2/27/2008
8:32:18 AM 

I ask questions, to make installers consider every tiny detail. I ask about seam sealing, because I have experienced problems quite a few times and still when I need to seal seams, it can bite me at any moment.

Just making a seam all by itself--with no seam sealing has caused me problems all thru my carreer and I say all thru my carreer, because my first boss taught me to seam seal with a pencil--soldering iron on certain carpets. Which amoung you knows what carpet that was? Maybe none of you, because each place in the country was different.

Down here, it was Karastan carpets that the fibers on the edges popped like popcorn--as my boss--Roland Adams would say. He was one crazy son of a gun. He was the true Cajun--straight from the Bayou. His boss was from up North. He was a very big man and he was our master installer, at Miami Rug co.. My buddy--Ray Garrity worked straight for the master and I got to work for Roland, but Roland while a bit over the top, was a great mechanic. Roland would try to drag me into bars and get me to drink with him at 17. It seems I could pass for 21 or they just looked the other way, but I wouldn't drink for several reasons. I did start to drink a few drinks at the bars when I turned 21, but just to socialize.

Roland sometimes would shoot stop signs with the gun he carried all the time. I saw him get in a fight with a bigger guy one time and Roland punched em in the stomach once and the guy had enough. I'm here to tell ya, he scared the daylights out of me, but my mom was harder than him in some ways, so I hung in there for 6 months and my buddy Ray Garrity approached me one day and he told me another co. that he was working for, was willing to take a chance on me and help me to get a truck and tools, if I'd come there and be a mechanic for them. I said ok, because working for Roland, all I was making, was 15 cents a yard.

I wonder why more installers don't run across all these same problems and say so.

It is not a good thing for me to have to say all the bad stuff, maybe some of you other installers should take a turn in the box.

Would you like to be thought of as the bad guy all the time? Could you take the heat?

The only reason I can take the heat for so many years, is because I was made for the floor and it for me. I have almost no other life as I've been divorced from 3 different women and so it's just me and my daughter and I haven't been a very good dad. It seems I never had enough time for her and that kinda thing haunts me every single day of my life. However, I still do what I can for her, but I will not do it all for her, even though she has had it so difficult. I am my mothers son to a degree, but I will never be as strong and selfless as she, at least not as I see things. The truth does hurt.

Whatever we are given in life as strong points, we are given just as many weaknesses. To see and use both sides of ones character, is to use all the information on both sides of any and all subjects. If we don't, we do not get any more knowledge in life, even if we gain all the riches. The money is good, if gotten correctly, but it won't help you to understand and grow. I know, I know, --SHOW ME DA MONEY. hahahahahahaha

Anyway, I'd sure like to see other installers point out the weaknesses and strengths in everything, like seam sealing, knee kicking, powerstretching and so on.

2/27/2008
10:11:49 AM 

In reading the Standards, one must fill the cut edge so as to fill the latex area and lock the primary and secondary together.

I used my finger to apply pressure for penetration into the latex, which also put a little latex on top of the primary backing.. Then let it dry before making the seam.......... At first.. i put on too much, but soon got the hang of it............
In Sewing seams... That is how I started out .. YUK... i was slow..

x

2/27/2008
10:25:40 AM 

Don't forget your laptop. We expect to hear from you.

2/27/2008
1:49:26 PM 

Jim, I used very little latex after I installed for awhile... did not need as much as originally believed.

But, I was a "blow and go" type guy that installed in apartments/new construction...

And......... I did not like installing... Too much work !!