This issue's tip comes from Carl Mattingly of Mattingly & Sons Fine Hardwood Floors in Concord, Calif.
Every home is now equipped with routers that are the lifeblood of communication, gaming, music and TV. The homeowner would rather live without water than allow us to disconnect these electronics. In the recent past we would tape them to the wall, work around them or buy extension cords and move them into another room. Last year we had a job where we couldn't do any of the above—they could not be moved or disconnected. I was installing a new floor and finally had enough; in my frustration I screwed the 5⁄16-by-3-inch-by-3-foot pieces of wood to the wall plate just to get it out of my way. The boards acted like long springs, pressing the electronics against the wall, and we left them there for the duration of the job (since new baseboards were being installed, we didn't have to worry about damaging the walls).
In the photo at right we used 1⁄4-inch plywood strips and nailed them far enough off of the floor that we could edge and apply the finish without any problems. When the floors were complete, we removed the boards, drove the finish nails into the baseboards and applied Color Putty. Where new paint was a concern, we placed a piece of Ram Board behind the electronics. The spring action of the boards held that in place, as well.
