Wednesday, March 12, 2008

How Tea And Crumpets Taught Me To Save The World, or something...

My wife, an intelligent and inquisitive woman, can name all the tools and tell you what it is we're doing. There's a bit more to it, doing it right, doing it safely, and making a few bucks doing it. My wife can find the phone at 3:00 AM.

Things are never as simple as they could be, knowing the tools and their capabilities and then how to think of them differently allow you to keep moving and do something different.
It looks the same as ever, floor joists and a floor to install, thing is you're now above the roof tops of other buildings and the easily available and inexpensive machine can't do it. You still have to solve it without breaking the budget. A combination of the inexpensive machine and muscle power do it, not what you might have thought.

It is something entirely different to have a rather large hot tub on a building's third floor, you better solve it because if it's not there you can't get it there.

When you took the job on you had ideas, as you move through the process you find that those ideas either work or you're in real trouble, the odd order of assembly to be able to accomplish each piece depends on the the following pieces and still being able to finish the work at the moment. Almost nothing was done in the usual manner, because it couldn't be. For instance, you cannot get to that roof with a ladder and you cannot stay on it without planks, best get this right, when it's too late, it is too late.

At a point everybody expects the result you were asked to produce. They don't know and don't care how much innovation, improvisation, and planning for unusual conditions it took. It looks like a house, it is a house, so what? The what is that you can watch all kinds of home improvement shows and be married to a contractor and have absolutely no idea how to get something like this to, 'it's just a house.'

If you've been around a thing, you may know the names of the tools and you may know where you want to get to, but the devil is in the details so you hire people who can work them out. The owner had the judgement to hire some one on the basis of real experience and a proven ability to complete work in the manner desired. I am not the owner, I am the hired help, I am the details man. Nobody is experienced at being President except serving Presidents and ex-Presidents and only the elected President bears the responsibility. The President hires people like me and you expect him to have that judgement.
I bet you didn't expect a contractor advertisement to be a political commentary, saving bytes. Double click pictures for full sized. Photos by owner. Attaching building is a B&B

9 comments:

Jeff Alworth said...

Well, call it an advertisement if you want--but it's great to see. BTW, how's business these days with the houseing trouble? Is it a problem in your area?

Chuck Butcher said...

Since I'm advertising on this small time Blog you might be able to guess accuratey I'm open to the idea of some more jobs.

Anonymous said...

What's the life expectacy of engineered joists? In case of a water leak will they hold up?

Chuck Butcher said...

They are not exterior rated. If they were soaked for extended time you would begin to get glue/wood failure. Obviously they stand up to weather for awhile, they aren't protected until a roof structure is dried in. The amount of water to do damage would be pretty evident pretty quickly, long before it could do damage. These are large "I"s, 16" x 2 1/2", 16" OC. Properly utilized you get superior results versus lumber, the usual complaints regarding them involve bounce, which happens when the rating and usage are close together due to the fact that they are higher structurally rated and can do the work but they will bounce. The ones in the picture of just joists are 2.5x12 because they are short and in different usage than the rest of the building where the span is typically 23'.

The 2.5" flange I joists are the premium version and I vastly prefer them.

Anonymous said...

Subtle, but I like it. I saw a quote from Eugene Debs yesterday "I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it."

ThePoliticalCat said...

Chuck, you always have something interesting to say, and you said no profanity, so I'll just say XXXX, those are some cool pitchers!

Chuck Butcher said...

Debs was a smart guy.

Tnx kitty, xxxx back at ya

Chuck Butcher said...

Duh,
xxxx mistaken for xoxo, probably wouldn't have missed it if it were ****

Dot Kay said...

I have known Geraldine Ferraro since the 1960's...ever since the days my husband, as a rookie from the 104 Pct. directed traffic out side her office....we all have come to love her and follow her career, which has been exemplirary over the years....when you hear her speak you hear the truth...you hear what is on her mind and in her heart....I would rather have that then have someone look me in the eye with a smile on their face trying to put a knife in my back...we need more like her...