Guy Walks Into A Bar...

Kyras

the next guy ducks.

But seriously folks, I just flew in from Chicago.

I did a backsplash today, nah, nothing special at all, just some AO25 white subway, you know the 3x6 on a brick pattern. Maybe you don't know. We see a lot of that tile in Charleston, it's very "charlestonian". Being an old city, a lot of the bathrooms in the city have that tile from the early 1900's.

Not quite that tile, the original is very square edged (glaze all crazed by now), often with black, strange looking, massive trim, soaked in a soaking tub (until it stops bubbling) and set with pure white cement (which will totally eat your hands alive) over wood lathed mudwork with a grey portland cement grout. I suppose it could even be American Olean tile. (Yes, I was taught to soak my tile in a tub before setting with white cement. Professor Peabody's Wayback Machine.)

Floors in these old bathrooms are usually small unglazed 1" hex or perhaps basketweave black and white. In the old downtown houses I'm thinking of, the floors are, of course, a mortar bed, but without wire lathe. The floor joists are "peaked", that is, pointed with an adz, and when I say joists I mean lumber, rough sawn lumber. The mud bed extends downward into these joist cavities, sometimes 6" or 8" thick, until it meets a false bottom of 1" heartpine, fixed by an x of supporting wood run betwixt the beams. Of course the ceiling below is all plaster on wood lathe.

I've always been unsure what the point of the pointing was. It sometimes, perhaps even mostly, leads to cracks in the floor following the pointed joist. But not always. And of course we are speaking of 100 year old floors that are otherwise in perfect, enviable, health. Except for a few hairline cracks. Of course the old, lead plumbing is buried hopelessly in all this 8" mudbed. Still, the reason behind the pointing troubles me....

Many of these houses were built by slaves, although the baths were not installed until much later, as there was no plumbing. I worked in a house that had the first bathtub in Charleston, a wood tub covered in copper sheeting, still in use. So usually, the baths were a retrofit, often on former porches, plumbing run down the exterior of the house on the side. These are "row houses", the front of the house being skinny and tall (taxes were based on street frontage) and being quite long on the sides. So the neighboring house had a fabulous view of all your plumbing, and not much else.

Anyway, none of the preceding having any relevance whatsoever, I did a backsplash of AO 25 white subway today. I really did not charge enough for it ($320 labor and setting material + 125 tile), but it was a dead day anyway because my real job was waiting on plumbing inspection. The thing about it is this:

The guy's wife wanted us to do it. But he really wanted to do it himself. She just wanted it over with and, thanks to the hole in our schedule brought about by aforementioned inspection, it was over with in short order. But, as he stood there in the kitchen and watched us do it, then resigned himself to watching soap operas in the other room with his wife (in a bonding experience I'm sure), I felt bad.

And not just for J.R., who is apparently doomed without the transplant which he desperately needs, accompanied by the steady beep beep beep of the hospital monitor as Fusion (I swear that was her name) declared that J.R. had had enough tragedy and loss in his short, young life and this, THIS was TOO MUCH OH GOD HOLD ME.

Anyway. Poor guy. All he wanted was to buy a wet saw and tile a backsplash. DENIED.

You know, red wine is good for you. Although maybe not so good when you type rambling discourses. Still, I post it for your amusement. Really, I drink for my health. Seriously.

I hope you still respect me in the morning... Hey, have you heard this one?

Guy walks into a bar...

SC sawdaddy

Having a little coffee with your red wine?

oldfrt

Maybe you come back and reread this in the morning.

Good Night Kyras.

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angus242

Red wine or Red Bull

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Angus
L+M+O+P=C
"Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise"

PrecisionFloors

To hell with 'em Kyras I enjoyed it

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Leo G

And boy are my arms tired.

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Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

loneframer

Take my life......please.

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"Walking the fine line between production and perfection"



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Leo G

That's take my wife....please

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Sawdust Follows Me Everywhere

http://lrgwood.com
Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

loneframer

No, not after that arm flapping joke. Take my life... please.

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"Walking the fine line between production and perfection"



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Resta

I was with you

No, I'm not taking Leo wife too. Thank you.

Leo G

Yer wish is my command Kimosabi.

__________________
Sawdust Follows Me Everywhere

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Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut

rselectric1

and you didn't have the common courtesy to contact me, Angus, Mikeswoods, Brickie, OGStilts, and the other locals? I could have put a little beer run on 480 Sparky's diners club card. Oh well, your loss.

Next time, let us know ahead of time. We'll charge a box of red wine!

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220...221...whatever it takes!