What did you do today?

[highup]

Well we solved the problem. By using a pattern to cut the piece out and not hack out an additional 4 inches around it to be safe, that little bit extra helped a lot.
Anyhow it's done dead and turned out good. The riser is glued with contact cement and liquid nails and then I kicked it back under the door area. Previously the old carpet was glued in and I decided the pad would feel a little better. It's a thin 28 Oz pad so it came out super.

Home Depot would probably pay you $159 for 30 ft of carpet installation.
I think I'm looking at 1300 bucks right now plus materials.
Isn't your typical install. I put a moisture vapor retarder down, chipped out and remove material from all the previous tack strip nail blowouts that had formed next to the foundation, then filled the cavities with Sakrete anchoring cement. Once that was completed, I applied MVP to the foundation walls then filled any remaining gaps really full with a concrete sealant designed for that

This is a garage, many years ago, was converted into a sewing/ craft room.
I have worked at this home a number of times before. This room has always felt a damp. The water table in this area is fairly high, so it was time, in my opinion, to pick some sort of legitimate attempt to reduce the humidity level in this room.
It took 2 weeks for the lady to remove the boxes of fabric and craft material and place it in a covered trailer that she had borrowed from a friend.
The room is less than 14x24 but the only time I've ever seen it it's been packed to the gills on both sides with shells, men's, boxes, storage containers, an also a large functional table in the center of the room to be doing crafts.
No way in hell this room will ever be disassembled again so I was simply allowed to do what I did.
Anyway I discussed with them putting some sort of sealer on the concrete and doing whatever was necessary to eliminate moisture entering this room. It was a buttload of work, more than I thought and more materials than I thought.
That said, its wonderful to have customers that appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. There was no price discussed before beginning the project, so I have to be fair.
To keep the installation price from being outrageous I probably have 3 hours tomorrow...max, but I'm not going to add that to my time and charge for it. It's just gotten to expensive and I got to draw a line somewhere.
Have they asked me for a quote beforehand, I probably would have thrown out the $700 or $800.
Like I said I got to draw a line somewhere. I drillednthe concrete and used tapcon screws and adhesive. There was paint overspray on the floor and I scraped a lot of it off but I still didn't trust just using a polyurethane adhesive alone.
I was given a literal bucket of soup to take home for dinner last night along with some Hawaiian rolls and a package of cookies.
Life is good
Whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it right. They had carpeting installed throughout the house 7 months ago and in the doorway leading on to the deck there's a seam that is become delaminated. Not in a minor way. Maybe the backing was constructed poorly, but it wouldn't have delaminated at the seam had the installer used sealer.
They might be requesting that the carpet in the entire house will be replaced. I told them to keep me out of that dog pile.
They know how slow I work and if they decide to replace all of the carpet,. they want me to do it.
You can't buy advertising like this anywhere. This fella has written four books and he has given me one of each copy each time that I worked for him. Very, very neat people.
.....These people literally feel like family.....
..... they feed you, don't complain about the bill and he typically tosses a few bucks on top of the bill that I present to him.
Any of you get that vibe when you work banging in apartments.

 

[C.J.]

Home Depot would probably pay you $159 for 30 ft of carpet installation.
I think I'm looking at 1300 bucks right now plus materials.
Isn't your typical install. I put a moisture vapor retarder down, chipped out and remove material from all the previous tack strip nail blowouts that had formed next to the foundation, then filled the cavities with Sakrete anchoring cement. Once that was completed, I applied MVP to the foundation walls then filled any remaining gaps really full with a concrete sealant designed for that

This is a garage, many years ago, was converted into a sewing/ craft room.
I have worked at this home a number of times before. This room has always felt a damp. The water table in this area is fairly high, so it was time, in my opinion, to pick some sort of legitimate attempt to reduce the humidity level in this room.
It took 2 weeks for the lady to remove the boxes of fabric and craft material and place it in a covered trailer that she had borrowed from a friend.
The room is less than 14x24 but the only time I've ever seen it it's been packed to the gills on both sides with shells, men's, boxes, storage containers, an also a large functional table in the center of the room to be doing crafts.
No way in hell this room will ever be disassembled again so I was simply allowed to do what I did.
Anyway I discussed with them putting some sort of sealer on the concrete and doing whatever was necessary to eliminate moisture entering this room. It was a buttload of work, more than I thought and more materials than I thought.
That said, its wonderful to have customers that appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. There was no price discussed before beginning the project, so I have to be fair.
To keep the installation price from being outrageous I probably have 3 hours tomorrow...max, but I'm not going to add that to my time and charge for it. It's just gotten to expensive and I got to draw a line somewhere.
Have they asked me for a quote beforehand, I probably would have thrown out the $700 or $800.
Like I said I got to draw a line somewhere. I drillednthe concrete and used tapcon screws and adhesive. There was paint overspray on the floor and I scraped a lot of it off but I still didn't trust just using a polyurethane adhesive alone.
I was given a literal bucket of soup to take home for dinner last night along with some Hawaiian rolls and a package of cookies.
Life is good
Whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it right. They had carpeting installed throughout the house 7 months ago and in the doorway leading on to the deck there's a seam that is become delaminated. Not in a minor way. Maybe the backing was constructed poorly, but it wouldn't have delaminated at the seam had the installer used sealer.
They might be requesting that the carpet in the entire house will be replaced. I told them to keep me out of that dog pile.
They know how slow I work and if they decide to replace all of the carpet,. they want me to do it.
You can't buy advertising like this anywhere. This fella has written four books and he has given me one of each copy each time that I worked for him. Very, very neat people.
.....These people literally feel like family.....
..... they feed you, don't complain about the bill and he typically tosses a few bucks on top of the bill that I present to him.
Any of you get that vibe when you work banging in apartments.

Those customers definitely are the best. Problem is there ain’t that many of them out there and you definitely hit the trifecta. I’ve had customers cook for me but they didn’t overpay me. I’ve had customers overpay me but they didn’t cook for me and the ones that give me all the time in the world definitely don’t cook for me or overpay me.

 

[Floorist]

Went to Joplin today. We both carried, in case things went bad after the verdict.

 

[highup]

Those customers definitely are the best. Problem is there ain’t that many of them out there and you definitely hit the trifecta. I’ve had customers cook for me but they didn’t overpay me. I’ve had customers overpay me but they didn’t cook for me and the ones that give me all the time in the world definitely don’t cook for me or overpay me.

I build them out $1592 and that includes $315 for the UZIN moisture vapor retarder, a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood, a couple tubes of cracked sealant roller covers screws and miscellaneous.
He added another $58 above what I charged him and kept asking "are you sure that's enough?"
It was fun doing a job with all the weird details this one had with the owners simply allowing you to go about your work and write them a bill upon completion. On top of that, after leaving the bank, the sun came out.
I don't know what I'm doing but I'm doing something right.
My total labor was 1277. Most of my labor was prep work making sure the slab, especially the seams between the foundation wall and the slab would filled and sealed. I even put the moisture vapor retarder on the 10-in sections of foundation that extended above the floor level. If there was a time for overkill, this was the job to do it on.
I overcharged, they overpaid even more, and I got a great big container of freshly made soup to take home.
These are very very cool people and it's so nice to work for them.

 

[highup]

When I said I overcharged I actually didn't charge for all of my hours. I thought the total was just getting a bit crazy for me dinking around.
They didn't ask for a price before hand so sometimes my conscience makes me do the right thing.

 

[highup]

The little one has bee handed a bass. Usually she just dances and loose around and sometimes he's got Maracas or a tambourine which she does extremely well.
Daddy's been training her just like she did the boys. She even gets a little solo on this one.

 

[highup]

This one's from just a few days ago. I tried looking up for Marty Stuart website to see their point of view at the concert. This one is filmed by mama from the side of the stage.
They got invited to perform with Marty and come over to his house and have dinner with him and hang out. The audio and the visuals aren't the best in this video because of the point of view and the fact that Mama filmed this most likely, with her phone. She thought it better to record the moment than to sit in the audience with everyone else and not be able to.
This is one cool family.

 

[zannej]

Highup, sounds like you did a LOT of work but I'm glad the customers appreciate it. Reducing the moisture in there will most definitely help for the craft room. Damp rooms are no good for fabric.

Got a question: Have you ever been asked to build a small platform for a toilet to make it higher/taller?

I'm thinking instead of ditching the standard height toilets we already have & buying ADA height ones, I want to build a platform under them to raise them about 3" or so. They can be square at the back but I want the front to curve to match the curve of the toilet (although I'm ok with a little bit of a lip so the toilet doesn't hang over and I don't have to worry about it ever slipping off).

For my bathroom, it will let me make the platform level instead of worrying too much about the main floor being level. I could put the platform on top of the sheet vinyl, shim as necessary, secure it to the floor, paint it, caulk around it, etc. (or I could cut the sheet vinyl to wrap up it a bit? but that might be difficult). The back can be squared off but I want the front to match the curve of the toilet. Trying to figure out the best way to accomplish that. I saw that 3x4 landscaping timbers are about $5 each and would boost it up to the right height (if the 3" part is up) and supply a sturdy base. Might have to notch for the drain to fit. Some cross-braces for under the flange would be nice. I could possibly notch to recess the flange very slightly so it is flush with the frame, but it probably wouldn't hurt for it to sit on top.

My crappy concept sketch over the dimensional drawing of the toilet from the specs

I know the timbers would be too thick as is for the inner parts, (although, I might not need them-- might just have some sort of bracing between or something). Toilet is only about 9-1/4" wide at the widest. Holes in the flange are 6" apart. Toilet base is 23-5/8" long.

I might have some scrap sheet vinyl to wrap around the edges but that might look ugly so painting it white would probably be the best bet. I was initially thinking 2x4s with plywood on top, but I could do an amalgum of things. I want it to be sturdy and I want to make it waterproof.

Sadly, the premade platforms are too expensive and too small (only 22" long).

I want it curved at the front so the Squatty Potty will fit around it & so I won't derp and bang my heel on it.

Should I make a separate thread about this?

 

[Mark Brown]

Another room bites the dust.

My house was 1.5 inches higher than my "addition" and the addition was 1.75" lower than the other addition I didn't build. Sooooooo long story short, we got that all fixed up and laid today.



I laid some 2x4 on edge with something like 9" O.C. and filled it with ridged foam board. Then I popped a sheet of 0.5" on it and voila.

I am not positive that foam is going to do anything in terms of keeping heat in/out but at the least it won't make things worse. I tried.



You know how sometimes you open a box and it seems like someone went running around collecting every short board they could find in the factory, well luckily for me this time around the room it found itself being opened for was only 4' 6" Take that Chinese packers!

 

[Floorist]

Took the 2007 Nissan with 210,000 miles for a long drive yesterday. Got 38 mpg.

 

[highup]

With a few ships that come into Port anymore to load logs and chips, I keep wondering why they don't wait till daylight. Yes I know they have some super fancy radar stuff but it's not like there's a hundred ships per month that come in and out of here so why not wait for another six or seven hours?
Looks like the pilot boat Coos Bay, the tiny boat in blue had just put a pilot on one of the two larger ships just outside the jetty. Both those ships are large enough that it looks like they're there to load chips not logs. We have one place to load logs and two places to load wood chips, and one of the two chip locations currently has a ship that's being loaded.
Maybe the pilot boat took the pilot out on board the shipper because they cook some really good meals and he's going to hang out overnight to chat with the crew.

One of the ships is 14 years old and it's been here many times before.
The other ship is 2 years old and I'm not sure if I recall it being here before.
Anyhow I guess time is money so if one of the ships has to sit offshore overnight it cost somebody something.
Like I mentioned the two green boats are the chip ships which are 660 to 690 ft long and the blue boat is the pilot boat it's just coming in to the jetty, into the bay because they just put a pilot on board one of those two ships.
It seems kind of strange that I know what's going on 7 miles away 5 mi offshore. The internet is fun.

 

[zannej]

Mark, I'm glad you got the floor fixed up. It looks good.

I'm watching the cat that is trying to sleep on my desktop computer drift off and her leg is slipping off the computer and sagging, drifting lower, then she pulls it back up because it got uncomfortable, then it slowly slips down again. LOL.

Got 5 kitties on me right now.

 

[highup]

One of those ships in my previous post is 100 miles offshore and the other one is docked. That means the pilot boat was out there to take a pilot off of one ship that was heading out and put him aboard the other ship which was coming in to load. Our Bay has five places that a ship can dock but only three of them are being used. Two docks load wood chip and one loads logs.

 

[highup]

Highup, sounds like you did a LOT of work but I'm glad the customers appreciate it. Reducing the moisture in there will most definitely help for the craft room. Damp rooms are no good for fabric.

Got a question: Have you ever been asked to build a small platform for a toilet to make it higher/taller?

I'm thinking instead of ditching the standard height toilets we already have & buying ADA height ones, I want to build a platform under them to raise them about 3" or so. They can be square at the back but I want the front to curve to match the curve of the toilet (although I'm ok with a little bit of a lip so the toilet doesn't hang over and I don't have to worry about it ever slipping off).

For my bathroom, it will let me make the platform level instead of worrying too much about the main floor being level. I could put the platform on top of the sheet vinyl, shim as necessary, secure it to the floor, paint it, caulk around it, etc. (or I could cut the sheet vinyl to wrap up it a bit? but that might be difficult). The back can be squared off but I want the front to match the curve of the toilet. Trying to figure out the best way to accomplish that. I saw that 3x4 landscaping timbers are about $5 each and would boost it up to the right height (if the 3" part is up) and supply a sturdy base. Might have to notch for the drain to fit. Some cross-braces for under the flange would be nice. I could possibly notch to recess the flange very slightly so it is flush with the frame, but it probably wouldn't hurt for it to sit on top.

My crappy concept sketch over the dimensional drawing of the toilet from the specs
View attachment 13401
I know the timbers would be too thick as is for the inner parts, (although, I might not need them-- might just have some sort of bracing between or something). Toilet is only about 9-1/4" wide at the widest. Holes in the flange are 6" apart. Toilet base is 23-5/8" long.

I might have some scrap sheet vinyl to wrap around the edges but that might look ugly so painting it white would probably be the best bet. I was initially thinking 2x4s with plywood on top, but I could do an amalgum of things. I want it to be sturdy and I want to make it waterproof.

Sadly, the premade platforms are too expensive and too small (only 22" long).

I want it curved at the front so the Squatty Potty will fit around it & so I won't derp and bang my heel on it.

Should I make a separate thread about this?

I'm not sure if you should use dimentional lumber for that, because it expands and contracts. If it got damp, it could swell and break the toilet. If it dried out, the toilet would loosen...
...maybe.
I'll drink some coffee and reflect on my comment.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Friend of mine helped me put in new water heater. There goes $700 for parts and $100 for labor. And I filled my gas tank costing me another $70. $1000 can disappear pretty fast these days.

my friend is a carpenter. Told me my plan next year for a new deck will go over $20,000. Hopefully lumber prices come down. Biggest problem with design is deck is 9 feet off ground so needs longer stairs and platform too. And that height needs 6x6 posts and new header. Will wait to have money in bank before I talk to anyone.

 

[Jon]

Friend of mine helped me put in new water heater. There goes $700 for parts and $100 for labor. And I filled my gas tank costing me another $70. $1000 can disappear pretty fast these days.

my friend is a carpenter. Told me my plan next year for a new deck will go over $20,000. Hopefully lumber prices come down. Biggest problem with design is deck is 9 feet off ground so needs longer stairs and platform too. And that height needs 6x6 posts and new header. Will wait to have money in bank before I talk to anyone.

Tom here decks have to have stainless bolts and stainless brackets as we are too small a country with ocean all around us so a deck works out expensive

 

[Tom Picciani]

Tom here decks have to have stainless bolts as we are too small a country with ocean all around us so a deck works out expensive

i can see that. I’m 5 miles East of the Susquehanna River in Lancaster county. Minimal zoning codes and restrictions. We have 2 excellent lumber yards that are not big box stores. I am going with 5/4 pressure treated yellow pine. I can stain the deck myself. The picture shows how the last deck came out. I used TWP total wood protection oil finish in redwood. I want that look again.

 

[zannej]

Thanks, Highup. I'm thinking of using landscaping timbers that are pressure treated but they are not meant for longterm outdoor use. So I was thinking water seal + plastidip + plastic sheet moisture barrier. Possibly scrap sheet vinyl over the top. If I seal it so it stays dry it might not expand/contract as much. I'm also debating whether or not to have plywood over the top (after sealing the crap out of it & painting it). I'm thinking it would somewhat be like a floor, but raised up & protected better than a floor. If I thought peel & stick viny would stay on I'd consider that.

I was thinking that for the guest bathroom the toilet could be higher since my brother is around 6'3" so a taller toilet would suit him. Our standard height toilets are 14-5/8"H. ADA one is 17-1/4"H. The "chair height" one my friend has is 16-1/4" high and is comfortable for me. My heels can sit on the floor on the chair height. They don't touch the floor in the ADA height. So a slightly lower platform could work for me as I'm only 5'5". The 17-1/4" works for Mom since she's 1" taller than me.

I went to samsclub today to get more milk and groceries. Stopped by Panda (my favorite restaurant). The owner is always happy to see us.

 

[zannej]

I have a few people who are insisting that the platforms will be super expensive. Unless I really mess up, I don't think that will happen. It's sort of like building steps/stairs with a single step that is curved to the contour of the toilet front. They keep going on about the flange, but I have to gut the plumbing anyway since it's installed incorrectly. So, I will be installing new flanges I figure I can make a base frame, put plywood over the top if need be (with supports in the middle underneath), make sure all outside load-bearing edges of the toilet are supported), make sure it's sealed up tight around the flange...

Right now I'm trying to design a simple but sturdy configuration, figure out how to put it all together, make sure it secures to the floor so it won't slide around, etc.

Today I took inventory of the plumbing fittings and tools to make sure we have everything we need to work on plumbing tomorrow. Picked up my friend, had him go over inventory with me to doublecheck, distracted cows with feed, went to the store to get a couple more fittings & get ceiling tiles for his nursery, stopped to eat, dropped him off, got food for mom, came home and fed kitties, and then discussed with my friend online about what fittings we will use where and how much pex we'll need, etc. We want to make sure it's during store hours in case we need anything from the local hardware store. It's gonna suck crawling under the house, but this needs to get done. I thought we were only going to do hot water but my friend wants to do the cold as well to get it all done in one go. I wish I was as skinny as my friend because then I could fit through some of the spots I can't make it through anymore. Although, I have lost some weight. Scale is showing I'm just barely under 200lbs now and I'd gotten up over 220lbs.

 

[Tile Tom]

Seems like a solid plan to me. Here they put shitters up on platforms all the time. Especially if it's an addition on concrete. Easier to just build it up to do the plumbing rather than bust out concrete for plumbing.
I like the idea of having the ******* up a bit anyway. Probably because I'm 6' 6" and weigh in at around 260-270lbs......