Saturday, October 17, 2009

Great Room Project Update, Friday 10/16

Grass seed, end o' the floor prep, and NAILING

The weather earlier this week cooperated perfectly for yard work, so another day was spent outside (poor me), spreading compost, lime, fertilizer, grass seed and straw. Mostly in the back yard. All to the rabbit’s great amusement. I purchased a big, honkin’, 50 pound bag of tall fescue grass seed from a local farmer who had an ad in the paper. For $25, I’ll put up with the concept of overkill. Need some seed?

I did finish up the patch near the bricks:


It was also necessary to assemble some new toys. Everyone knows that guys take on these projects mainly as pretext to buy new and expensive tools, right? Well, this one is no exception. Here’s my new miter saw, with matching stand, thank you very much.



Notice that the saw is a Ridgid tool. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet any of their, umm, distinctive sales staff. I wonder what planet they originally came from? Well, I guess they would be pushing 75 or 80 years old by now…



The next step was to put down the 15# black felt paper. I guess the function here is to provide a small amount of insulation (?) and a bit of a vapor barrier. But we already know I have the world’s sexiest crawlspace, so moisture from down there isn’t an issue. The felt paper is also rumored to make the floor quieter. Hey, it’s cheap.

Small ERROR: I needed to go buy a chalk line so that I could put a straight reference line on the floor. Chalk comes in several colors. Since the floor was already covered by red chalk lines from the original construction, marking joists and things, I got some blue chalk. I wasn’t thinking that the surface I would be marking would actually be BLACK! Ahem… Off to Lowe’s to get some white chalk. At least I got out of there for less than $1.50. That’s a first.
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My friend and new band leader Rob came over on Friday. Rob is the one I’m borrowing the pneumatic floor nailer from. He’s the kind of guy who has every tool known to man. You know the type – builds kitchen cabinets, installs hardwood floors, hires contractors only with great gnashing of teeth. Think Norm Abrams, only more fit, and with a shaved head. (He's the guy playing guitar in the previous post). Rob got me set up and nailin’, well, technically stapling, and was a great help in advising me on what was important and what was not. That’s the trouble with doing something new these days. There is almost too much information easily available. Too many different techniques and opinions. With 25 years of hardwood floor experience, Rob is great at filtering out all the overkill. I would have kept measuring forever. He said he really came over because he eventually wants his air compressor back. What a joker.

The pneumatic nailer actually fires these big, 2" long staples. They get injected at a 45° angle into the tongue of the tongue-and-groove hardwood. You can buy these special staples at any hardware-like stoor, but they come in only one quantity: big boxes of 7800. Probably twice as much as I really need. As you can see, a box is pretty hefty.
Zapping down the hardwood is great fun, once you get going. We had to make an “L” shaped piece plus a long skinny piece to turn the corner around the brick. Other that that, it was pretty straightforward. Top-nailing the first three rows went fast with the pneumatic finish nailer. No need for pre-drilling holes or countersinking nail heads! Again, Rob filtered out some of the dogma for me.

Here’s where I stopped at the end of the day. Technically, it’s where I was when the nailer jammed. But that can be dealt with tomorrow.
I think this is actually going to turn out nice, after all.










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