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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 9/10/2008 3:40:25 PM
Well, as I said in my last post, one of the last things for me to complete is our Master Bath. The toilet and vanities are functional already and I installed the floor tile months ago but up until recently, I still had a lot of wall tile, the tub surround and the shower to install. Well, I've been working on it as I can for a week now and I've got some pictures to show my progress.
After much research, I opted to use Schluter's Kerdi system in our showers. Kerdi is a waterproofing system for tile showers and tubs. From what I gather reading tile and do-it-yourself forums around the web, kerdi is THE way to go in a modern shower if you want a guaranteed waterproof installation. If you decide to use kerdi, it will add a few hundred dollars to the cost of your shower but when it's finished, you won't ever have to worry about moisture problems behind the tile. That makes it worth every penny in my opinion, that is if you plan on living in your new home for a long time. I've seen posts of horror stories from people who have had moisture issues behind their tile showers in relatively new homes, five years old and less. I plan on living in my new house for the rest of my life so I don't want to have to ever redo the bathrooms. If you do what I did and start reading about installing tile on the web, you can't get far without reading about kerdi. Judging by the message boards, kerdi is evidently very popular among professional tile setters. If you are interested in reading about it, you can Google the word "kerdi" and find all the information you need. I found the John Bridge tile forums to be the most useful site for detailed information; just go there and search for "kerdi". The John Bridge forum is also a very good resource for any other tile questions you may have; several pro tile setters hang out there. I also found a good step by step how to for kerdi installation at this site.
My first adventure with kerdi was in our boy's bathroom which I completed going on three months ago. It is a tub and shower installation so I only had to worry about waterproofing the walls around the tub. It was a good place to start and after all my research, I was confident when I started. I took my time and did it right but I did learn one thing new from the experience, you really have to make the thinset wet to get good adherence with the kerdi. I usually mix my thinset kind of thick, especially for wall tiles and although the kerdi will set into thicker thinset, it's more work to make it do so. Anyway, that first kerdi job went well for me and I'm happy with it.
There was more work in the master bath because the shower is a walk-in, one of the walls is angled, there's two arches in the shower and a bench to contend with but I found the kerdi easy to work with and had no problems installing it. I measured and precut all of my kerdi before I started and I'd recommend that. I still have to put kerdi on the floor but I've already precut that piece too and will install it this weekend.
Because our shower has an odd shape, I couldn't make use of the kerdi shower pan. Instead, I had to build a mud deck for my shower floor. I found all the information I needed on how to do that on the John Bridge forums. Having never attempted that before, I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. The guys on the forum forewarned that after mixing the dry pack or deck mud, as it is called, only 30 to 45 minutes would be available to get the shower floor worked and shaped appropriately. That worried me some because I wasn't sure I could accomplish it in that amount of time. Consequently, I bought extra materials and only mixed up half of it initially so that if it did harden on me before I finished, I could mix another batch and finish it up. Luckily, I found the mud workable for at least twice what these guys had mentioned as typical so I didn't have any problems finishing the floor. I did run out of mud and have to mix up another 50 pounds of it in order to finish but that wasn't a problem. The hardest part of this task was actually mixing the ingredients (sand, portland cement and water). I actually have a small tractor with a front-end loader and I mixed the ingredients in my front-end loader using a flat shovel. The first batch I mixed was 350 lbs before adding water and it was a really hard work. It didn't help that it was very hot that day, somewhere in the 90's here in Arkansas. By the time I got it mixed well, I was already worn out and I still had to do the tedious work of pouring the mixture into the shower, packing and spreading it out properly. Luckily, that part of the job was in conditioned space. But this deck mud is about like working with damp sand, similar to what you would use to make sand castles; so that part of the task actually was easier than I expected. I have some pictures of the deck mud being installed. It was a new experience for me and one that I'm proud to say turned out well.
Anyway, I'm still not completely finished in the master bath but I've got a very good start and I expect to be finished by the end of next week. I could finish this weekend or shortly thereafter but I'll be on a company sponsored fishing trip and a much needed break! Here are the pictures.
Photos
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| Yes, that's a picture in the tile. My wife bought that on eBay. You can also see some of the kerdi to the left. Kerdi is the orange stuff on the wall. |
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| In this picture you see the first and only upside down tile I've installed. Surprisingly, it didn't even try to fall. In the background is our master closet/safe room. |
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| Here's a better shot of the kerdi in the shower. |
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| The tub surround after I finished setting the tile. |
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| This is a good picture of the arches. |
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| Here's a finished shot of the picture. |
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| In this one I'm installing the kerdi drain. When doing the mud floor, you install the drain and a ledge of mud around the outer edge. Then you use the drain (which is lower than the ledge) and the ledge to slope the floor into the drain. |
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| This is a picture of the shower floor's outer edge. |
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| And this is what the floor looks like when you are finished. Because you pack the mixture down, when you finish, the floor is firm enough to hold weight even though it isn't dry. After it dries, it is hard like concrete but still soft enough to scrape off bumps and ridges. |
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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 9/9/2008 3:53:24 PM
I just noticed it's been two months since my last post and a lot has happened during that time. I wish I could say that we are finished and the mortgage is closed but alas, I can't. I ended up getting sick around the time of my last post and I was out of play for three weeks due to illness and afterward, it took a few days for me to get my strength back and get rolling good again. Consequently, I'm not finished with the house but I am very close.
I started the mortgage process around about the time of the last post and should have really been closed by now but as you may have heard, because of all of the issues in the housing market right now, lenders are a lot more picky about handing out loans. Before the shakeup, it wasn't all that uncommon to be able to get a loan on a house that wasn't 100% finished. Basically, as long as the house, in its current state, was valued at enough to to cover the loan amount plus the 20% equity requirement, you could still get your loan. I found out the hard way that they won't do that anymore. My house was mostly finished, we are living in it; but I had quite a bit of trim work and tile work to do before I could call it done. Well, the appraiser right off told me that he didn't think the lender would close until I finished all of that work. I wasn't expecting an issue and was hoping to take my time finishing but he was right. So, I've spent the last few weeks working my butt off to get done enough to close.
It only took a couple of days to finish the electrical inside the house; I had a few light fixtures to put up and some switches and receptacles to cover, plus the bonus room; that's all done now. Afterward, I hit the trim work hard and got all I could get done finished within a few days. Then I hit the half bath area and got the rest of the tile cut, set and grouted. Next, I was able to finish up the trim work in that area, install the toilet, vanity and mirror, etc. That actually ended up taking longer than I expected by a few days. Lastly, I started on the master bath. I had a lot of tile work to do there and I was quickly running out of time to get it done for two reasons; one, my construction loan was about to reach maturity (August 30th) and two, my mortgage loan locked in rate was about to expire (September 8th). I contacted my loan officer at the bank and told him I was going to need more time to get rolled over to my long term mortgage and he was okay with that. Also, I thought I was going to be able to finish in time for the September 8th deadline; but I didn't make it. By Thursday the 4th, it was apparent that I wasn't going to finish on time so I started the process of locking in a new rate with the mortgage company. It's actually working out for the best because I was able to lock in a lower rate this time but I wish I had known they wouldn't close until the house was 100% complete up front because I wouldn't have locked in a rate so far ahead of being finished.
Another issue we encountered was our credit score. I've always had a great credit score, usually close to 800; but against my better judgment, I didn't check my score before starting the mortgage process. It turned out that a doctor bill for $50 we'd been trying to get straightened out for two years and thought we had settled nearly a year ago came back to haunt me. They had put a non-payment against my credit and it caused my usual high score to drop to below 700. The score was still considered good but not what it should have been and consequently, I was being quoted a higher interest rate than what I should have gotten; all because of a screw up at a doctor's office in Las Vegas which evidently employs the dumbest people in the world because even after two years of sending them copies of the check we wrote them which they deposited and arguing with them over and over, they still couldn't get their books corrected. The last we heard from them was September of last year when they told my wife that they had finally gotten the account fixed and everything was settled. But according to my credit report, the very next month they turned it in to the credit bureau! The funny thing is that I have 18 years of credit history with not a single missed payment, not a single blemish and my credit was hurt bad enough over $50 that I couldn't get the best loan rates available! How crazy is that? Anyway, I knew I should have checked my credit before starting the loan process but I got in a hurry and I ended up with a big shock and another two months of work getting my credit fixed as a result. Keep that in mind when you get to the mortgage stage of your project.
As of today, I have the new rate locked in and I'm still working toward getting my final loan closed but I still have some work to finish, I just have a little more breathing room now and I don't feel as boxed in. I still need to get the loan rolled over and get my construction loan paid off soon but my loan officer at the bank has so far been understanding about the delay. I worked hard for the last three or four weeks to try and get finished and as a result all I like being done is some trim work in the bonus room (just a few hours of work up there at the most) and I still have to finish my master bath. I actually got most of the tile set in the master bath but I realized I wasn't going to have enough to finish. Going in, I thought I was going to have a lot left over but due to the design of the shower and the bath, there were a lot of cuts to be made and in the end, I was going to come up short. I've got some more tile on order now that should give me enough to finish up. I will have the trim work upstairs finished by tomorrow night and I'll work on finishing the tile in the master bath over the weekend and next week. I should be ready to close by the end of next weekend barring anymore problems.
I'll make another post dedicated to the tile work in the master bath. I've got some pictures for that.
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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 7/7/2008 2:44:59 PM
Well, we moved in two weeks ago. I still have some things to finish in the tile and trim area but it's definitely livable and almost finished (I don't think you ever really get finished with a house). I still have to set tile in a couple of small closets and in the half bath. And because I'm not finished with the tile in that area, I have three doors and trim to do when I do get finished. That is really a small area that won't take much to finish if I could ever just get back to it. It got sidetracked because the tile supplier sent the tile I'm using in that area in two shipments and the second one didn't match the first. Anyway, while I waited on the matching tile to come in, I moved on to other things and just haven't gotten back into the tile mode just yet. But I'll have to get there soon; I intended to work on it this weekend but I was sick.
I also have the master bathroom to finish. It's functional and mostly finished except for the shower and bathtub. I've got a lot of tile work to do there and it's going to be tedious so I'm saving that for last. But other than that, I have some electric work to finish in the bonus room and a little bit outside and then the rest of the trim which I can probably do in a couple of good days of work. It's not much but I'm out of vacation time and I'm tired when I get home so most of it is being done on weekends; so it's not going real fast at the moment. I've got to get moving on it though because I want to get it done and because I need to get rolled over to my mortgage which I'm working on now.
We received our first full month electric bill with A/C running all month. It's for June and we had a hot one here so it is a pretty good gage for what we can expect. We like to keep it cool in the house and it's a decent size house at 3400 sqft heated and cooled. However, 600 of that is bonus space which at the time we hadn't yet started cooling except when we were up there so say 2800 cooled for the last month at an average of 72 degrees and the bill was $108. That's not bad considering it's been hitting in the upper 90's all month. I won't say that this is what our bill will be ongoing but it should be in that neighborhood. June wasn't the perfect month to judge by because we were only living there for two of the billing weeks. For the other two weeks, we were finishing out the house and there from early in the morning until late, 11 pm - 1 am, almost every day and running the A/C and using the washer and dryer and cooking and all that but we weren't showering there for one thing and for at least one week of that, we were turning the A/C up to 75 when we left; we keep it on 70 degrees normally. So, even though we weren't living there, we were almost living there. Anyway, it will be interesting to see the bill for July. I expect it to be in the same ballpark but a little more. Interestingly enough, our bonus room has been open to the attic up until Saturday the 5th when I finally got the door hung that closes off the attic and the rest of the house was open to the bonus room too. I don't know if it happened or not or how much impact it had but it's possible that the A/C has been pulling that hot humid air down into the house which now that it is closed off, may impact the bill in our favor a little bit too. Regardless of all that, I can at least tell that my energy saving features are helping because at $108, it cost over half less to cool this house as it did the old house and this one is three times larger than the old house! That's not bad in my book.
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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 6/6/2008 11:52:06 AM
Before starting a new post, I always read my previous post so I don't repeat myself and so I can gauge where to start in my effort to keep the blog up to date. After reading my last post about the air conditioner turn up, I was suddenly stunned at how much progress we've made this month. Besides the heat pump, which works great by the way, we managed to get our cabinets installed, I finished almost all of the floor tile (I just like a half bath and two small closets having the floor tile finished (I was held up by the supplier on those rooms), our carpet is finished, I've trimmed almost all of the windows and my wife is working on painting the interior doors, about a third of which I’ve already hung. Also, I got the hot water heaters, the refrigerator, the wall oven/microwave combo, the dishwasher, the washer and dryer all installed. And, I've installed all of the ceiling fans, five in total. I’ve already finish wired almost the entire house; all I like is a closet or two, the chandelier in the foyer (which my wife can’t seem to settle on), the under cabinet lights and the bonus room, plus some minor outside wiring and I'll be finished with all of the electrical!
We've been spending so much time over there lately, it's like we're already living there. The only things we do at our old house are shower and sleep; we even take supper at the new one. In fact, when the countertop people finish in the kitchen, I should be able to get the sink and cooktop working fairly quickly and then we can even cook over there.
Oh, and the counter top folks have started installing in the kitchen. They came out and made their templates two weeks ago and they had the granite mostly ready last week but had to wait on the cabinet guy to come back and correct the island in the kitchen before coming out to install. He forgot and made the island flat; it was supposed to step up into a bar on the back side. He fixed that on Tuesday and finished some odds and ends that he had remaining. The cabinets look great. I have some pictures but I’m not sure how well they turned out. I’ll post what I have.
Anyway, the countertop guys showed up yesterday morning and got one corner piece and the long piece where the sink is installed. We have a pretty large kitchen and a lot of countertop so they had to make three seams to get it all in. They managed to hide two of the seams under cabinetry that hang down all the way to the countertop which is good. The only one out in the open is to the right of the sink by a couple of feet. Most people won’t notice it and they glued it together well. I stayed for part of the install because I’ve never seen granite installed but they were having problems with the cabinets, which apparently aren’t quite level. So, they’ll have to come back to finish the rest. They have to come back anyway for the island which they couldn’t measure until yesterday and because they didn’t have the vanities ready to install yet. Hopefully it won’t be long before they come back and finish. I was hoping to have the countertops all in by this weekend.
I've got pictures of the carpet too but the pictures don't do it justice. We opted for a very plush, thick carpet and we ended up doing the whole house in the same color. It is called peppermint and is a light brownish green color, depending on the light. It actually turned out more brown than I remember it looking in the store but it looks good with all of our paint. Hopefully, our two boys won't mess it up with stains and such but I wouldn't bet on that.
Anyway, we still have several items to finish but it's exciting at this point because we are so close and the house is starting to look like it will when we are finished. In fact, some of the rooms are almost completely finished. The bedrooms for instance, all we like there is baseboard and doors and they will be basically finished except for moving in. I've already put in most of the baseboard in the laundry room, I just left out the last pieces that go on either side of the door and I still have to hang the door; then that room will be complete. Heck, we've even used the washer and dryer several times already.
Back on the A/C, the outside temperature has been hitting in the 90's already in NE Arkansas so we've been running the A/C while we're at the house. I am pretty proud of the house though, even without any A/C, the inside temp stayed below 70° until two weeks ago and even then, I've not seen it over 80° except when we have subs there and all the doors are open. It's hard to say for certain but I think my energy features may really pay off. Anyway, over the last few days, we've started running the A/C and I don't know how well it is performing from an energy standpoint but it is doing an excellent job at cooling the house. I'm very pleased so far. In my last post, I stated that the unit was so quiet I couldn’t hear it. That’s true, on that day I couldn’t hear it but since we’ve been using it regularly, I can hear it now. It’s still hard to tell if it’s running sometimes; the refrigerator, which is pretty quiet as fridges go, is louder than the A/C. Basically, when you hear the A/C, all you hear is a low hum and maybe the air flowing through the registers a little (only in stage three though). I really hope this geothermal unit saves as much on the electric bill as everyone says they do.
Well, that’s about it for today. We’ll likely be moved in by the next post. We’ll either be moving in next week or the week after. I’d like to completely finish the house before we move in and that was my goal but that’s not going to happen. I’m working on getting the main house bathroom going (all I like is tiling the tub/shower) and hooking up the sinks when the vanities get here. I should be able to finish most of the tile this weekend; I probably won’t get it grouted until next week though. I will need to get the baseboard installed in most of the rooms too but mainly where furniture will sit. I hate to move in like that but we’ve sold our house and need to get out. After we’re moved in, the work will continue; I’m not one to let it go and all we will like will be some trim work and the master bathroom where I still have to tile the shower and the tub; and of course, the little odds and ends that we will likely be working on for the next year or so.
Photos
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| I realized recently that I never did post any pictures of the outside of the house after it was completed. So here are a few. |
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| Due to how close I sat the house to the road and the closeness of trees on the opposite side of the road, it's hard to get a frontal picture of the entire house from directly in front of it. You have to go off to one side or the other. I plan on taking some frontal shots from different vantage points and merging them into one eventually; just haven't done that yet. |
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| I took more pictures of the carpet but none of them turned out very well; not even this one really. |
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| This and the following photos don't do the kitchen justice. It's a little too dark in the kitchen right now and the photos didn't show the colors the way they truly look. Maybe you can get an idea though. |
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| This is a closeup of the countertop that has been installed so far; they haven't installed the backsplshes yet and they scratched the wall during the install. Anyway, if you look real close, you can barely make out the seam in this shot. It's a little more noticable in the next one which is at an angle to the seam. |
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| This shot captures the colors better than any of the others and it still doesn't "feel" right to me. But you can see the contrast between the cherry stain and the verde butterfly (green) granite. |
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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 5/2/2008 4:17:00 PM
Well, Hydro-Temp got my geothermal heat pump turned on today. Of course, we’ll have to get moved in to really see how well it works but my first impression is that it puts out cold air like it is supposed to this time of year in Arkansas and it is extremely quiet. In fact, I was about 10 feet away from the air handler when the technician turned it on and said, “Okay, it’s blowing cold air.” I said, “It’s running now?” To which he replied, “Yep!” It is so very quiet! I couldn’t even hear it! Inside, you certainly can’t hear it. If you hear anything it is the air coming out of the register holes but I didn’t hear much there either and I was trying to. It was running on stage two of three and the tech said that we might hear it a little when it kicks up to stage three. I’ll let you know how it turns out but so far so good. By the way, the guys at Hydro-Temp are really good on customer service; I’m very impressed with their professionalism.
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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 5/2/2008 4:05:23 PM
I've been meaning to update my posts about the Wagner sprayer I bought. I did have some trouble with it. It worked great for about 30 gallons of paint/primer, maybe a little more, but then the inlet valve broke. It should be easy to repair but it caught me at a time when I couldn't wait for repair parts so I ended up buying another sprayer instead. Before doing so, I searched online about the inlet valve problem and I found a lot of complaints about the Wagner sprayers and this issue. The valve isn’t covered under warranty and it seems to be designed to fail; at least the one I pulled out of mine is. It is made of a combination of high quality, tooled steel and very flimsy cheap plastic; guess which part broke.
My plan is to fix the Wagner and try to sell it, depending on what they are going for used, but I think I like the replacement model I bought better. It's a Graco Magnum XR5. I’ve already put as much paint/primer through it as I did the Wagner and so far it shows no sign of stopping. I’ve still got about 20 gallons of material to spray inside and then another 30 or 40 to spray in the garage, half primer and half paint basically.
There are pros and cons to both models. I like the hopper on the Wagner because it can use all the material since the inlet valve is gravity fed from above. The Graco uses a siphon hose which is more common to professional sprayers. That system works well too but because of the design of the filter at the end of the hose, it can’t really suck up all of the material; it always leaves some in the bottom the bucket. As it turns out, that isn’t really an issue on a large job such as painting a house unless you figure your paint supply down to the ounce; something that is probably only going to happen by accident. I did have one room where I used every bit of the paint and had to have my wife turn the bucket up on edge so I could get as much as possible out of the bucket. It wasn’t that I figured it that way, I just ran out of paint or barely had enough actually. Besides that, the only other negative I can say about the Graco is that you have to move the hoses between buckets so you may get some paint on your hands; again, that’s not a big issue and if you are careful, you can do it without getting dirty. The Graco is a heck of a lot quieter than the Wagner. The Wagner didn’t bother me when I was using it but it was pretty loud. I didn’t realize just how loud until I got the Graco, it is extremely quiet by comparison and is pretty quiet in general. With the Wagner, you can get about 3+ gallons in the hopper (the manual says to put no more than 2.5 gallons in it) while the Graco sucks it out of a 5 gallon bucket, or smaller if you wish. I found myself just refilling the 5 gallon bucket instead of trying to switch them out.
Actual operation and cleanup steps of the two units are about the same, especially the operation steps. The cleanup on the Graco is easier and quicker for the most part. The only exception is checking/cleaning the two filters, gun filter and outlet filter. The filters on the Wagner require no tools to clean while the two on the Graco do; however it’s still a very simple task. The higher quality, optional guns for the Graco are more like the one you get with the Wagner as far as cleanup goes. On the other hand, I went through three gun filters on the Wagner, counting the one that came with it and the filters are about $5 or $6 each; meanwhile, I’m still on the original filter for the Graco. The Graco filter seems better made and is much easier to clean. Another thing I really like about the Wagner is the built-in two wheel dolly which also has a rack for the hose and the power cord; the Graco has only a rack for the cord and no dolly (the more expensive XR7 model and those above that have the dolly). That is a strike against the Graco but I got around it by using the hose from my Wagner on the Graco which extended my reach from 25 feet to 50 feet. I was then able to setup the Graco in a completely separate room from where I was working which also made it quieter in my work area. Oh, and the Graco supports up to 150 feet of hose whereas the Wagner and other competing brand/models only support 100 feet; that’s probably not overly important to most people but still good to know. By the way, the Graco isn’t heavy so the lack of the dolly isn’t that big of deal until you start thinking about moving the sprayer and a 5 gallon bucket of paint and the spray hose, etc. It’s doable, but it would be easier with a dolly. I’m sure you could retrofit it to a dolly or possibly even buy that feature but of course that would add to the cost; which by the way was about $100 more than the Wagner. Also, I’ve already started thinking about how I’ll put it away when I’m finished painting; what will I do with the hose? The Wagner puts away into a neat little package, much better than the Graco. Of course, I may just sell it since it will be some time before I do more painting; we’ll see.
Another plus for the Graco is that it came with an operational video, an actual DVD. I was hoping it might show painting tips but it basically shows you how to set the sprayer up and run it and then how to clean it up afterward. I got all of that from the manual but it would be handy for someone who learns easier by seeing.
At the end of the day, I personally like the Graco better and would recommend it over the Wagner. However, the Wagner has its own appeal so I wouldn’t write it off. The biggest problem with the Wagner is that it broke down in the middle of the job and from what I read about it, it is likely to do so every time after about 30 gallons of material; I’m sure that varies depending on the material. I haven’t priced the inlet valve yet but I don’t think it is expensive so for small jobs and infrequent use, the Wagner is probably a good choice but if you don’t like to get shutdown in the middle of a job (who does?), you might want to consider keeping a replacement valve on hand.
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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 5/1/2008 4:03:58 PM
I've been trying to get the blog updated for weeks now but I've just been way too busy.
The drywall finishers finally got their part done, at least in the living space; they still have to come back and do the garage but right now I'm using it for a workshop and it is too cluttered to work on. They finished about three weeks ago I guess. In the week following, my wife and I got the rest of the house painted, except for the bonus room. I probably should have gone ahead and painted the bonus room while I was in painting mode but I got sidetracked by tile and HVAC. Basically, I scheduled our HVAC contractors for the final geothermal hookup as a way to deadline myself into getting that part finished and consequently, I forced myself to shelf the paint for a while. I had to get my water heaters installed and some of the water supply plumbing finished before the HVAC guys showed up and that was last week.
I picked up my Marathon water heaters and finished wiring and tiling the closet for the water heater that sits in the middle of the house near the bathrooms. I wasn't sure about what the HVAC guys needed from me as far as hooking the water heater up so I waited until they showed up and had them clarify that right off. I then spent the rest of that day buying and installing pipe fittings but I got it ready to go. I had to take the day off and I figured they would get done in one day but they told me it would take two so I ended up taking another day off to be there when they turned it all on and be available in case they needed anything. Well, they didn't show up the next day so I changed my plans and went to work late. I was aggravated at first that they didn't call but when I got to work, there was a message from them on my work phone. They did come the next work day which was Monday and ended up staying with them. The installer and I both expected Monday would be the big day and I was excited to see the thing in action finally but their fill pump crapped out and so now they have to come back yet again. They are supposed to be onsite tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm installing our second water heater in preparation for them to hook up our desuperheater. I set the tank, ran the pips and finished the wiring last night so I'll be doing the final connections purging the air out of the system tonight. I hope it all goes well tomorrow because I'm tired of missing work for them (I do try to get some work done while I'm there). They should only have a couple of hours of work to finish but we'll see.
In the mean time, I set about 400 sqft of tile over the weekend in the kitchen and breakfast nook area. I've already set the floor tile in both of the main bathrooms and I've got the laundry room ready to tile. I was planning on finishing the floor tile this week but got sidetracked on the water heater instead. I've got another 700 sqft of tile being delivered tomorrow so I've still got a lot of work cut out for me. However, my wife and I have been thinking about cutting the tile area back some so we'll see. Either way, I've still got a lot of tile work to do but everything else is getting there. About half of the house is finish wired with lights, receptacles and switches; and the rest of the house has a lot of can lights which are easier to finish in my opinion so that part is on the way. But basically, all we have left is the finish work and we're well on our way to completing that stuff. Since the drywall guys have gotten out of the way, we're really making progress.
I'm going to do my best to get us moved in by the end of May. I might not make it but it won't be for lack of trying and if I don't make it, we'll be close anyway. I'm going to be focusing on tile work for the next week to two weeks which I'm doing myself. But in the mean time, our cabinets are in progress and we're working on getting our countertops on order. I'm close to have the tile work done to a point where we can order our carpet. Our interior doors and window casings are on order. I might not get much sleep in the coming weeks but I'm going to try to get all of this stuff installed.
Oh, and we have all of our appliances in house and ready to install, just waiting on the cabinets. It's going to be a busy month.
Until next time...
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Posted to Arkansas-First-Timer by Jack in Trumann, AR
on 4/4/2008 9:19:31 AM
I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had purchased a Wagner Paint Crew Plus Sprayer. I think I might have also mentioned a little about the cleanup. Well, I like the sprayer so far. I've used it several times; in fact I've painted six different rooms/areas with it and I've primed about the same amount of area as well. If you happen to get one of these, I might have a few tips that will help you enjoy your experience with it a little more.
First of all, follow the directions and definitely clean it up after every use. The cleanup portion is probably the only downside to using a sprayer but in fairness you have cleanup to do with manual painting methods as well. It takes a couple of passes through the cleanup procedures to get them down but after you've done it a few times, you'll get quicker at it; just like with any other multi-step procedure. Anyway, during my usage, I developed a shortcut that actually works better than what the manual provides. I'm only going to hit on the main steps, you'll need to read the manual and learn the tedious stuff like the pressure relief steps that you have to perform several times.
The first thing you do once you finish spraying is empty the hopper. Basically, you just pour you paint material back into the bucket it came from. You then rinse the hopper with a water hose or in a utility sink. This is the step I've modified. Rinsing the hopper is probably the most time consuming portion of the cleanup; it's definitely the most manual portion. But the owner's manual has you do this step twice. The first time, it just instructs you to rinse the hopper and refill it with an appropriate cleaning solution (water for latex material and mineral spirits for oil based materials; from this point forward, I’m just going to use water in place of cleaning solution; but you need to remember to use mineral spirits with oil based paints). The problem is, if you do that, you're either going to spend a lot of time rinsing or you're going to end up with colored water in the hopper for the next steps. Why? Because there is an inlet filter at the bottom of the hopper that is full of paint material when you get finished spraying and if you simply try to rinse out the hopper, you will keep getting paint or primer from that valve mixed back in with your cleaning solution.
The manual has you rinse the hopper, fill it with cleaning solution and then use the cleaning solution to flush the spray hose and then the return tube; which is a rubber tube that circulates material back into the hopper when you prime the sprayer. Remember, the water isn’t really clean at this point so the spray hose and the return tube don’t get completely clean either. After you flush the return tube, the manual has you rinse the hopper a second time but this time it also instructs you to clean the inlet filter. When you’re done the second time, you’re completely done. All in all, that process takes between 30 and 40 minutes.
Okay, you got that didn't you? The manufacturer wants you to rinse out the hopper twice! Well, after the first time, I said the heck with that! That filter at the bottom of the hopper is the cause of the dirty water. So, I adjusted the cleaning process so that I lightly rinse the hopper just enough to remove the heavy paint or primer; it doesn't need to be perfect at this point. I remove the inlet filter and clean it thoroughly. Then I finish rinsing the hopper so that it is good and clean and reassemble the filter. At this point, the hopper is as clean as it would be the second time you rinsed it according to the manual. I then fill the hopper with water and I usually have a clean bucket with me and I fill it with water too. Then, I replace the hopper on the sprayer and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Except, from the time I start cleaning the sprayer, the return tube is removed from the hopper and placed over my waste bucket. After I clean it, I never allow any dirty water or paint material back into the hopper; that is contrary to what the manual says to do. If I'm not mistaken, the manual has you rinse the return tube back into the hopper; I don't do that. At this point, I rinse both the return tube and the spray hose into the waste bucket. If I run out of water before they are both clean, I refill the hopper from my clean water bucket. Once both the return tube and the spray hose are clean, I empty out my hopper (actually I usually allow the sprayer to run all of the water through the hoses so that I don't even have to do that step).
At that point, everything except for the gun is clean. I then proceed to clean the gun and nozzle following the manufacturer's cleanup instructions. I find that my cleanup method is faster, less labor intensive and more thorough than that provided by the manufacturer. I hope this information helps someone save some time. After several prime/paint sequences, you can actually shave off a few hours of work this way.
Enjoy!
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