Readers Respond: What Was Normal On A Job Site When You First Started That Would Never Happen Today?

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We asked readers to share something that was normal on a wood flooring job site when they first started out that would never happen on a job site today. Here's what our readers on the WFB Facebook and Instagram pages said:

Ron Teljeur

Model 45 nailers and no sign of a compressor...

Harvey Penner

Answering the phone at the customer's house because that's how the shop contacted you. It was normal.

Chris Kritzer

Back in the day the first thing that got set up was the stereo, and louder than the machines.

Stephen Gunneson

Using moisture cure.

Bill Powell III

New construction installation before the windows are put in.

JimBro Kramer

I used to be the paper cutter. I’d have to cut the paper for the drums and the edgers before I could even run a broom. We also used to not be available during working hours. We checked messages and faxes and made phone calls after we returned to the shop. I really miss that, lol.

James Garasha

People that wanted to work.

Steven Triplett Jr.

Beer in the lunch box.

Derek Fenderson

Installing non-nested bundles and using a chisel before the multitool.

Patrick Smith

Drumming a floor. The Pallmann Spider has pretty much made the drum obsolete.

Brendon Newell

Staining by hand with rags. Hand-sanding all edges to blend drum/edger.

Bradford Lawson

Undercutting door jambs by hand. What a waste of time!

Reddy Freddy

Hand-nailing starter rows and the last four rows.

Mark Crooks

Sealing the area in plastic…

Luke Biello

Driving to the job sitting in the back of the van on the BM because the job is only a few miles away.

Harbour Precision Floors

Buffing with a big screen.

Alfredo Graham

Cleaning glue off the floor with paint thinner.

Chris Allred

Lambswool coating pads.

Shawn Myers

Bags on the machines. Don't miss coming home covered in dust.

Plankd Flooring

Working an actual 8-hour day 😅.

Trent Langton

Buffing by hand because we couldn’t afford a buffer.

Jim Hyde

We had the whole house to ourselves. Now it's a free-for-all.

Mark Hanes

Printed Yahoo maps. And you’d still get lost trying to find the jobs. This is how the wrong house gets sanded. 🫠

Glenn Harris

Hand-brushing moisture cure.

Rob Hayes

Using edger bags!

Bill Loba-Wakol

Employees making it a straight month without calling in with some excuse.

Harvey Penner

Sending estimates by mail, waiting for a mail reply, this could take a month or more. Now it's THIS SECOND!

Mike Hanning

Not being sore!

Beaver Hardwood

Dust bag on an edger and hand-nailing with galvanized nails.

Ron Schuetz

Hand-scraping under radiators…

Justin Waddell

Smoking cigarettes while working in new construction.

Joe Dawson

Non-pneumatic tools ⚒️.

Larry Putnam

Cell phones hooked to vehicle's horn. Everyone looking to see if it was their vehicle’s horn.

Jim Dalton

Using a foxtail broom and coat, no vac.

Jeff Foster

Dual buffer!

Jorge Perez

Lots of dust.

Daniel Caffo

Mixing filler with gasoline and spreading it all over the floor.

Lars Frohnsdorf

Smoking on site.

Carlos Garcia

Smelly varnish.

Tony Horsman

Driving to find a payphone if you needed to call the shop.

Shane Scheimann

Talking in a house while putting down water-base, lol.

William Burnam

An empty place ready for your arrival…

Rob Griswold

Chisel and hammer board repairs.

Shane Jones

Smoking inside other people's homes.

Sean Tupper

Scraping or applying stain on hands and knees.

Reddy Freddy

5-gallon buckets of poly and gallons of stain.

Jeff Romero

16-hour days.

Daniel Springer

Vacuuming the whole house.

davidpotterflooring

A general contractor telling us what to do 😝.

david.shafer512

A clean subfloor. Now it’s under an inch of drywall mud,

walnutgrovehardwood

Top-nailing the opening and closing rows. Especially the last three rows.

cottonwoodfinishesllc

SWEEPING up the dust from the buffer.

nemocockrell

Spraying diesel on the floor.

woodyshardwoodflooring

Having a helper!!!!

robjohnson9663

Hard plating with a 16” single-sided 80 grit paper with a 4” hole bolted on to a steel buffer plate with a 1/2” felt backing pad glued to the plate. Removin’ some chattah! Lol.

onestopfloorsanding.co.uk

Getting paid on time.

jake.hilbert

36, 80, buff and coat.

soulbrotha09

Hand-nailing last three rows. Barb from Powercleats messed up my thumb and index finger.

traditional_floors

The client understood what they wanted…

wearmax_ceramic_coatings

We started out using a Dremel Roto Zip for repairs, now we have the Fein multitool, so much easier.

nickmaxson.eth

Palm-sanding without a vacuum.

tonyrod231

Hand-nailing rips with case-hardened nails, and edger bags with holes in them dusting the house up.

kelleyswoodfloors

Customers actually wanting some squeaks and creaks in the floor, because it’s actual wood and that’s what wood does. You know, it still thinks it’s a tree.

ventura.bj

Lacquer-based finishes.

michael.james74

Sticking raw wires in 220 outlets 😁.

fioormstr

House was clean. Concrete was clean.

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