One of my favorite tasks when renovating is the demolition process. But for this project I took the role as observer and watched the contractors do their thing. One thing I did envy was having several people to assist in carrying out the debris. In my experience, I usually have to take my Milwaukee Sawzall out and cut cabinetry in smaller pieces that I can handle. I know having a dumspster in front of the house makes the neighbors cringe, but frankly I see them as a necessity. Trying to haul cabinets to the dump using a pick up truck or small trailer is a real time killer.
Instead of using the Hilti TE-905 like me to remove vinyl flooring, the young guys had several of the manual floor scrapers with teeth to remove the layers of vinyl that lay beneath the hardwood flooring. The excessive glue made this part tough. I wish I had brought the Hilti with the 8 inch scraper blade with me on this
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We begin our kitchen makeover with demolition today. We scheduled a crew to come in and when I left this morning, there was still no crew. But that seems typical of my recent history with contractors, let’s hope it improves over the next few weeks.
The current kitchen cabinets and flooring were installed 10 or 12 years ago. At the Read More…
Our first Sweepstakes through our Extreme How-To Facebook Fan page is now over and we congratulateTimothy Shenk of Aberdeen, MD whose name was drawn among the thousands of entrants. Tim, Skil will be contacting you shortly and sending your saw directly to you. Be sure and register for this month’s sweepstakes as you will have 60 chances to win in December. Register here.
Two tools I discovered invaluable in my latest tile job are the Bosch Tile Layout Laser and the Wagner PaintEater. The Bosch Laser built for tile and wallpaper professionals is an inexpensive tool that handles these tasks very well. I found the 45 degree lines helpful even on my jack-on-jack layout. The 45 degree lines I used to bisect my tile corners so even on tile rows already set, I could check for straightness. The 90 degree line lines up the edges of the tiles being laid and for a large room this may be the easiest way for the DIY tiler to keep his rows straight. I also used spacers even when I was relying on the laser for straightness. Check out the GTL-3 Bosch Laser. Read More…
The tile are installed and grouted. I won’t say there weren’t moments of exasperation, but now that it’s all behind me, I can sit back and enjoy the finished product. Many tile jobs are hurry up and wait. You wait for the thinset or mastic to dry. You wait for the grout to take a set before cleaning. But you have to hurry to get your thinset mortar down before it dries too much and the same with the grout. You hurry to find your laser when laying out your tiles. And then you wait and make others stay out of the area while the thinset and grout have time to cure. Read More…
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