Let's play catch-up.
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Let's play catch-up.
The 1,600-foot of thermo-treated maple is installed, yay. Two things: One, Boone could not make it for the install-the job he was on went so well the homeowner wanted them to take out some tile and install even more wood flooring. The tools and crew were already there, so they went on with it. Two, thermo-treated flooring was not what I had in my mind. It is very hard and easy to chip, so we had to slow down with the install so it would not chip or look beat up.
We used the 18G nails so they would not split the flooring and used something else new for me: the nail gun with wheels:
Curtis from Primatech has asked me for a long time to try the gun with wheels. Well, I have got to say it worked great, but you have to be sure that you do not over-nail the floor. We now have two guns with the wheels (both drive the 18G), so that puts us up to two guns for the 16G and two for 18G.
The two guns I will never-and I do mean never-get rid of are the Powernail manual (one 45 and one top nail). Boone got me those as my "get started and git-r-done" guns. I cannot tell you how many times we pull them off the truck for jobs. I still get a laugh when guys beat the fire out it and still cannot set the nail. "Mac" McLaughlin was a man I never got to meet, but his words of wisdom still ring true today: "Do not drive the hammer, drive the nail."
The air guns are here to stay and, truth be told, "Daddy like!" It sure takes the pain out of the arm. So when you are working with hard flooring, look at the 18G units; we did not split one board! Just a side note: They were 1 3/4 long so the nail would not pass through the subfloor:
Think about this: If the nail is sticking out of the subfloor, what is it holding? If the nail is 100% in the subfloor, the holding power is spot-on. Let's see what the gun folks say ... just Wayne thinking again.
Clifford and I installed the floor in four days, however, one day was prep on the subfloor. If we left that much of a mess on a job, the GC would have a cow, but the drywall mud folks can leave half a pail on the subfloor and no one says a word. We had to run the buffer on the subfloor with 36-grit paper to get it off, plus sweep a ton of cut wire from the floor. I guess Sparky cannot clean up after he puts in an outlet?
On to the next task: We are letting the 1,600 feet set for a few days and allowing the last of the trades to complete their punch list. While that is sitting, I went to the 400-foot yellow pine floor that the horse walked on. Well, he had shoes on, and the cleats left DEEEEEEP holes in the flooring. I did forget to take a photo, sorry. I was so up to get it done that it slipped my mind. I had to cut 36 on a 45 to get it flat and remove the holes. Then I followed it up with 50 and 80, then ran the edger with the same. It was a pain because the walls were hard to get as flat as the main floor. I did hand-work for all the walls to get out the scratch. Then the hard plate-I did not use my multi-disc sander. I wanted it flat because the knots were all over this floor, and the only way to get it flat and keep it flat was the old-school hard-plate on the buffer. Look at the floor and you will see the knots:
Well, I think that brings us to the week's end; I have two more estimates today and with luck we will get them. We got the last five, so that puts us in the work for a few weeks. I am so happy to have work!
