What did you do today?

[zannej]

My brother is 43 and still yells stuff like that while in the bathroom.

I'm trying to get myself up to do some laundry but my cats have other ideas. They are piled on top of me. One of the cats just hopped on my shoulder and leapfrogged over my head to my other shoulder and then jumped to the windowsill. I need to figure out where my laundry basket went.

 

[highup]

I put down a dozen tacktrips, padded the bedroom and put a 12' seam together ....I'm whooped.
Good start for tomorrow. One doorway seam, them stretch and trim....
....then do two closets after temporarily relocating 50 pairs of shoes. Next is probably 4+ hours of putting together a large bed, headboard, upper headboard, attach the 7' tall side dressers, the light bar, the arched crown above that ....then reload the rest of the room, put back the closet door tracks and doors.....
...then reload the 3 commercial clothes racks, install the 12 swivel wheels, (the fully loaded cloths racks wouldn't clear the door casings with the wheels on),
.....then the two dressers and misc, TV, hats, shoes and closet doors in that room. 80 % of this job is not installation.
...and it's a 12x14 and an 11x12 bedroom.
I'm gonna vacuum and wipe the years old dust off everything before it goes back... Even the baseboards and the wall behind the monster bed assembly. If not now, it's never.

 

[zannej]

I worked on laundry and had to run to the store to get milk. It went sour early for some reason.
Took photos of the boxes some of my bathroom accessories came in so I can keep track of brand and model # and such. That way I can throw the boxes out and still have the info.
Mom actually put a few items of her laundry in a basket for me to wash.
I need to do another load. I should have done it earlier. Also need to take a shower but I'm tired. Will take one in a few minutes.

 

[JPfloor]

I put down a dozen tacktrips, padded the bedroom and put a 12' seam together ....I'm whooped.
Good start for tomorrow. One doorway seam, them stretch and trim....
....then do two closets after temporarily relocating 50 pairs of shoes. Next is probably 4+ hours of putting together a large bed, headboard, upper headboard, attach the 7' tall side dressers, the light bar, the arched crown above that ....then reload the rest of the room, put back the closet door tracks and doors.....
...then reload the 3 commercial clothes racks, install the 12 swivel wheels, (the fully loaded cloths racks wouldn't clear the door casings with the wheels on),
.....then the two dressers and misc, TV, hats, shoes and closet doors in that room. 80 % of this job is not installation.
...and it's a 12x14 and an 11x12 bedroom.
I'm gonna vacuum and wipe the years old dust off everything before it goes back... Even the baseboards and the wall behind the monster bed assembly. If not now, it's never.

I only walked away from one job in my entire career. It was a small room like that loaded with bookcases full of books that the customer expected us to move for no charge... If I saw the room in your pictures it might have been my second. Even the rich folks I worked for would have their staff move the small stuff.

You have a lot of patience and provide more services than most any installer I know of…Kudos!

 

[Incognito]

The worde thing is when you're surprised with that sort of mess first thing in the AM. No one WANTS to do that sort of work but hell, it's nothing compared to some of the commercial demolition work we all have to do now and again. I sure dont care so much what I have to do-------just give me a fair warning.
If I have to do unskilled, NONflooring work most of the day or all of the day I'd like to know mainly so I don't drag a lot of tools around that aren't going to be needed. I have 2 or three of every tool I might need to install flooring but I don't drive around in a 20' box truck with a trailer carrying them all with me every day.

My bosses never seemed to grasp the importance of telling me WELL in advance what sorts of projects they might be throwing at me. I think they liked to surprise me.

 

[Tile Tom]

I put down a dozen tacktrips, padded the bedroom and put a 12' seam together ....I'm whooped.
Good start for tomorrow. One doorway seam, them stretch and trim....
....then do two closets after temporarily relocating 50 pairs of shoes. Next is probably 4+ hours of putting together a large bed, headboard, upper headboard, attach the 7' tall side dressers, the light bar, the arched crown above that ....then reload the rest of the room, put back the closet door tracks and doors.....
...then reload the 3 commercial clothes racks, install the 12 swivel wheels, (the fully loaded cloths racks wouldn't clear the door casings with the wheels on),
.....then the two dressers and misc, TV, hats, shoes and closet doors in that room. 80 % of this job is not installation.
...and it's a 12x14 and an 11x12 bedroom.
I'm gonna vacuum and wipe the years old dust off everything before it goes back... Even the baseboards and the wall behind the monster bed assembly. If not now, it's never.

I would literally walk off that job unless they picked up all their ****. I’ll move furniture….that’s it! No clothes, electronics, lamps etc. Furniture that’s been emptied and that’s it!

 

[C.J.]

Modified about 60 feet of stair nose today. 5 1/4” wide white oak stair nose that needed to be rabbited so they can match up somewhat to a floating floor. Lemme tell ya, it sucked and I need a new blade after today.

The blade on my table saw fully raised is maybe 3 1/8”, I had to remove 4 1/4” of material from the back side of the stair nose. I cut out the biggest amount that I could, even that took 4 passes to get to the 3 1/8”, then I made multiple kerf cuts in the remaining material to be removed. Having support pieces underneath the stair nose keeps things level.

If you have a 3’ piece it’s no biggie but working with multiple 10’ pieces is no fun.

I suppose there’s worse things I could be doing, how bout you.

 

[JPfloor]

How about a few (or more) passes with a dado blade for something like that? I guess that would be tricky with 10 footers...

 

[C.J.]

Funny thing, I was looking at a new SawStop just yesterday. $1800 + tax for the job site saw. Mm. When mine dies that’s when I’ll pull the trigger on that. Until then I’ve got the DW 745 job site table saw. We’re talkin 15 years old and still kickin ass but no can do when it comes to dados like the newer models. I pondered if using a hand planer or a router would be faster but I found the fastest thing I could do was to just keep moving with what I already had set up.

I did a test piece on site then I said this is BS and packed everything up and came home. Busted those babies out in my yard in a few hours. I really didn’t want to listen to the table saw ringing for that long in a hollow house. Besides the painters showed up. They drove from Charlotte. Damn! The least I could do was get the hell out of their way and let them earn their money.

 

[highup]

I only walked away from one job in my entire career. It was a small room like that loaded with bookcases full of books that the customer expected us to move for no charge... If I saw the room in your pictures it might have been my second. Even the rich folks I worked for would have their staff move the small stuff.

You have a lot of patience and provide more services than most any installer I know of…Kudos!

This fella is a lawyer, and he's getting older. Though I don't hang out with them, we know each other very well. I'm kind of an outsider with their circle of Friends. No way would I say no to a job like this. I've seen the rooms, and I knew what I was in for. They're paying me, I'm not moving all this furniture for free, plus, they want me to do their carpet. The price isn't an issue, I just bill it out when I get done. The 12x16 living room and 4x8 hallway with a closet came to a little over $600 and these two rooms are probably going to be in that ballpark. The room and closets or carpeted, the bed and it's five accompanying pieces are all leveled up screwed together and ready for the mattress. I vacuum the back side of the cabinets and wipe them down with a microfiber cloth just to get the cooties off of them. The top part above the headboard and mirrors has two lights in it. I couldn't put it back without wiping down the cords that connect everything. I even wiped the horizontal surfaces of the cabinet doors and everything else when it went back. When they come back into town there's no reason for them to do house cleaning. I'd like it to look as close to what it looked like when I arrived....... but with carpet that's 20 years newer.
There are four sliding mirrored doors in the two bedrooms with one of those cheap White metal tracks. I vacuumed the dust and stuff out of those and wipe them down also. When they pop back into town someday, I just want it to look good, almost like we weren't there. I don't do this kind of thing for everybody I work for although something as simple as vacuuming the surfaces behind the bed, or the bed frame it's kind of a no-brainer in my book. I mean, my vacuum cleaners there and it's going to take 30 seconds to do it. If I don't do it it's not going to get done for another 10 or 20 years so yeah, I just do it.
One of the reasons I've probably never walked off a job is that I've done work out of the same store since 1974ish. If I piss off a customer, it reflects badly on the store even if the customers are total a-holes. I'm not going to make people mad at the store because of something I said or did especially, walking off the job.

 

[highup]

I would literally walk off that job unless they picked up all their ****. I’ll move furniture….that’s it! No clothes, electronics, lamps etc. Furniture that’s been emptied and that’s it!

It's not because they left them laying on a pile on the floor. It all pays the same and there was no discussion of price beforehand and I won't be a problem billing it out. They're not going to hire someone they don't know to move stuff and then have me install the carpeting, and then have that same somebody they don't know put the stuff back.
If I had never met these people, and didn't know there was any furniture to move, and dirty lothes were in a big pile on the floor, well of course this would become an issue.
I did the living room about 3 months ago and saved these two bedrooms for when I found time to do them. I knew exactly what I was getting into. This guy has two other nice homes in addition to the apartment and has a micro Jay Leno's garage at one of his homes. Yes it has an epoxy floor and gas pumps. At one time had a 1963 Mercedes gullwing. You've heard of Mecum auctions? He knows him.
You don't tell people like this," I don't move clothes"
Google this and see what you come up with.
His wasn't worth as much as this one but you get the picture.
On top of that they're very neat people, very down to earth.

 

[JPfloor]

The worde thing is when you're surprised with that sort of mess first thing in the AM. No one WANTS to do that sort of work but hell, it's nothing compared to some of the commercial demolition work we all have to do now and again. I sure dont care so much what I have to do-------just give me a fair warning.
If I have to do unskilled, NONflooring work most of the day or all of the day I'd like to know mainly so I don't drag a lot of tools around that aren't going to be needed. I have 2 or three of every tool I might need to install flooring but I don't drive around in a 20' box truck with a trailer carrying them all with me every day.

My bosses never seemed to grasp the importance of telling me WELL in advance what sorts of projects they might be throwing at me. I think they liked to surprise me.

Well at union scale pay I don’t think I’d mind so much. At the beginning of my career, as a piece worker, we used move everything for nothing... Boy was I young and stupid.

 

[zannej]

I went to get blood drawn for routine bloodwork checkup. Arm got bruised. Nurse was apologizing telling me the needle moved. I didn't feel anything different than the presence of the needle in my arm. I've had nurses who couldn't hold a needle still before & it sucked. This nurse is really good though.

Grabbed some bacon egg & cheese biscuits from McDonalds for myself and Mom.

Then I racked out for most of the day. It was raining and thundering all day.

Tomorrow is more laundry. Mom actually picked up some of her laundry out of a pile she has where I can't tell if its clean or dirty and was afraid if I moved something there would be an avalanche. She filled a hamper for me to haul to the laundry room.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Boy was I young and stupid.

No, that is the way it was back then. I waas the first one to implement a furniture charge in my area. The arguement was if I ding it I buy it and its done for free. Wasn't long we all got paid to move it. $40 a room back then. Don't leave a lamp in the room $40.

 

[C.J.]

I decided to quit laying floors over furniture. The last job I did I was moving, or going to attempt to move, a hutch. I put my furniture sliders under it and gave it a push. Unbeknownst to me it was a two piece hutch and the top half wasn’t fastened to the bottom half. It came crashing down, hitting other pieces of furniture on the way down and if course it was full of stuff which then spilled all over.

I had to ask the customer to help me lift the top half of the hutch back into the bottom half. We both grunted and he asked me how the hell I lifted it off in the first place. I told him I didn’t lift it off, I pushed it off

Luckily it was real furniture so it didn’t break anything but it did cost me $250 to have someone touch up the dings and gouges. I was pissed off for three days over that. That’s when I knew I was done.

 

[zannej]

I went to use my PC and there's no signal to the monitor. I think the video card crapped out.
Took a bit to get my laptop working. I discovered a box that thought had the new power brick for it is something else and I have no idea where the new power brick went.

Laptop runs hot so I can't use it for too long. Going to see if I can figure out wtf is wrong with my pc that its not sending signal to the monitor.

 

[JPfloor]

I decided to quit laying floors over furniture. The last job I did I was moving, or going to attempt to move, a hutch. I put my furniture sliders under it and gave it a push. Unbeknownst to me it was a two piece hutch and the top half wasn’t fastened to the bottom half. It came crashing down, hitting other pieces of furniture on the way down and if course it was full of stuff which then spilled all over.

I had to ask the customer to help me lift the top half of the hutch back into the bottom half. We both grunted and he asked me how the hell I lifted it off in the first place. I told him I didn’t lift it off, I pushed it off

Luckily it was real furniture so it didn’t break anything but it did cost me $250 to have someone touch up the dings and gouges. I was pissed off for three days over that. That’s when I knew I was done.

I was working in an office building doing a carpet removal and install. Few thousand yards. We used Rubbermaid carts supplied to us by the building maintenance to haul their old carpet out to their dumpster. One of my helpers was pushing the cart and one of the rubber wheels on one of their carts got a little stuck and left a scuff mark on the VCT in the basement service corridor leading out to the dumpster. Could have easily been buffed out with a little steel wool. Ultra wealthy owner of the building saw it. They back charged me $1,000.00 to strip and wax the whole corridor.... People suck!

 

[highup]

Ouch! What a nasty guy, it was their cart.

 

[JPfloor]

Yes, He liked to punish people and flex his money muscles....

And yea, had to use their carts, that was a rule. Didn't want any outside dirt.

 

[Incognito]

Well at union scale pay I don’t think I’d mind so much. At the beginning of my career, as a piece worker, we used move everything for nothing... Boy was I young and stupid.

After 30-40 years doing mostly hard surface--------the overwhelming majority of hours you're on your knees-------I really didn't hate doing ANYTHING standing or walking for the same pay. When you do cove sheet goods/VCT/rubber or vinyl base/skim coats/carpet tile.........that's all day every day in the kneeling position with apprentices fetching and feeding. Union shops have to have apprentices or "helpers" doing that LEG WORK to compete and union shops do have to compete against each other. The art/science to being the foreman/installer in commercial was always about utilizing the cheaper labor and eliminating steps. You cant make money off journeyman when they're off their knees essentially.
Because of that it's really not so healthy-----on top all the dust, glue and chemicals. It was even something of a break to get to run the sanders as you're not stuck down there all day on your knees. Most people think sanding for prep is mindless but you know it's really importing to have your thinking cap on-----lean into the rough and glide quickly where it's already clean.