Home Improvement Today?

I have the Dewalt 20v. I love it.


I noticed Amazon has the 3/8 drive model on sale for $110:

DEWALT 20V MAX Cordless Impact Wrench with Hog Ring, 3/8", Tool Only (DCF883B), Yellow

http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DCF883...=1356218600&sr=8-2&keywords=dewalt+20v+impact

 

Plenty of power there fo sure

 

Finished up the bathroom today. I added black baseboard trim and installed the toilet.

Here's a better shot of the original:


After:

 

Could you provide more info on the faux rock (brand)

 

It's from www.TexturePlus.com. The rock style is Stacked Stone in Natural Gray.

http://www.textureplus.com/stacked-stone-standard.html

 

Evil monkey that turned out great! Congrats man!

I'm getting a little further along in my dining room project.. Wish I had more time so I could just finish it. But I skim coated, sanded, primed, and should be ready for paint. Picked up a sample of behr ultra "cherry tart" to see how it looks. When I eventually finish it ill take some pics.


Also took some time yesterday to address some leaky pipes under the kitchen sink. First time using "shark bite" fittings.. Wow what a time saver. So much easier than sweating pipe. If my dishwasher line didn't leak after the first try, would've only been 5 minutes to cut the old hot and cold pipes and add new shut offs and hose to the faucet. 3/8s line wasn't available in shark bite so I had to use a flare nut style fitting.

Need to go to Home Depot to exchange a 1/4" flare fitting for my fridge's ice maker.. The one I bought doesn't fit.


Also started cutting some wood for the 2.5' mini halfpipe that will be going in the basement...

 

Can i come shred when your done. i used to have ramps in my basement but it didn't always work out so well, every once in awhile i would whack my head on a floor joist.

 

Haha hell yea! It's only a 7ft ceiling so standing on the deck of the ramp you have to bend down a bit, but I'm sure after hitting our heads a few times we'll get used to it. I think I'm gonna try to find some of those pool toy noodle things and slice them open to wrap around the floor joists so atleast it will be soft on the skull lol

 

Hahaha good plan

 

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My first project that I will list here ...

I am going to take on a big project and have never done this before so any and all advice is appreciated.

Anyway, wifey got a deal and bought about 3,500+ sq. feet (about 12,000 lbs) of "African Wormy Cherry" and it is very hard wood. She also got this silent mat that is a little heavier than rosin paper to sound deaden the upstairs floor.

I will give you some specs. ... house is about 3,500+ sq ft., but that includes baths ... upstairs is carpeting ... downstairs is white oak and about 28 years old ... L/R and master B/R on first floor are carpeted.

So, I plan to put this stuff all over the house, except bathrooms ... also plan to add extra 1/2" to 3/4" plywood (min 4 plys) as additional underlayment ... FYI, outside door thresholds will still work OK with this.

I plan to try to do a room at a time ... is it OK to put a perpendicular threshold strip at door opening as a line of demarkation to next room or hallway ??

Any and all ideas appreciated and I know it will take me a year or so to do this ... but I have already been working non-stop on this money pit for 15 years ...

Thanks in advance ...

PS ... Please don't tell me to get a professional to do it ... I can do this ... I am just picky and slow. ...

Thanks again for any and all tips & dos and don'ts ...

I will have a part-time , semi-skiiled helper (painter buddy) on weekends.
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Well, I was going to say, "wow, 3500 sq ft is huge!" But then you said that includes the bathrooms, so "meh"

 

Post some pics of the floor. I bet it looks great. The worm holes add a lot of character to it.

You can transition each room, but IMO it doesn't look professional. It makes it look like each room was an afterthought. I would just leave yourself a few staggered pieces to transition into when you decide to start the next room. Start in the largest room first and make sure your flooring runs perpendicular to your floor joists.

Is this a floating floor or nail down?

If it's nail down:
You can use a pieces of spline (basically makes one course a male-male piece) to reverse your direction at the doorways to continue nailing it down. I'm assuming you're nailing this down?

Floating:
Doesn't really matter, and is a little easier.

Here's a shot of my floating floor in the door transitions.


We started in the Great room, then once we got to the doorway to the master bedroom, we ran a few courses going the same direction we were (to create some rigidity), then we started working backwards in the opposite direction in the master bedroom

Transition from kitchen into laundry room


Attached is a shot of how to do the transition with a nail down floor.

 

Floor looks nice. A little bit of advise. when you lay any wood floor the floor should face the door. As you walk in the room the wood should be in the same direction as the doorway that you enter.. I learned that in Design classes.

 

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Your work always looks great.

Thanks for all of the tips. This is a 3/4" T&G nail down in 3 widths. It has some funky mixed colors and I will take some pics and post them of the samples. Not sure if I will use staples or cleats ... and suggestions there ??
When I patched a floor in another house, I used a Porter Cable pneumatic nailer with cleats. Loaned that P/C nailer to a friend and he destroyed it in 2 days. Now I have to find another one.

Yes, you are right, when I think about it ... it would not look as good with a "cut off threshold" in each room. Doing a "running common bond" will look better and make it more difficult. This will be a slow project, i.e. people walking around & stuff to move, but is workable.

I was going to put down rosin paper, but purchased some new "nail through" membrane that deadens the floor (at least it did in the sample).

You guys do some good stuff in this thread and I wanted to bounce this project off you all.

Thanks for any & all suggestions and/or dos and don'ts ... keep them coming ...
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Got the house about 16 years ago as a "fixer upper" and it has cost a lot more to fix up than I thought it would. Never get my money out of it, but it gives me something to keep me busy.

I like doing remodeling projects IF I am not rushed ... however wife wants stuff done ASAP with no dust & clutter. ...

Got remarried about 6 years ago and fixed up wife's house and sold it ... now back to working on mine ... while we are living in it ... this makes her crazy ...

And to top that off, her brother is retiring early and is moving to the south and may live with us for a while ...


FWIW ... This housing remodel started with the help of a great friend who was a fantastic carpenter. He helped me with this house for about 10 years (off & on) ... but was killed in summer of 2011 on another job over in Marietta. He got a little dizzy in the heat (we think he was dehydrated), fell off a ladder and hit his head on an A/C compressing unit and died on the spot. Now, I try to be even more careful in what I do.
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Had to buy a new water heater and install it about a month and a half ago. Old one, which was only 7 years old, was leaking very badly. Water all over the downstairs floor. It was so bad that it was going under the room I built downstairs and out the french doors at the front of the room that lead outside. Cost me 800 bucks out of my own pocket, and I doubt I'll see any payback from my parents, even though they said they would pay me back. It had to be bought immediately, see, because the old one was about to explode, and my parents didn't have the money to buy it- they couldn't even pay off all the bills at it was.
Today though, I went up on my roof and put a few screws in the gutter. It's been sagging for years, but this last rainstorm made it so bad I had to do something about it, since nobody else will. Seven able-bodied people in this house, and I'm the only one who does any work around the place.

 

I understand, brother, keeping my mom's place aloft (she's retired and single)................it is often enough work to keep our own dwellings in pristine condition, let alone those of another. Kudos to you, Sir and just remember, family first..............

 

Good for you guys! In the end it does not really matter if they don't pitch in - you know that you are doing your part and that makes you the better person. Keep helping them, especially if they can't take care of it themselves. So many people just sit back and let others take care of them - drives me crazy.

 

Great job! I love that stone!

 

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Your job turned out fantastic ...
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