose area of a step??? Inquiring minds want to know.

I do believe that's an alcove, not a step...

 

[highup]

Why is there a seam on th nose area of a step??? Inquiring minds want to know.

Deceptive image. The wall just takes a small jog right there. If that seam wasn't there, there would be a seam one foot out from the kitchen doorway. This 12 foot long seam is behind the couch. This wouldn't have been the easiest installation no matter the carpet workability.
With angled walls, offsets and large weird shaped rooms, a guy should probably stretch at least three directions.
Once across the awquardness, another gentle stretch perpendicular and into or towards the awkwardness, then do a hard stretch out/away from the difficult area...... Just saying, you need some prestretch towards a difficult area to add some initial tension...... Then give it the beans towards the long, straight easy walls.
I think too many installers start on the straight, easy walls and stretch into the nightmare. They think starting on the long easy walls is faster. Nope...... it isn't.

 

[highup]

I do believe that's an alcove, not a step...

Just a tiny offset. This is a modular home. That's why no base-a-boards.
Actually, a really nice one. It's a 3 wide with a comfortable layout.

 

[JPfloor]

Ok, you guys just gotta lay one tile today….

 

[havasu]

That is the kinda grout job I could handle.

 

[C.J.]

Todays view from the office.

 

[highup]

The guy at the warehouse wanted Friday off to begin his big weekend.
I just do measures for the store but I fill in in any way that I can so today was Warehouse day.
In the morning I loaded one pallet of 6 ft long hardwood into a guy's pickup. About noon the UPS guy showed up and had two small deliveries to bring in.
About 3:30 a local courier brought in a pallet of ceramic tile a couple pieces of trim and 20 bags of deck mud.
.....yup, that was all I was needed for.
It gets lonely and boring at the warehouse. ..... Or is it lonely and boring?
Anyway there's a rack near the front door that houses all of the carpet metals, vinyl moldings, vinyl trims, ceramic tile trims and edges, leftovers and you name it
It's always a good idea to save your leftover stuff. Sometimes you order six transitions on the installer doesn't use them. He'd rather turn and tuck the carpet. Those trims go into the rack. The shop ordered one too many transitions, that goes into the rack.
The customer decided they don't want to use any transitions so six of them go into the rack. Then you have the wood stair nose for the 3/4 inch hardwood, the reducers for hardwood, it just keeps piling up and after 20 years you have a mess. Is too expensive to throw away..... So you keep piling it up. (I said you, not me)
...... Well, being the warehouse guy today and having nothing to do and being bored.....
........ Oh Lord if you think this is bad you should have seen before I started.
There's still a bit of a mess but at least all the extra trims of the same type are in individual tubes....
...meaning they're all localized, next to each other, congregated.....
Whatever.
The Cortec baby threshold pieces were in random tubes, they were inside tubes containing metal, they were underneath 3/4-in tapered oak reducers, some to the right, some to the left, all over the freaking place.
Well, the warehouse guy is on vacation so I started pulling everything out ....within reason and made an attempt at a tiny bit of organization.
Like I said, if you think this looks bad .......just pretend there are no tubes. Pretend the tile trims, the carpet flat bar, the oak reducers the pergo the cortec and everything else was just laying there....... Literally, wherever some podank installer threw it in the rack. It piles up and keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper.
When you're trying to find some oddball piece of trim to match something, you just start digging through the pile. These trims are expensive so throwing them away is kind of stupid. Over the years I've used dozens and dozens of these for carpet edges or things unrelated to a job that was previously done. Those extra trims can be literally gold, you don't have to order one, you just get lucky sometimes and find what you need in the pile. It will be easier now.
Anyway, that was my day and it was kind of a break from normal but standing all day on concrete.....
.......oh Lord, my back and my legs ache like I can't believe.
I hope I'm not starting to get old.

 

[zannej]

Man that slab/tile in the video looks slippery! LOL.

Been out of it the last few days. Too much heat. Got the pvc trim boards painted but am not happy with the texture from the crappy roller cover. Getting a smoother one later.

Dremeled down the botched tub repair and tried again. I found I had to mix two of the colors from the kit to get something closer to my actual tub. the light ceramic was too light. Dark ceramic a tad too dark. Together they were close enough. It's still bumpy so I need to clean it up more and get it as smooth as I can. It will still be visible but its not a huge gouge with exposed black steel anymore.

Corner grab bar shelf won't fit because the side wall piece wraps around and has too much of a curve to the corner. I'll find another spot for the grab bar and figure out storage solutions.

 

[Incognito]

The funny part about that transition rack is the one you actually need isn't going to be there.

 

[MSLI]

The funny part about that transition rack is the one you actually need isn't going to be there.

Yes it is ! ….. My brother ordered a special carpet reducer to be installed on the ends of a high traffic entrance area rug. I was doing the work and it wasn’t a perfect profile match. I was convinced the perfect match reducer was hiding in the transitioning rack, and it was !

Great organizing Highup

 

[highup]

The funny part about that transition rack is the one you actually need isn't going to be there.

Well, now maybe there is. Hidden in the "before" pile, I discovered another 30 or 40 that weren't visible..... I'm only talking Coretec transitions.
These were buried and pushed 2 feet back in the pile. 10' by 5 1/2" and there's 16 of them. Not scratched up bent or twisted. They've probably been there at least 10 years. The new shop owner was happy. I'm anxious to see the warehouse guys reaction on Tuesday. I know Martha Stuart is gonna come up

 

[highup]

Yes it is ! ….. My brother ordered a special carpet reducer to be installed on the ends of a high traffic entrance area rug. I was doing the work and it wasn’t a perfect profile match. I was convinced the perfect match reducer was hiding in the transitioning rack, and it was !

Great organizing Highup

It would be better to pull everything out and put it back in better order, and have less transitions per tube but that's a monumental task. I shifted what I could to get similar or the same transitions in the same neighborhood. All those Cortec and LVP transitions would be best on the bottom of that rack so the could be looked through easier. Eye level isn't ideal. It was a good start.
I told the shop owner we need to look for transitions, then have them push customers towards that product.

 

[highup]

Thanks MSLI, if you need any Wilsonart transitions in a marble or stone pattern, we have a few.
Yes, the dumpster got some donations too. I didn't tell anyone I was doing this.
I loaded a pallet of planks into one customers pickup, there were two deliveries that came in. All that probably added up to 45 minutes work, so I needed to kill something.
Time was my choice. Hey, I was making $20 an hour so I have my all.
....my back and legs are not so happy with me. Standing on concrete all day is not easy. Walking or moving would be easier.