Which seemingly straightforward project packs the greatest potential for frustration?
You will not be able to change your vote.
From building boxes and fitting face frames to installing doors and drawers, these techniques could be used for lots of cabinet projects.
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Replies
Who was the funny guy who said 'deck or shed'?
40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
werent me.
Now, if the question was what project is easiest and cheapest, then a shed fer sure!
decks can be frustrating now that the new PT lumber corrodes nails faster thana dog scratches fleas, but it is still nowher near tops.
What you missed listing is my all-time mega-frustrator, installing range hoods. in few square feet, you have to co-ordinate electrical, sheetmetal, insulation, lighting, tile, paint and rough framing....
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Hee Hee....you ain't kidding....
Jackleg cabinet installer puts in the cabs at friend/clients house while he & I are both out of town....doesn't bother to prep the over microwave cab. for the unit (which is sitting right there in the box)...
We had to take all the cabs down anyway, cause he set them to high & then ripped 1/3 of the crown off to make it fit (red birch, too...try finding THAT in a hurry...)
This was an easy one to answer - everything I've ever done related to plumbing has turned into a greased slippery slope straight to he!!. Guess I need to burn some more offerings to the plumbing gods :-).
I just cast another vote for plumbing. I guess it depends who is doing it. I sort of read the poll as for the amateur, which was an assumption on my part."Frustrating" can mean different things, too. The plumbing is really frustrating for me as a remodeler because I always have to have the water back on before I go home, no matter what I discover in the hidden areas. Well, almost always. And I am very comfortable doing plumbing. It's the time pressure that is frustrating.Bill
that's the way I am with plumbing
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You need to adopt and fully accept my axiom on plumbing, acceptance is the hard part:
"Every plumbing job, no matter how big or small, no matter how much pipe or how many fittings you have on hand, WILL require three trips to a supply house."
Once you resign yourself to this axiom, stress disappears except for the time constraints of remodeling. I usually start these first thing in the morning to help with that part.
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
That's the problem. Three trips on the ferry while the plumbing drips in my house is inherently stressful.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Oops, I forgot about the island factor.
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Three trips on the ferry while the plumbing drips in my house is inherently stressful
Even more so when the ferry is not running, I imagine . . .
Since, that's bound to be some time when the barometer or thermometer (or both) are dropping, the anemoeter a blur, and the sky looks like something Hieronymous Bocshe saw in a nightmare . . .
How's the Nor'easter treating you? Or has it reached that far north yet. Weather Channel was jawing about some Banks bouys with 75+ wind readings--sounds under fun.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
The ferry quit for the afternoon yesterday so crews left early. one tree blew down that I know of, but overall, not a bad storm. worst was at low tide but the surge brought water up almopst to normal high tide levels so if it had come at high tide time...The Low system did not combinme with Wilma and Alpha though because they went out to sea ahead of this one. We were buckled down for a big one.Re the plumbing issue, we have two plumbers out here that I use for the jobs but getting them to work on a minor problem at hoime is like pulling teeth out of a camel because they are chronicly overworked.
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because they are chronicly overworked
And, as a guess, chronically undersupplied with whatever is needed right now, and can't be collected 'cause it's on the mainland <g> . . . Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I'll tell you what their biggest problem is, other than thtat they are both plumbers first and businessmen second...this is a summer vacation community to a large part, so the water gets turned off on many houses for the winter. These guys both have policies that you have to give them a week's notice before they turn off the water for you, blowing out the lines, adding antifreeze in the washing machines, and traps and all that good stuff. This time of year, people will "forget" or change their minds and decide to come back for Thanksgiving, or just plain can't make up their mind in the first place when they are leaving and then when cold weather is on the forecast, suddenly it is an emergency. With two otr three hundered shutoffs on your list, you can end up with a hundred "emergencies" all in the same week.
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or change their minds and decide to come back for
That would make it sore tempting to put cinnamon oil or witchhazel or a similar product in the lines at drain & shut off time.
But, I've been accused, a time or two, of being cranky that way <g>.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
The only thing that makes the venthood install worse is a microwave / venthood combination, applied to a tile backsplash, with 90 degree venting out through the wall within an 18" high cabinet and brick on the outside of the wall.
Been there / done that.....three times in one month.
It's a wonder you are still sane;)
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Not too bad.....as a builder sometimes these things fall into no mans land. Rather than pay someone I do it.
I allowed myself plenty of time, and tried to maintain patience. It worked.
So, you are a Softplan user? I think we started at about the same time V9 in 1997.
Do you participate in Splash? Great forum for SP users.
When I go to Splash, I participate by reading more than by writing. A couople reasons for that. One is that there are definitely better minds than I in that forum. I log in much more seldom than I do here, so when I read a thread, the answer has generally been given fairly well and digested thru and thry. Tghe other is that a bout two or three years ago, there was some friction - the kind every forum goes through at one time or another, and it has never seemed as collegial since then as before, so I keep my head down. I am glad that SP took over the moderation and ownership of the board and that the fee is gone for mewmbership. I've been a member since Splash was formed out of the old SPLUG
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Noticed that you use Softplan. Have been using it for about 5 years (have ver. 12).
I know about 1/2 of what I wish that I knew. Have never heard of Splash. Assume that it is a web forum for SP. What is the web address.
Thanks
Roger
http://splash.softplansplsh.org/front/main.htmI've had SP since V9 - about 1999, I think - maybe '98
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three times in one month
Ugh, bad memories. Trade ya for the (easy, yeah, right) apartment job I took replacing the vent hoods. I check, they're all vented, cool. Go broker a deal for new vented hoods. Get the first old one out, and the duct is messed up--huh? Fiddle a bit, the duct runs up the interior wall cavity and just ends i nthe second floor joist space. Peachy.
Go upstairs, take hood out. No duct at all. Look for attic access, find same, cool, a padlock. Secure both apartments, go to LL for combo (yes, this tale predates ubiquitous cell phones); come back. Go back to the shop for the folding ladder, as there's no place to stand the extension to unlock the pad lock.
Go into attic, it's nice an toasty warm for June, maybe 125-130º. Find upstairs unit's vh location, yep, hole through the framing, no duct. There's a wh stack punched through the roof a couple of feet over in both directions. Gee, wonder if anybody forgot to bring downstairs up alongside, and then forgot to exhaust to the outside . . .
Get LL, chivvy same up ladder to see where vh has been venting (depending on the tennant) since first occupancy. Back to appliance store to get recirculating vh . . .
Caution LL that grease & tallow do not improve 3" batt FG in attic. Get invoice paid, and retreat gladly, happy to be at least in isght of break-even for the 10 four-plexes . . .
Shoulda never answered the phone about the sinks a few weeks later (dang, I could have used caller ID . . . )Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I didn't vote.
The projects are all simple.
It is the clients that are potentially frustrating.
for me it was a toss-up between replacing bathroom fixtures and running wires thru finished walls.
the plumbing one won out, 'cause I'm really terrible at plumbing. Its one thing I don't even do at my own house.
Trick question, right?
Whats the punchline? Oiy, did I have to ask?
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
Replacing an exterior door in my opinion is the most trouble. I've had doors that require the use of every tool (and skill) in the arsenal. Exterior doors may have moldings not seen anywhere else in the house or world for that matter, require a brake for bending drip cap, stucco repair, door bells, and rim joist repair for new threshold(sometimes the old threshold seems to be floating and attached to nothing but door frame). Maybe the new door is just a little narrower than the old one and interior trim doesn't cover wallpaper edge or maybe there's wainscoating. Maybe you need a chipping hammer to carve away the twenty inch wide limestone foundation found on many sidedoors and then find a way to attach plaster or drywall to it. It's all there sometimes. It can take all day just to take all the tools out the truck never mind plugging them in. Have you ever been the last of a long line of carpenters to look at something and not fix it? I think it happens with doors more than anything else.
Troy Keyes
I voted for the plumbing because:
1) The only shut-off valve is in the basement, it hasn't been used for 20 years, the handle is missing, after you have messed up the stem with your visegrips it still won't shut off completely and you have to shut of the whole house, and you have to replace the shut-off valve as well.
2) The toggle bolts turn when you are trying to unfasten the toilet, the new toilet's tank that the owners have purchase because the they like the unusual color sit back two inches further than the old one, no shut-off valve etc.
3) The nipple for the drain on the sink is so corroded that you crush it trying to take it out because the new one has to be an inch shorter, you end up having to open up the wall under the sink to affect repairs and "they don't make the tile in that color any more", no shut-off valve etc.
4) etc.
What about a garage door. I was young and foolish and thought we could handle it. There has to be fifty million pieces, and I work on older homes (garages), what a nightmare. We got through it but I will never do it again!
My second vote would be installing a range hood, for shear grief factor.
Wait, have you worked on my house before? <g>Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Worked in Home Centers for awhile and without a doubt the plumbing aisle was avoided like the plauge! Got tired of home-owners trying to mickyrig some plumbing fixture that wasn't made to standard sizes. (American STANDARD, get it?)
Also got tired of frustrated contractor's throwing smelly old fixtures at me after I had to tell them that they don't make them like that anymore. I think plumbing is the last building industry to standardize. Don't get me started on all the metric fixtures that come in because she just had to have that fancy Italian faucet.
Yup, its plumbing.
Plus, invariably, no matter how hard you try, you will get wet. Yuch.
I think new-housing plumbers are overpaid, remodel plumbers grossly undpaid.
My .02
Terence
I would say crown molding. I have re-plumbed three houses built from 1900 to 1923, worked with doors without a problem, etc. As an Electrician I don't have a lot of confidence for some carpentry projects but if it involves getting wire there I can do it!
Chris
I had to go with plumbing over wiring on this one. Mostly, as I've been able to let wiring (fishing new) go "whoa" when a problem creeps up.
Whereas I can't think of a single plumbing project that ever got complicated to a simple stopping point. But that might also be from having some projects keep havign the water get turned of further, and further, and further away . . . <sigh>. Or maybe I've lived with coils of romex "waiting" to be home run too long <g>
I have done them all - and the things I have run into behind wall are the worst.
I mis read the poll! I thought it was with minimal frustration. So I voted for Crown Molding. With the MOST frustration, it has to be plumbing. Plumbing never goes right, never. Working under sinks, horrible.