workin man

[Irons]

]Got hired to help out on a lakehouse project. The client had squirrels chewing through the soffits so they had us put up sheet metal over it.

They do that so they can live inside, I had them in my chimney. You have to make them leave before you block them out or you just started a new problem. If you sheet metal them in they will just chew their way out somewhere else. Ah ahm speaking from experience..

The flying squirrels that decided to live in my chimney really wanted to stay there. I'd block them out with a board and they would chew back in next to the repair. Or if I blocked the hole while they were inside they would freak out and chew their way out of a corner. They had one hole they liked so I uncovered it and covered all the rest really good with hardware cloth backed wood. They happily used the main hole to come and go while I watched them and got a pattern, then I made a wood plug out of a dowel wrapped in duct tape with a 4 inch square of hardware cloth on the end of it and a duct tape flap I could slide the blade of a putty knife in nice and snug. Then I secured the putty knife to the end of my 30 foot Longarm painting pole and waited.

When 2 or 3 left the hole at dusk I would reach the plug up to the hole and slap it in with the putty knife. If there was one trapped inside pretty soon the plug would start bouncing and spinning while he tried to get it out. After a lot of work he would get the plug out and it would fall to the ground.
Then he would go off and do squirrel things in the woods. I would go get the plug and wrap it a little tighter with duct tape and slap it back in the hole. Sometime during the night they would come home and spend a noisy hour trying to get the plug out so they could get back in and eventually they would get it,. I harrassed them like this all summer and towards the end many had already given up and moved out but there was 1 left.

I messed with him and even made the plug easy to push out and watched him do it so I could tell I was only dealing with one squirrel. Then I made a big tight fitting plug with a custom cut piece of hardware cloth screwed to it. On the last night I watched the boy spin, fight and finally push the easy plug out and scurry away. Then I coated the final plug with liquid nails and pushed it in the hole carefully lining up the hardware cloth to fit into the trim corners, then slapped it in good. The next day I painted over it all with a roller and it don't look too bad.

So far it's been 4 years or so and they have not made any progress of getting back in.

 

[newmisty]

They do that so they can live inside, I had them in my chimney. You have to make them leave before you block them out or you just started a new problem. If you sheet metal them in they will just chew their way out somewhere else. Ah ahm speaking from experience..

The flying squirrels that decided to live in my chimney really wanted to stay there. I'd block them out with a board and they would chew back in next to the repair. Or if I blocked the hole while they were inside they would freak out and chew their way out of a corner. They had one hole they liked so I uncovered it and covered all the rest really good with hardware cloth backed wood. They happily used the main hole to come and go while I watched them and got a pattern, then I made a wood plug out of a dowel wrapped in duct tape with a 4 inch square of hardware cloth on the end of it and a duct tape flap I could slide the blade of a putty knife in nice and snug. Then I secured the putty knife to the end of my 30 foot Longarm painting pole and waited.

When 2 or 3 left the hole at dusk I would reach the plug up to the hole and slap it in with the putty knife. If there was one trapped inside pretty soon the plug would start bouncing and spinning while he tried to get it out. After a lot of work he would get the plug out and it would fall to the ground.
Then he would go off and do squirrel things in the woods. I would go get the plug and wrap it a little tighter with duct tape and slap it back in the hole. Sometime during the night they would come home and spend a noisy hour trying to get the plug out so they could get back in and eventually they would get it,. I harrassed them like this all summer and towards the end many had already given up and moved out but there was 1 left.

I messed with him and even made the plug easy to push out and watched him do it so I could tell I was only dealing with one squirrel. Then I made a big tight fitting plug with a custom cut piece of hardware cloth screwed to it. On the last night I watched the boy spin, fight and finally push the easy plug out and scurry away. Then I coated the final plug with liquid nails and pushed it in the hole carefully lining up the hardware cloth to fit into the trim corners, then slapped it in good. The next day I painted over it all with a roller and it don't look too bad.

So far it's been 4 years or so and they have not made any progress of getting back in.

They got rid of the varmites first with one way exit cones made of hardware cloth.

The squirrels must shoot you dirty looks now.

 

[Irons]

They got rid of the varmites first with one way exit cones made of hardware cloth.

The squirrels must shoot you dirty looks now.

Those exit cones work good, so does a PVC pipe that covers the hole and angles to the ground. The PVC trick is really good for bats. Problem is I don't have a ladder that reached the top of the chimney so I would have to borrow Steve and his long ass ladder.
And I must admit I enjoyed tormenting them from the ground. They earned it!

.

 

[Scorpio]

I guess you did,
You were determined and persistent for sure

 

[newmisty]

 

[stonedywankanobe]

Somebody should have had better sense than to put that tile in log home.

Goes about like mud tires on a corvette.

 

[newmisty]

Somebody should have had better sense than to put that tile in log home.

Goes about like mud tires on a corvette.

Will be ripping out the tile soon.

 

[newmisty]

Knocked out a bunch of work on the log home in 27 hours and got a $100 bonus with warm appreciation.

 

[newmisty]

Nice deck?

Lunchtime swim.

 

[Lt Dan]

Nice deck?

Lunchtime swim.

Nice lake, deck could use a bit of work....

 

[davycoppitt]

Put two steam boilers back together this week after State inspection. Boilers are probably my favorite piece of equipment to work on. These guys are from 1925 and were originally coal. They are the old locomotive style with fire brick. Which are the most dangerous type of boiler to work on when firing fuel oil. These boilers will run on fuel oil when there is curtailment. The fire brick will glow red. If the ignitor for fuel oil does not light, the oil will hit the fire brick, which results in taking all the doors right off the boiler. We run a switch to the low water cutoff and stand outside when testing the oil.

Anyway pretty sweet boilers. Im sure if they are taken care of the would be around in another 100 years.

 

[newmisty]

Put two steam boilers back together this week after State inspection. Boilers are probably my favorite piece of equipment to work on. These guys are from 1925 and were originally coal. They are the old locomotive style with fire brick. Which are the most dangerous type of boiler to work on when firing fuel oil. These boilers will run on fuel oil when there is curtailment. The fire brick will glow red. If the ignitor for fuel oil does not light, the oil will hit the fire brick, which results in taking all the doors right off the boiler. We run a switch to the low water cutoff and stand outside when testing the oil.

Anyway pretty sweet boilers. Im sure if they are taken care of the would be around in another 100 years.

View attachment 140977

Art!

 

[Lt Dan]

Put two steam boilers back together this week after State inspection. Boilers are probably my favorite piece of equipment to work on. These guys are from 1925 and were originally coal. They are the old locomotive style with fire brick. Which are the most dangerous type of boiler to work on when firing fuel oil. These boilers will run on fuel oil when there is curtailment. The fire brick will glow red. If the ignitor for fuel oil does not light, the oil will hit the fire brick, which results in taking all the doors right off the boiler. We run a switch to the low water cutoff and stand outside when testing the oil.

Anyway pretty sweet boilers. Im sure if they are taken care of the would be around in another 100 years.

View attachment 140977

Back when I worked as an high pressure boiler operator, if we fired with fuel oil, ours used NG as a pilot to ignite the oil. If the gas didn't light the burner would shut down and no fuel oil was injected into the firebox. Switching over was relatively easy. We'd usually get a call from the gas company telling us the pressure was getting low due to extreme cold or some other reason and would we switch to oil.

Have you ever had the opportunity to re-tube one of those boilers?

I have done a few re-tube jobs, been too many years ago to relate, and no, no pictures.

Edit to add:
I gave up my boiler license a couple years back, (retired), so I'll not be working around any thing larger than my outdoor wood boiler. That's enough for me these days.

 

[davycoppitt]

Back when I worked as an high pressure boiler operator, if we fired with fuel oil, ours used NG as a pilot to ignite the oil. If the gas didn't light the burner would shut down and no fuel oil was injected into the firebox. Switching over was relatively easy. We'd usually get a call from the gas company telling us the pressure was getting low due to extreme cold or some other reason and would we switch to oil.

Have you ever had the opportunity to re-tube one of those boilers?

I have done a few re-tube jobs, been too many years ago to relate, and no, no pictures.

Edit to add:
I gave up my boiler license a couple years back, (retired), so I'll not be working around any thing larger than my outdoor wood boiler. That's enough for me these days.

Put two new tubes in the boiler this year. We hire that out to boilermakers. They also had to fix the rods that hold the sides together.

I currently only have my special boiler license. I will be taking the next step up hopefully next summer. High pressure license was an elective this year. I chose not to take it. I will have to go back to get it eventually. The test is the same time as our test we need to take to turn out which has a 56% pass rate nation wide, so i didn't want to have to tackle that test and the high pressure test at the same time.

I want my high pressure license, soon they will be adding Carbon dioxide refrigeration to it and then everybody in HVAC will want that license.

 

[Silver]

Just hung 500+ lbs of gates I made from oak oil field salvage...

 

[smooth]

Just hung 500+ lbs of gates I made from oak oil field salvage... View attachment 141005

Looks awesome! Pics of the frame?

 

[Silver]

Looks awesome! Pics of the frame?

No frame, bolted to the masonry wall by the hinges. Sorry, frame probably means the backside of the gates? The back is an X pattern with a mortise and tenon frame.

 

[newmisty]

Just hung 500+ lbs of gates I made from oak oil field salvage... View attachment 141005

Badass!

 

[hammerhead]

No frame, bolted to the masonry wall by the hinges. Sorry, frame probably means the backside of the gates? The back is an X pattern with a mortise and tenon frame.

Concrete block with skim coat for walls?

 

[smooth]

No frame, bolted to the masonry wall by the hinges. Sorry, frame probably means the backside of the gates? The back is an X pattern with a mortise and tenon frame.

Yeah was interested in how the gates themselves were built. Not how they were mounted. Thought maybe you went with a steel frame to hold all of that weight...

 

[davycoppitt]

Concrete block with skim coat for walls?

Speaking of that. Has anybody on this forum done a Slurry Brick, German Smear, or mortar wash to existing brick?

 

[Silver]

Concrete block with skim coat for walls?

Concrete block with every other core filled with concrete and rebar, horizontal beam in middle and top. The plaster is my homemade mix - lime, white portland, and sand, two coats.

 

[Silver]

Speaking of that. Has anybody on this forum done a Slurry Brick, German Smear, or mortar wash to existing brick?

I've done quit a bit of brick work, but have never done the smear techniques. It can look a little overdone if you aren't careful. Have you got a pic of the brick?

edit: have you considered repointing with a heavy mortar joint instead of a smear? I'm assuming you are looking for an old world look?

 

[newmisty]

Clients wanted to upgrade their theeaholds in their new house. Carefully pulled up the old and milled new from poplar. Bought 3 small cans of stain and just mixed till I was happy with a decent match. There moving in tomorrow. Afterwards I'll clear coat and touch up.

 

[GOLDBRIX]

Very Nice work Newm. With my sense of colors I'd just went with Curb Yellow (Caution Yellow) to make sure nobody stubbed their toes.

 

[smooth]

Clients wanted to upgrade their theeaholds in their new house. Carefully pulled up the old and milled new from poplar. Bought 3 small cans of stain and just mixed till I was happy with a decent match. There moving in tomorrow. Afterwards I'll clear coat and touch up.

View attachment 142054 View attachment 142053 View attachment 142052 View attachment 142055 View attachment 142051

Looks great man, but Poplar? Pretty soft for that piece I would think.

 

[newmisty]

Looks great man, but Poplar? Pretty soft for that piece I would think.

Yeah, agreed but theyre an elderly retired couple who wear slippers so I saved us time and $ going with the poplar.

 

[newmisty]

Look at the way they made the stairs in this place! Drunk and sleepy people beware...

 

[stonedywankanobe]

Holy cow thats completly unacceptable.

ive had nightmares about stairways like that. One time i dreamt of working non stop on a house then i go to climb the stairs get to the top and have to lay down, shed my nail bags then wiggle my way beneath celing joist, into and through a plywood tunnel, where i discover ive built a stairway to nowhere in particular.

But that one there Mister is gonna get someone killed.

 

[newmisty]

In the middle of one the worst tasks I run into...pulling tile and backerboard. Also check out how the kitchen looks without cabinets...

 

[newmisty]

Look at the way they made the stairs in this place! Drunk and sleepy people beware...

View attachment 142475 View attachment 142476

Not to fret StOnEy, they put an osha approved,small, fake potted plant on it to hide the death trap. The longer I work here the crazier it gets. Got another goof coming later.

 

[Lt Dan]

Not to fret StOnEy, they put an osha approved,small, fake potted plant on it to hide the death trap. The longer I work here the crazier it gets. Got another goof coming later.

My head's still spinning from those stairs.

 

[newmisty]

Ozarkitecture at it's finest.

 

[Scorpio]

Ozarkitecture

nice, first time I heard that one

 

[hammerhead]

A family member was in need of a way to get into her home after having a stroke. It was a privilege to be put to the task of designing and building of a deck and ramp to give her access. Was a long process given my physical liabilities and mostly made it up as I went but managed to pull it off all the same.

The husband, who has been by her side through out the 4 month nursing home process and is now the caregiver for the sweet lady, thought it would be good to have a deck to sit on, so we agreed on a 7x15 foot landing that is flush to the door way. We had a 35 inch rise from bottom of door to where the walkway was. It worked out good that the ramp started right at the original area off the drive.

Good bye to precast steps and asphalt walkway.

Rough framing. Didn't get pics of them but used helical piers. Well worth $160 a pop to not have to dig 11 holes.

The guy wanted all maintenance free materials which are readily available so I used a decking manufactured by Wolf with hidden fasteners using the Camo method.

I had a very difficult time finding handrails that would work on a 7 degree slope. I did find one product that is designed to go to at least 5 degrees and with the help of the distributors was able to modify the rails by giving them back cuts so the mounting bracket would slip over them enough to fasten to the post.

I did have a oh shit moment with the posts. been a long time since I've done one of these and wasn't aware the rules had changed for attaching 4x4's. Used to be able to notch them and screw them right to the sides of the rim joists. Not any more. When fastening to the outside, 2-1/2" carriage bolts are required with one of them to be tied back to the inside framing. Hard to do with all the doubled up framing members. So I used a top mount post system. That reduced the width of the travel lane by 8" (fecking feck feck) but still gave me enough to meet code.

So anywho, finished product.

 

[newmisty]

Working on a little RDS (rotten door syndrome) today...

 

[hammerhead]

Water is life giving but so destructive.

 

[newmisty]

A family member was in need of a way to get into her home after having a stroke. It was a privilege to be put to the task of designing and building of a deck and ramp to give her access. Was a long process given my physical liabilities and mostly made it up as I went but managed to pull it off all the same.
View attachment 145471
The husband, who has been by her side through out the 4 month nursing home process and is now the caregiver for the sweet lady, thought it would be good to have a deck to sit on, so we agreed on a 7x15 foot landing that is flush to the door way. We had a 35 inch rise from bottom of door to where the walkway was. It worked out good that the ramp started right at the original area off the drive.

View attachment 145472
Good bye to precast steps and asphalt walkway.

View attachment 145473
Rough framing. Didn't get pics of them but used helical piers. Well worth $160 a pop to not have to dig 11 holes.

The guy wanted all maintenance free materials which are readily available so I used a decking manufactured by Wolf with hidden fasteners using the Camo method.
View attachment 145476

I had a very difficult time finding handrails that would work on a 7 degree slope. I did find one product that is designed to go to at least 5 degrees and with the help of the distributors was able to modify the rails by giving them back cuts so the mounting bracket would slip over them enough to fasten to the post.
View attachment 145474
View attachment 145475

I did have a oh shit moment with the posts. been a long time since I've done one of these and wasn't aware the rules had changed for attaching 4x4's. Used to be able to notch them and screw them right to the sides of the rim joists. Not any more. When fastening to the outside, 2-1/2" carriage bolts are required with one of them to be tied back to the inside framing. Hard to do with all the doubled up framing members. So I used a top mount post system. That reduced the width of the travel lane by 8" (fecking feck feck) but still gave me enough to meet code.
View attachment 145477

So anywho, finished product.
View attachment 145478

That looks real sharp! Very nice work man.

 

[stonedywankanobe]

Agreed, nice looks on the porch project HH.
I was beginning to wonder if everyone had retired around here.

 

[hammerhead]

Agreed, nice looks on the porch project HH.
I was beginning to wonder if everyone had retired around here.


View attachment 145533

I was hoping that would bring ya around, Mr.