I learned to lay old school linoleum, general contractor style. I began my hunt for linoleum glue two days ago. The true linoleum glue comes in 4-gallon and 1-gallon cans. I, not wanting to spend $40 on 1-gallon of glue for 12-square feet of flooring soon to be under a behemoth of a water storage tank, went the road less traveled. Getting my information from a paid general contractor, I lowered my sights and went hunting for 1-quart of sub-floor construction adhesive. Not able to find it in 1-quart form, only in tubes, I trotted out of the hardware store feeling plucky and creative. I was going to use a caulking gun to lay the adhesive out, then use the flat side of a trowel to spread it, then the 1/8" grooved side. Once I got home, I gathered all of my tools, measured twice, cut once using a shiny new utility blade. I used a square to get nice straight lines, scored the heavy duty linoleum several times, snapped it on the line and set
about installing it.
I did a dry run, everything fit. I thoroughly cleaned the area, swept, vacuumed, swept. Then I cut open my first tube of sub-floor adhesive. It all started well. My lines were small, close together and evenly spaced. Then the caulking gun broke. It would only squeeze on one side of the tube. I had to rotate the tube and squeeze at the same time. Nothing was coming out so I increased the size of the tube opening...blam! I had adhesive and lots of it. There was no stopping now. Not even the leak in the ceiling that started up again could stop me now. This stuff is not water soluble and I dry time is pretty quick. It was do it now or have a royal mess on my hands. And a royal mess it was.
I didn't realize until after I took the picture and looked back on it that the ceiling had leaked just enough to prevent the adhesive from sticking in that area. Charging ahead with my project, I quickly smoothed, sort of, then troweled, sort of. Using a 2x4 to flatten the backing of the linoleum to the floor, I ended up with a pretty decent approximation of installed flooring. (In my defense, the mess on the hardwood in the photo is not from my adventure).
The pros have been at work on the house as well. Our tankless water heater is in along with most of the kitchen plumbing.
E is in the midst of updating the electrical and tidying things up. Outside, he removed two old conduit, increased the size of the one left and then had me thread, one by one, each wire through under the house. When they tell you a conduit can only carry a certain number of wires in it, they aren't exaggerating. I even think they were begin a bit generous. They eventually all fit and things are moving right along.
Several days ago, E dug the ditch from the house to the street for our new water-main. Not deterred by the gallons of water dumping from the sky, E made his $200/hr. (We opted out of having the plumbing company call in their trench digger for $350). The trench has since filled and spilled over with water. We have our very own tributary complete with a custom mud dam to keep the water running down to the driveway.
The pros have been at work on the house as well. Our tankless water heater is in along with most of the kitchen plumbing.E is in the midst of updating the electrical and tidying things up. Outside, he removed two old conduit, increased the size of the one left and then had me thread, one by one, each wire through under the house. When they tell you a conduit can only carry a certain number of wires in it, they aren't exaggerating. I even think they were begin a bit generous. They eventually all fit and things are moving right along.Several days ago, E dug the ditch from the house to the street for our new water-main. Not deterred by the gallons of water dumping from the sky, E made his $200/hr. (We opted out of having the plumbing company call in their trench digger for $350). The trench has since filled and spilled over with water. We have our very own tributary complete with a custom mud dam to keep the water running down to the driveway.Tonight E hooked up several circuits under the house, braving the crawl-space for two hours. I stayed above ground and hooked up the light in the utility closet, removed the heinous old fan in the hall and began installing new outlets in the dining room.
RIP dirty, dirty fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment