Well, it was a nice winter day in the south...mid 40's, no wind and a warm sun to just make you want to sit on the swing and drink coffee all day. Made for a good day and a nice time putting in the last of the cork tile; all that is left is a powder room, about 20 square feet. I did not demo the powder room with the main room because it is the only bathroom with a door... I will get it done in one day so we can use it again for the rest of the job.
We had a few cracks that I did not like, I took prefinish wood filler so they would not look so bad and it looks great. Mrs. Ronda (the home owner) came by and said she loves the floor. The basement was going carpet until we showed her how good cork would look. This stuff is tough; it is so easy to cut but rock-hard when you use the PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) to hold it down. We put on a sealer with a roller, let that dry for 2 hours, then rolled on the adhesive, let that flash off for 20-30 minutes and started laying tile. Paul M. with Greer Corp. was a big help with the cork, he sent me many samples and tech info so we could give Mrs. Ronda more than the carpet idea...thanks, Paul.
We picked up two jobs; both estimates were nice because we did not have to drop our price. Remember the guy that was cutting the price? Well, we had a talk one day and I asked him point blank: Making any money? We all know the response, and folks, his price is now the same as ours. Yeah, he saw the light! He also said that he had to get in line with insurance, taxes, state rules and most of all start making money. So to all of you that said hold firm and ride it out; thank you, that was the best insight.
These are not big jobs, but work is work and we do enjoy it; the feeling of doing a good job is so rewarding. I am sure you all understand that. My only concern is the 1,500-foot job is maple that is 3" and 4" wide; they want to install it fast. The wood has been on-site for two days and they just got the heat on today. Not good, but I was able to get readings of the subfloor and wood before the heat was working and I now have a good baseline to review. The wood is at 8% and the subfloor is at 11%; that is not bad at all, but (and I do mean but) come summer in the South where I live it will hit 14-18%, so we have to factor that in. We battle this all year round, the truth is it makes for a hard install in winter and the maple will move faster than a chicken to a June bug. Teaching them that ahead of time is key and making sure they understand the need to control the crawl space all year round is most important here.
