Carpet Tile Repair

[Ernesto]

So, background.... I do these commercial repairs for a nation wide service. Got a call for replacing some carpet tiles glued with pressure sensitive in an area where they moved a large display (14' x 20'). I go look and some dope glued down a commercial actionbac with multi-purpose over top the pressure sensitive instead of just replacing carpet tiles. Of course now I need to rip it out and it's had traffic on it for the last 6 months.

Question is, how difficult is the demo going to be? And does multipurpose stick to pressure sensitive very well? I'm hoping it will simply release off the pressure sensitive easily.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Double the trouble. Think of it this way. The PSA is design to stick to the floor really good but be releaseable to the tile if put in dry. The multi is designed to stick to the floor and the carpet and not be releasable. How long has it been down? So are you going to put tile back down? You may want to scrape or the scarify the floor.
I'd say it is a flip of the coin.

Daris

 

[Ernesto]

Double the trouble. Think of it this way. The PSA is design to stick to the floor really good but be releaseable to the tile if put in dry. The multi is designed to stick to the floor and the carpet and not be releasable. How long has it been down? So are you going to put tile back down? You may want to scrape or the scarify the floor.
I'd say it is a flip of the coin.

Daris

Thanks Daris, been down six months. Going in with new carpet tiles which are on the way.

I'm thinking worst case scenerio it may come up by hand in small strips. No way are these guys going to pony up for scarification. They want the ole get'r in and done price. Still ain't going to be cheap. I'm thinking around 500 Ducats.

 

[Floorist]

Yep. If it's not profitable, don't do it.

 

[Ernesto]

Yep. If it's not profitable, don't do it.

They supply the materials, all I supply is labor. Ifin I'm working it will be profitable.

 

[FloorMaven]

Cut it in strips and call labor ready for some muscle. $13 hr. min four. Then take the scrape away to the adhesive. Should be good to go.

 

[Ernesto]

Love that video but I still have not bought a scrape away. I think HD has one. But this is not all multi-purpose. It is a sticky adhesive down under.

 

[FloorMaven]

Yeah, I think you can rent. That was thick and sticky, but not real sticky. You can spread a drying agent, I've heard talcum power, saw dust and sand...but I've found gypsum patch does real well.

 

[Incognito]

you don't have any kind of demo machine or Scrape-Away?

worst case scenario that's an eight hour day with about 6 1/2 hours of demo and hand scraping, one hour for patch and glue to dry and half an hour to set the carpet tiles and hang the base

$500 is reasonable

 

[Ernesto]

you don't have any kind of demo machine or Scrape-Away?

worst case scenario that's an eight hour day with about 6 1/2 hours of demo and hand scraping, one hour for patch and glue to dry and half an hour to set the carpet tiles and hang the base

$500 is reasonable

Eight hours for 240 sf? These guys want you in and out before they open for bizness. That means if they open at 6:00 am for the employees you have maybe 2 to 4 hours max. Typical billing for repairs averages 150 Ducats an hour.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Eight hours for 240 sf? These guys want you in and out before they open for bizness. That means if they open at 6:00 am for the employees you have maybe 2 to 4 hours max. Typical billing for repairs averages 150 Ducats an hour.

Do like Jon says to do. Open the phone book and throw a dart. Whatever number it lands on double it. 2-4 hour to do-I'd run.

Daris

 

[Incognito]

Eight hours for 240 sf? These guys want you in and out before they open for bizness. That means if they open at 6:00 am for the employees you have maybe 2 to 4 hours max. Typical billing for repairs averages 150 Ducats an hour.

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9 times out of ten that wouldn't be a problem

you just never really know how big of a notch the guy decided to use and if he wanted to use the premium multi-purpose

I had a pretty rough demo today----two in fact as we tore out carpet over VCT in one school only only to realize the VCT was laid over asphalt asbestos tile and the school didn't want to overlay the double layer.

So we went to another school a few miles down the road and tore out another 250 s/y that someone had used a rake to spread the mulit-purpose. I'll spend most of tomorrow scraping and be lucky to get a skimcoat down

it's 50 boxes of so of VCT on a diagonal with a 6" border and 2x2 and 4x4 squares of an accent color.

then I assume they'll abate the asbestos and I've got to go back to the first school to lay another 50 boxes or so in roughly the same pattern----very different shaped rooms though. The school I'm at now is an octagonal shaped multi-purpose room.

 

[Ernesto]

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9 times out of ten that wouldn't be a problem

True that. I do various repairs all over in stores, vinyl plank with the patch coming up thats glued with two part epoxy systems, ceramic, parquet, transition strips etc etc. You just have to be prepared, have all the tools necessary ready to take in all at once, no running in and out for stuff.

If I did lots of commercial I probably would buy a scrape away but I tend to bid to high for demo. Hey, if it takes twice as long as laying it, why charge the same as installaion like all these other yahoo's out here do.

 

[Ernesto]

Did a vct repair in the back of a store today, bout 7' x 6'. Took 2 1/2 hours. The P.O. said it had a leak in the roof, manager said it came in under the door in a big storm. I look up and a ceiling tile is popped out by the exit door.

I look up past the ceiling and can see a plastic vent pipe going up through the roof. And there is light coming through around the perimeter of the pipe. hmmmm, says to self, self...hurry your azz up and get the repair done. Course there was wet vct adhesive under the bottom layer. Put a fan on it and dried it down. Watched vct adhesive dry twice today. Oh boy!

 

[Ernesto]

Got my 160 sf of carpet tiles done this morning at a Best Buy. Take up broadloom commercial glued, piece of cake, all the carpet tiles that were cut against came up easy as well. A couple had some gooey adhesive under them. All these big stores have moisture issues these days. Even the vct has lots of bumps under it.

So I wiped up the gooey mess the best I could, rolled out my Blue Glue, let it tack while I disposed of the crapet I tore up. @ $2.25 a sf I made some decent coin I think for a couple hours. Much better than that vct can o worms job.

 

[Incognito]

Got my 160 sf of carpet tiles done this morning at a Best Buy. Take up broadloom commercial glued, piece of cake, all the carpet tiles that were cut against came up easy as well. A couple had some gooey adhesive under them. All these big stores have moisture issues these days. Even the vct has lots of bumps under it.

So I wiped up the gooey mess the best I could, rolled out my Blue Glue, let it tack while I disposed of the crapet I tore up. @ $2.25 a sf I made some decent coin I think for a couple hours. Much better than that vct can o worms job.

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BLUE GLUE?

Wow, back in the day I used to see 50 gallon drums of that stuff by the tractor trailer load. The shop I worked for had spigots on them and would either send off whole drums to a job site or dole it out into 1 gallon or 5 gallon pails for smaller work. Those were the days of endless fields of carpet tile. Didn't learn much skill-wise/trade-wise but it sure paid the bills.

I haven't seen any of that stuff in 25 years.

 

[Ernesto]

Ok it is really green glue. I must be getting color blind. Looked blue inside best Buy.

 

[Nick]

Blame it on Fluorescent lighting .
You are no longer color blind .