Tom Picciani
Well-Known Member
It cost a pretty penny. $33k. And this stuff runs circles around Trex.
What did you do today?
- Thread starter havasu
- Start date
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So it’s ride at you own risk…
Are they always for a customer? Or do you build um on spec and sell um?
I wouldn’t mind one of those parked by a lake somewhere…
Definitely ride at your own risk, or our risk is more like it.
We don’t do spec builds ahead of time or anything like that but we do have a few fluff n buffs on the lot that might work if someone wants a basic trailer in a hurry. The custom builds are just too specific to try and guess what someone might want just to have to modify it later when what we built isn’t what they want.
What a lot of people do is to do a mini makeover on their trailer or RV. No different than an apartment. Countertops, flooring, new sink and faucet, maybe a backsplash. Some people do a lot of the work themselves and just have us do a few key things for them. That’s always interesting to me cus I’ll go in and essentially give them a new kitchen or something else yet the rest of the trailer still looks like crap because the owner will be doing that work later. Makes it difficult to try and get a decent pic of my work when everything else around it sill looks like a 50 year old trailer.
Now as far as a trailer by the lake, that does sound nice. I’ve wanted to build out both a skoolie and a shanty boat for some time now. I’ll be back in NC by June so there is light at the end of the tunnel for those dreams.
Get Rusty over there to install some turf stair runners. He loooooves stairs
Looks great. Thanks for stopping by, Tom.
Well........ It's over. I started casing out this job a month ago. Then I got nerve to get started. I mean, once the first section of railing is removed...... you're sort of "committed"
Should I be?
The scariest part was removing and reinstalling the railing.
What if it didn't like back up?
How were the stairs attached?
Would I need to reattach the differently? ....and how?
The scariest part of the railing R&R turned out to be something totally unexpected. Each baulister has a "foot".....I don't know the correct term for it. This foot slides down over the bottom of the baulister and conceals the square steel bracket that holds it in place. Once in place, a hole is drilled through this "foot", thought the steel support and into the wooden baulister, tying it all together.
A wooden button was then installed to hide the screw.
To begin the railing removal, the wooden buttons and the screws were removed........... oh dear.......
Houston, we have a problem.
With the screws removed, this large "shoe" section should simply slide up and out of the way. A couple did, but most did not.
The railing was built elsewhere, but by a local craftsman. His shop was obviously unheated, because once installed, all of these "feet", shrunk tight to the baulisters and to the 1 3/4" rectangular steel support brackets. These were shrunk so tight that I used both a dead blow hammer and it eventually required going home to retrieve my large compressor and my air chisel to vibrate these "feet" up onto the narrow portion of the baulister to get them out of the way. Two of these "feet" actually split from the removal pressure, but they glued back together perfectly.
There were 19 of these to deal with.
Once removed from the baulisters, I was able to sand the inner side of these "feet" by rubbing them on a sandpaper covered stick. It opened them up enough to be reinstalled over the square baulister ends without needing the air chisel again. Wow, ... ...it was a nightmare. In the end, it all turned out great. Every part of the railing went back together like I envisioned. The Lazer lines on the wall helped a lot to line everything back up, so I'll just chalk this job up to being one more learning experience...... A learning experience I will never use a second time.
Anyhow, one last few shots of my completed nightmare. The homeowner insisted on having me pose...... no, sports illustrated, I'm not for hire.
I billed out $2700. I had more time in it, but..... I draw lines in the sand.
Should I be?
The scariest part was removing and reinstalling the railing.
What if it didn't like back up?
How were the stairs attached?
Would I need to reattach the differently? ....and how?
The scariest part of the railing R&R turned out to be something totally unexpected. Each baulister has a "foot".....I don't know the correct term for it. This foot slides down over the bottom of the baulister and conceals the square steel bracket that holds it in place. Once in place, a hole is drilled through this "foot", thought the steel support and into the wooden baulister, tying it all together.
A wooden button was then installed to hide the screw.
To begin the railing removal, the wooden buttons and the screws were removed........... oh dear.......
Houston, we have a problem.
With the screws removed, this large "shoe" section should simply slide up and out of the way. A couple did, but most did not.
The railing was built elsewhere, but by a local craftsman. His shop was obviously unheated, because once installed, all of these "feet", shrunk tight to the baulisters and to the 1 3/4" rectangular steel support brackets. These were shrunk so tight that I used both a dead blow hammer and it eventually required going home to retrieve my large compressor and my air chisel to vibrate these "feet" up onto the narrow portion of the baulister to get them out of the way. Two of these "feet" actually split from the removal pressure, but they glued back together perfectly.
There were 19 of these to deal with.
Once removed from the baulisters, I was able to sand the inner side of these "feet" by rubbing them on a sandpaper covered stick. It opened them up enough to be reinstalled over the square baulister ends without needing the air chisel again. Wow, ... ...it was a nightmare. In the end, it all turned out great. Every part of the railing went back together like I envisioned. The Lazer lines on the wall helped a lot to line everything back up, so I'll just chalk this job up to being one more learning experience...... A learning experience I will never use a second time.
Anyhow, one last few shots of my completed nightmare. The homeowner insisted on having me pose...... no, sports illustrated, I'm not for hire.
I billed out $2700. I had more time in it, but..... I draw lines in the sand.
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So $100 a day?
My days are shorter than yours.
...a lot shorter.
comes to $210ish per step.
I did measuring for the store on weekends, had a 7" snow day and took a couple of weekends off.
Good pay? No, not really.
Best thing for me would have been if the home was unoccupied so I could do all the stairs assembly line fashion....... that, and no railing to R&R. I thought the stairs were gonna be a nightmare, but the railing was more so. I volunteered to do that because I didn't want to have his contractor doing it.
If he removed the railing and I put the stairs in the wrong placeband and the railing didn't fit back.....
......it might have gotten ugly.
His contractor it top notch, I'm not questioning his abilities one tiny bit. This just wasn't a job for two people thinking separate thoughts.
Honestly because this was a custom stairway with a one-of-a-kind structure, this job probably should have paid twice what I charged. No way was I going that direction because it was a learning experience for me, not something I do everyday. Nobody needs to pay me to learn something.
If I were to put in another two and a half hours per day I would have cut my days in half. I couldn't end a day with a partially finished stair. My hours are the reason for my crappy pay.
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driftinwoods
Well-Known Member
Awesome job there Highup. Not one I would attempt. I passionately dislike floating stairs. And I stopped doing crapet anyways about ten years ago.
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Bored, so I am learning wood carving.
I wouldn't attempt it either. I pitty the fool that would.
I told em I was selling all my tools.
I'd be wanting to cheat, using extension cords, disks, and drills.
.....then I'd get out a whittling knife to remove my cheating methods. You have more patience than I have.
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Rusty, that looks cool!
Been exhausted all day for no apparent reason. Didn't do much but I did get the shower wallset out of the box (which was harder than it sounds given limited space and limited mobility of my left arm). Good thing the walls have some flex to them. Put the empty box in my room and the cats are having a field day with it. Only got one tiny papercut from the cardboard.
Been exhausted all day for no apparent reason. Didn't do much but I did get the shower wallset out of the box (which was harder than it sounds given limited space and limited mobility of my left arm). Good thing the walls have some flex to them. Put the empty box in my room and the cats are having a field day with it. Only got one tiny papercut from the cardboard.
My little dude had his first pro fight last night. He trained his ass off (along with his opponent and buddy) with the men 2 hours a night 4 days a week for 6 months. All that work for 3 minutes of boxing on fight night! Couldn’t be more proud of him and his buddy! Mine is red head gear and blue gloves.
The match was a draw. They both won
. FIGHT HARD, FINISH STRONG!!!!
The match was a draw. They both won
. FIGHT HARD, FINISH STRONG!!!!
Good for them. I boxed as a teenager. Even fought a Golden Gloves champion and he kicked my ass.My little dude had his first pro fight last night. He trained his ass off (along with his opponent and buddy) with the men 2 hours a night 4 days a week for 6 months. All that work for 3 minutes of boxing on fight night! Couldn’t be more proud of him and his buddy! Mine is red head gear and blue gloves.
View attachment 16585View attachment 16584
The match was a draw. They both won
Beat downs are part of the deal. Personally I feel like everyone should receive a beat down at some point in life. It humbles you up real quick. Especially ones that like to shoot their mouth off.
Win, loose or draw, if you step into the ring you’re a winner in my book!
I couldn't help but always do the math in my head. Especially in commercial there's just so many hours driving and doing mindless labor you have to find things to keep your brain cells alive. One of things I would always do was TRY to do the union wage+ benefits +overhead + profit divided by total man hours for any given production report. Early in my career I worked for a (corporation) through a sub that required daily production and inventory reports so all the numbers were right there on paper and it was just super easy to do that math. So many years of doing that and I could run the numbers in my head real quick.My days are shorter than yours.
...a lot shorter.
comes to $210ish per step.
I did measuring for the store on weekends, had a 7" snow day and took a couple of weekends off.
Good pay? No, not really.
Best thing for me would have been if the home was unoccupied so I could do all the stairs assembly line fashion....... that, and no railing to R&R. I thought the stairs were gonna be a nightmare, but the railing was more so. I volunteered to do that because I didn't want to have his contractor doing it.
If he removed the railing and I put the stairs in the wrong placeband and the railing didn't fit back.....
......it might have gotten ugly.
His contractor it top notch, I'm not questioning his abilities one tiny bit. This just wasn't a job for two people thinking separate thoughts.
Honestly because this was a custom stairway with a one-of-a-kind structure, this job probably should have paid twice what I charged. No way was I going that direction because it was a learning experience for me, not something I do everyday. Nobody needs to pay me to learn something.
If I were to put in another two and a half hours per day I would have cut my days in half. I couldn't end a day with a partially finished stair. My hours are the reason for my crappy pay.
That reminds me of another story of a similar nature. When I was running work no matter what we were doing or how many men I'd have under me I could wait til Friday and break down each day's production.......materials.......areas worked......areas completed and rough estimate of % complete overall for billing purpose. That went on for years as I was just so obsessed with my job that I COULDN'T forget the details if I tried. So yeah, that's a form of OCD. Then there was one day, come Friday I sit down to scribble all my numbers down for the week and I drew a big fat blank. I couldn't remember crap. So I just started making the numbers up because I didn't care any more........so much about that job and especially that employer who wasn't "taking care" of me for all the extras I did. Call it burn out. Bossman squeezed me so hard for so long he squeezed all the CARE right out of me. Shortly afterward I moved to California and started fresh. Never did take work so seriously again to the degree it was an uncontrolled obsession. More like a controlled obsession. Funny thing is when you're in a competitive environment you just have to CARE a little more than the rest of the guys. That was pretty easy for me to do. Like that joke about outrunning the bear.
I unboxed my tub surround wallset and set the flattened box in my room along with the old corner shelf pieces so they would be out of the way. Sir Hammington took a nap on the one of the corner pieces on top of the box. Measured and marked screw locations (so I know where to avoid when driving screws for cementboard), lined the tub with plastic and put painter's tape on to secure it and to use to note the screw locations (something I saw in a video-- draw a line at the horizontal position and then write measurement of vertical position on the tape). I'm going to make a cheat sheet on paper as a reminder in case I'm unable to read any of my notes on the tape. I still need to square up the side walls and am trying to figure out the best way to do that. I have a bunch of the paint stirring sticks as well as some actual shims. I might need to get some longer cementboard screws for one of the walls.
I need to put the plastic sheathing back up on the walls but my left arm is not cooperating and won't reach high enough. Also not cooperating on lifting the 35lb cement board piece to set in the tub so I can put aquadefense on the edges. I'm going to have to ask my brother for help with that and to help me temporarily set the cementboard in place so I can dry fit the wallset and mark where to cut the cementboard off.
Got up early and went for Walmart curbside pickup. It was 34° and I couldn't locate some of the stuff in the store so did curbside so they could find it for me. Have to go back later to see if some items that they marked as out of stock are in and pick up RX. That will be after an appointment to discuss my blood sugar levels with a specialist this afternoon. Need to check mail as well.
I think I'm feeling a little better since I started taking my meds for insulin resistance 2x a day instead of 1x. I produce insulin but I'm resistant to it so it doesn't work like it should.
I need to put the plastic sheathing back up on the walls but my left arm is not cooperating and won't reach high enough. Also not cooperating on lifting the 35lb cement board piece to set in the tub so I can put aquadefense on the edges. I'm going to have to ask my brother for help with that and to help me temporarily set the cementboard in place so I can dry fit the wallset and mark where to cut the cementboard off.
Got up early and went for Walmart curbside pickup. It was 34° and I couldn't locate some of the stuff in the store so did curbside so they could find it for me. Have to go back later to see if some items that they marked as out of stock are in and pick up RX. That will be after an appointment to discuss my blood sugar levels with a specialist this afternoon. Need to check mail as well.
I think I'm feeling a little better since I started taking my meds for insulin resistance 2x a day instead of 1x. I produce insulin but I'm resistant to it so it doesn't work like it should.
Keep going as best as you can Zannej and good luck with the project.
PS> pick up your brother’s favorite snack item and bribe him for the help.
Thanks, MSLI. I actually ordered some dark chocolate almonds he requested to the curbside order so he was happy. But he had to go to work. Tomorrow he's off but I'm taking my friend to the dentist.
I went for my appointment and for the first time in over 20 years I walked out. I arrived a few minutes early and they put me in a windowless room with fluorescent lights. At first it wasn't a problem but then the lights would go dim and then lighter and started flickering. I put my music on and closed my eyes to distract myself from it bc it was bugging me. Someone poked their head in and snapped at me to "cut it off" and grumbled something I couldn't hear as she shut the door. 35min past my appointment time I had a full on migraine and was feeling nauseous. I gave it another 10min and thought I was going to throw up so I got up and left. Told the clerk the light in the room gave me a migraine bc it kept flickering and changing brightness levels. She asked when I wanted to reschedule and I couldn't think clearly enough. She could see that so she said I could call her. It was for a diabetic consultation that I've sat through with both my brother and mother before so it's not anything urgent. I know what she's going to say. If they try to put me in that room again I'll ask for one with a window or something. Got air blowing on me in the truck to help with the nausea. By the time I was heading home (after post office and Walmart) the headache was almost gone. Been awhile since I've had a headache that bad. I used to get migraines all the time when I was younger.
I'm going to try to get some sleep tonight so I will have more energy tomorrow.
On the bright side, my theory about the amount of pills for my naprosyn not triggering the singlecare discount was correct. The 50 pill one was over $200. I told the doctor my theory and suggested 60. It was $13.50 for 60. I'll have to let him know. My next appointment with him is in May.
I went for my appointment and for the first time in over 20 years I walked out. I arrived a few minutes early and they put me in a windowless room with fluorescent lights. At first it wasn't a problem but then the lights would go dim and then lighter and started flickering. I put my music on and closed my eyes to distract myself from it bc it was bugging me. Someone poked their head in and snapped at me to "cut it off" and grumbled something I couldn't hear as she shut the door. 35min past my appointment time I had a full on migraine and was feeling nauseous. I gave it another 10min and thought I was going to throw up so I got up and left. Told the clerk the light in the room gave me a migraine bc it kept flickering and changing brightness levels. She asked when I wanted to reschedule and I couldn't think clearly enough. She could see that so she said I could call her. It was for a diabetic consultation that I've sat through with both my brother and mother before so it's not anything urgent. I know what she's going to say. If they try to put me in that room again I'll ask for one with a window or something. Got air blowing on me in the truck to help with the nausea. By the time I was heading home (after post office and Walmart) the headache was almost gone. Been awhile since I've had a headache that bad. I used to get migraines all the time when I was younger.
I'm going to try to get some sleep tonight so I will have more energy tomorrow.
On the bright side, my theory about the amount of pills for my naprosyn not triggering the singlecare discount was correct. The 50 pill one was over $200. I told the doctor my theory and suggested 60. It was $13.50 for 60. I'll have to let him know. My next appointment with him is in May.
No measuring and no stairs today. yay !
Put new pad in a hallway, then stretched and reseamed it.
The bathroom had a leak so the seam was cut open, pad removed...... and a year later, I get this call. No hurry, they said.
I replied, how about tomorrow?
I only had the Koolglide with me. I figured with two stretchers I'd be able to pull this off, doing 1/2, then letting it cool, then relocating my stretchers and doing the second half.
First off, the carpet had been stretched properly
Usually it's easy when stretching to gain addition material to re-cut a seam. Not on this one. I was able to gain the most material in the center of the seam, that was only able to trim off an eighth of an inch or so on the first 6 inches left and right. I trimmed most of the seam using scissors, them thermosealed it lightly before I put in the seam back together.
For a foot or so on one side the carpet had delaminated about 2 in back. Because of that, I drove home and got my regular seaming iron so I could apply some hot glue to re-adhere the backing. Ya can't do that with the Koolglide.
That gave me tho opportunity to grab a third stretcher. I ended up using my Robert's seaming iron to do the seam.
Small towns are nice. It's about a 6 mile round trip from this job, to home, then to the warehouse and back to the job site.
I billed them $185. He wrote, then handed me a check for $1900 and said he put in a little extra.
What's the most stretchers you've used on a doorway seam? Normally, just one works but this was on concrete, so no stay tacks here.
On the single stretcher I added my narrow deadman.
Job turned out super nice. I would have taken a photo, but if the customer couldn't see the seam...... You wouldn't either
Put new pad in a hallway, then stretched and reseamed it.
The bathroom had a leak so the seam was cut open, pad removed...... and a year later, I get this call. No hurry, they said.
I replied, how about tomorrow?
I only had the Koolglide with me. I figured with two stretchers I'd be able to pull this off, doing 1/2, then letting it cool, then relocating my stretchers and doing the second half.
First off, the carpet had been stretched properly
Usually it's easy when stretching to gain addition material to re-cut a seam. Not on this one. I was able to gain the most material in the center of the seam, that was only able to trim off an eighth of an inch or so on the first 6 inches left and right. I trimmed most of the seam using scissors, them thermosealed it lightly before I put in the seam back together.
For a foot or so on one side the carpet had delaminated about 2 in back. Because of that, I drove home and got my regular seaming iron so I could apply some hot glue to re-adhere the backing. Ya can't do that with the Koolglide.
That gave me tho opportunity to grab a third stretcher. I ended up using my Robert's seaming iron to do the seam.
Small towns are nice. It's about a 6 mile round trip from this job, to home, then to the warehouse and back to the job site.
I billed them $185. He wrote, then handed me a check for $1900 and said he put in a little extra.
What's the most stretchers you've used on a doorway seam? Normally, just one works but this was on concrete, so no stay tacks here.
On the single stretcher I added my narrow deadman.
Job turned out super nice. I would have taken a photo, but if the customer couldn't see the seam...... You wouldn't either
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Looks like that was a pain, Highup.
I rotated the cement board that I put in the tub to put aquadefense on (yesterday I got 2 coats on 3 edges). I had a hell of a time rotating the board. Messed up my tape and plastic a bit and my left arm was refusing to lift more than a few inches. Through the power of swearing and using the tub edge for leverage I finally got it. I had taken my muscle relaxants so that didn't help. I need to do 2 coats of aquadefense on that last edge. I'm going to do the others outside of the tub after I lay down some plastic. Trying to maneuver inside the tub was too much of a pain.
I'm about to get some more water, take vitamins & morning meds, and eat some breakfast.
I rotated the cement board that I put in the tub to put aquadefense on (yesterday I got 2 coats on 3 edges). I had a hell of a time rotating the board. Messed up my tape and plastic a bit and my left arm was refusing to lift more than a few inches. Through the power of swearing and using the tub edge for leverage I finally got it. I had taken my muscle relaxants so that didn't help. I need to do 2 coats of aquadefense on that last edge. I'm going to do the others outside of the tub after I lay down some plastic. Trying to maneuver inside the tub was too much of a pain.
I'm about to get some more water, take vitamins & morning meds, and eat some breakfast.
