To pick up where I left off:
I did a floor repair last week; the homeowner cannot find it, and they know where it was. The flooring is all shorts:
There is not one stick is longer than 18", so it was not easy to find shorts. I went to a paint store that sells wood flooring, and they had broken bundles that were right up my needs. They sold the loose flooring to me at a great price, and they got rid of the stuff they have no need for (and most time just put in the fireplace). They looked at me a bit funny till I showed them the photo of what we were doing.
Clifford took it out:
... and I got to put it back in. We used the palm nailer, so the cleat was just like we never took it out.
I like this new tool; it is not faster than hand nails or pin nails, but the flooring looks better. We have been doing this for years with a large palm nailer and 8d nails. It hides the nails in the flooring, and we only have to top-nail the last row. Some folks glue down the last few rows and top-nail the last row and that is great but for me… I cannot open a glue jug or gun without it getting all over me, so I like the palm nailers. I will be getting one more unit so we can get the wall lines done faster. ?
I like working this hard, and when the backside hits the chair, it is lights out. Clifford is a huge plus; he is getting the feel for the sanders, and on the last job he ran the edger with 60 grit. It was an old floor that had to be cut 40, 60, and 100. He was ready to take it on but I did not want him to make deep cuts, so I went ahead of him with 40 and got it clean and flat, and then he came behind me with the 60 to start the cleanup cut. "Hide the scratch" is all he had to think about, and he did a great job of doing it. The funny thing is, he is a "man of a certain age" ... he uses what we call readers (glasses with the power to start a fire in the sun beam). For the first room he did without, but then he went back wearing his readers and saw the scratch. Getting old is no fun! We also drag a bright light with us to show the scratch, but you have got to be real sure not to polish the wood. We cannot hear and now we cannot see, how funny is that?! The good news? We are not bald.?
Well, I have got to get to work, I took the half day to get this done. I feel bad when the blog is not done, but we have got to cut hay when the sun shines. My task is to write about the things we face every day and give the feeling that we are not alone during the challenges we face. This is a nice challenge; getting the work then makes it all come together in a short timeline. Here is one thing to think about: the trust folks have in you and your staff. They open their house to us and trust we will do the best work we can and not violate the confidence they place in us. That is very important to the next job and the next job. Word of mouth is our best sales tool.
