Thought of the day .

[highup]

Easiest carpet demo I’ve ever done was a glue down job in an insurance office where the hot water heater let go and flooded the place. Peeled up entire rooms in one piece.

My brother and I carpeted local state police office. There were two parts, the main office area and the crime lab which was a separate entity, it was separated by a 2 inch thick heavy wood door. The plans showed for the carpet and the vinyl went and the head of the crime lab made daily tours through the place seeing what was going on. He was there the day we carpeted a small 8 by 12 room. It had countertops along two walls and a chamber about 4 ft wide and 2 ft deep with some little air nozzles in the top of it. Might have been something for checking fingerprints or something, I don't know.
Anyhow we put carpet in that room and the guy that ran the crime lab was there so he knew that we were putting carpet in that room.
A day later he said they were supposed to be vinyl in that room, not carpet.
Would have been kind of nice if you would have brought that up while he was there the day before.
We checked the plans and the plans said carpet was supposed to be in that room, so we didn't screw up. Anyhow we are doing some larger runs of carpet and got back to that room a day or two later. The carpet was unitary backed and we used an adhesive called Magnum Bond. It dried like bubblegum on steroids...... Ok, you had a strong bond and never totally dries up. Nasty stuff but I had a good grab and that's why we used it for this unitary backed carpet.
Hot water you said? This old building had a slope to it. I filled up a 5-quart painters pail with hot water and poured it on the uphill side of the room and I could watch through capillary action it wove its way downwards slowly towards the other wall. I repeated this a couple of times and the water eventually made it down towards the other wall and I sucked it up with my shop vac. Then I figured the carpet would just peel loose. No, it didn't. I still had to cut the carpet into narrow strips and use a razor scraper. That was nasty stuff to deal with. I remember the good old days those carpet adhesives dried to a hard crumbly state and were a lot easier to scrape off. Not this stuff.

 

[highup]

War Stories. I'm looking through some old photos. Found an overhead shot of a job I did in the 80's. We did two buildings and now there are 5 at the site. Notice in the photo bottom left there's a stream. Well, that close by building had a basment that surely went down as deep as that water level. I was sent over to check the VCT in the basment a month or so after install but well before the buildings were turned over. It was CRAZY. All the VCT was curled up to like an inch off the floor and there were puddles of water. As crazy as that was even wilder to my eyes was all the drywall tape and mud had turned green and blistered through the paint which peeled away so you could see the bare drywall next to the tape/mud. Every drywall screw patch was visible through the paint and stained with the mold.

Funny thing, they asked me to look at it but I don't recall the remediation or anything else. Obviously someone had to do something dramatic to the walls which I assume was furred out metal studs shot into the concrete walls of the basement. Who would build a basment 25-50 from a small creek and not control for moisture? Well, I do know it was IMB that owned the buildings. I'm not sure who they leased it to or what became of it.

A total moron would build something that way. If it was that necessary for a basement, you'd want to build it like a swimming pool on the exterior and maybe even install sump pumps.

 

[Floorist]

You didn't use outdoor glue in a 100-year-old flood plane area?
What were you smoking back then Rusty?

One day in '93, I drove 20 miles to a job which put me in Kansas. It rained so much that day that I had to drive 100 miles north to cross back over to get into Missouri so that my son and I could get home. First time in my life I have ever seen those roads flooded. They flooded many times that spring.

 

[Incognito]

Easiest carpet demo I’ve ever done was a glue down job in an insurance office where the hot water heater let go and flooded the place. Peeled up entire rooms in one piece.

Glue down carpet that's just laying there is not too uncommon from my experience. I always attribute it to piece workers who furnish their own adhesive. Basically, the cheapest glue is watered down but nothing else different about it. So on certain slabs that glue crystallizes into a powder but if there's no heavy traffic the carpet holds up just the same.

In response the failure----anywhere they might have heavy traffic manufacturer's would REQUIRE their own brand adhesive for the warranty. At least it would simplify the claim if you could show you purchased the adequate amount and it was delivered to the site. Well, some of those adhesives were over-the-top sticky and long lasting. I don't know the chemistry but I know the results. On one hand, like described you can grab a full sheet of installed carpet in the corner and effortlessly peel it back, fold it like a big burrito and haul it off on 4-wheelers. In fact the only reason to cut the carpet is if there's a corridor or an elevator that makes it easier to handle in smaller bites.

I frequently battled with the co-workers who wanted to cut 3 or 4 foot strips when you could pull back the whole roll off the floor. OK, sometimes you're contrained by the doors, halls and elevator cab. But when not constrained it's easiest to peel it all off loose and then either roll or fold-----depends again on the thickness/weight. Guys tend to get STUCK in habits and dont want to adjust to circumstances. They always want to use the same tools and methods so often even when I can show them 100% a faster, easier, better way. It was very frustrating. Thing is, people can be so stubborn that the fasterm easier, better way SEEMS difficult and awkward. I guess because it takes a minute to retrain your brain. God forbid.

 

[highup]

I'll cut a 12x14 room into three strips.
Easier to remove from a customer's home, and it's much easier to put into the truck and you toss it up into the dumpster at the warehouse I'm not tossing a 12x14-ft piece of carpet into the dumpster.
Commercial is different when he got a bunch of guys but I haven't hauled out a 12x14 piece of carpet in 40 years. At a minimum it's two pieces. You fold the carpet in half, ZIP down the fold from the back side with a carpet knife and it takes you 15 seconds or less. I find it a lot easier to cut the carpet in half and shift each piece away from the wall so that you don't have to roll it up against baseboard heaters and other obstacles, possibly scratching things.
Commercial stuff when you got a crew yeah maybe one piece is better then.

 

[Floorist]

I see all the ads for Angi, was Angi's List, when it first started they were hunting for contractors to list. I got a phone call from them one day offering me a listing with a bunch of good reviews if I would send them a check. I just ignored them. I wonder if they still do that?

 

[highup]

I see all the ads for Angi, was Angi's List, when it first started they were hunting for contractors to list. I got a phone call from them one day offering me a listing with a bunch of good reviews if I would send them a check. I just ignored them. I wonder if they still do that?

I already have good reviews.

 

[Floorist]

 

[Incognito]

I'll cut a 12x14 room into three strips.
Easier to remove from a customer's home, and it's much easier to put into the truck and you toss it up into the dumpster at the warehouse I'm not tossing a 12x14-ft piece of carpet into the dumpster.
Commercial is different when he got a bunch of guys but I haven't hauled out a 12x14 piece of carpet in 40 years. At a minimum it's two pieces. You fold the carpet in half, ZIP down the fold from the back side with a carpet knife and it takes you 15 seconds or less. I find it a lot easier to cut the carpet in half and shift each piece away from the wall so that you don't have to roll it up against baseboard heaters and other obstacles, possibly scratching things.
Commercial stuff when you got a crew yeah maybe one piece is better then.

Comes down to ADAPTING to your situation. Often we'll have a stake bed truck with a lift gate. The warehouse guy can forklift everything off the truck into the 40 yard dumpster. So in those instances I only cut it to get through doors or into elevators. A HUGE factor in how I handle the demo is how much dirt, dust and debris are involved. Peeling back the corners keeps most of that crap contained when you carefully fold it to avoid that flying back all over the glue. It sucks sweeping dust and dirt off the old glue if you don't need to. In some cases I don't even need to sweep.

 

[Floorist]

 

[C.J.]

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It’s Mr. Jenkins?!

 

[Floorist]

 

[Floorist]

 

[highup]

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For some reason I envision an old codger writing that, but pulled off to the side of the road after a run to the liquor store.

 

[Floorist]

 

[Floorist]

“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”
~ Mark Twain

 

[Floorist]

“My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.”​

― Harry S. Truman

 

[highup]

Hey Daris.....
....yes, it's just a parking lot, but even those have some basic rules of etiquette.

 

[Floorist]

 

[Floorist]

" The greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled. "
~Aldous Huxley