favorite/least favorite job

[nimrod]

reading polestrech's thread about radiators got me to thinking.we are all different personalities and therefore all have different likes and dislikes. and we all know there are jobs that some guys love to do and some guys hate. so what is your favorite job/task to do and what is your least favorite?
for me I really enjoy doing finish carpentry stuff. baseboards,shoe molding, cutting doors, stuff like that. my least favorite thing to do is vinyl/rubber cove base. certainly not hard to do but to me is very boring/mundane work. especially when lots of outside corners. This last February had a good size commercial job with 600 lin ft of cove base with 72 outside corners. did it by myself one day. my brain was fried at the end of the day
so whats your favorite and least favorite???

[rusty baker]

I love upholstered stairs.

[Chris Mha]

Least favorite job is "work". But the lottery numbers won't cooperate with me so I can't retire.

Seriously. I hate rubber/vinyl base. I would rather do wood base and quarter round.

These days I prefer to do hard surface than carpet. I don't know why.

[Barry Carlton]

I hate pullup and scrape up, next in line I really dislike prep.

I really love the creative side of flooring...insets, borders etc.

[nimrod]

Barry Carlton said I hate pullup and scrape up, next in line I really dislike prep. I really love the creative side of flooring...insets, borders etc.

pull up and scrape up is my second least favorite.was going back and forth between cove and scrape up. covebase won...

[Sean Moore]

Favorite: Heavily patterened direct glue carpet. 4-5% off-pattern, a little wiggle across is OK too.. 1% off is just boring and 10% off is a PITA. I like it because of the instant gratification.

You look back across that big field of what 16 hours ago was just a bunch of limp, out of alignment pieces of ratty looking fabric and is now a perfectly arrayed textile designers wet dream complete with monkey-matched base under that huge post-modern painting? Boom, headshot!

Least favorite: double-layer VCT demo. 'nuff said.

edit: nuts! It's sort of a toss up between the VCT demo and wrestling a 42ft piece around in some silly yuppie's downtown row house basement. That's got to be one of the worst tasks in flooring.

[BrianM]

Demo is undoubtedly the worst aspect of our trade. I'm not talking about residential strip and pad. I'm talking about the commercial night work on a HARD deadline where you're pulling up glue down, rubber back, VCT, corlon or whatever and even the machine is pissing and moaning.......until it breaks and there you are with nothing but idiot sticks and you finger nails. That seems to happen about 3 out of 4 nights at my shop. One of the reasons that when I was a Prima Donna I turned my nose up at those jobs and laughed at the schmucks who got stuck doing them. I'm so much more humble these days. (G)

Store/office/business opens at 8AM. If the floors not done your shop won't be back the next evening. One guy always spends an hour or so screwing around trying to get the machine back together while the rest of the poor SOBs are busting their butt scraping and pulling an inch at a time.

Today's job was sweet and made me realize that there's nothing so satisfying as those nice easy Armstrong Corlon jobs. Everything just falls in place. Welding is a dream. Base ties it all in and everyone is happy.......every time. Can't think of a single................well there's always an exception.

Yeah so my easiest days would be flat lay vinyl Corlon. That's some easy money for sure.

[Sean Moore]

BrianM said Store/office/business opens at 8AM. If the floors not done your shop won't be back the next evening.

That's why I've avoided anything to do with casinos. If those slot machines aren't all back in place and running by 0-dark-30 the carpet guy starts paying. Yup, they wanted me to pay their expectation on however many banks of machines were out of commission for however long.

No, thank you.

[polestretch]

My least favorite is cutting carpet at the shop with the bosses wife watching, "are you sure that is where you should cut that". This is only my second day on the job, I called in sick the first day. My favorite ,as I stated a few months ago is patterned berber.

[BrianM]

Sean Moore said That's why I've avoided anything to do with casinos. If those slot machines aren't all back in place and running by 0-dark-30 the carpet guy starts paying. Yup, they wanted me to pay their expectation on however many banks of machines were out of commission for however long. No, thank you.

In my 30 years or so I'd say roughly 1-2 accounts get lost every year because the shop under mans those night jobs and then sends out third rate, beat to hell equipment that's got 400,000 miles on it. For Pete's sake at some point you've got to say we've gotten out money out of the machine and let the thing die with dignity.

On the jobs where the guys bust their butts and the machines run though they must make quite a nice profit margin because the shops LOVE to get that kind of work. It always amazes me when they tell me about the GREAT big job coming up. They deliberately fail to mention it starts at 7PM and they know damn well how much I hate nights. I'll do it because I need to get the boys through college without $250K in student loans. But I won't be smiling or excited when you tell me about the zillion yards of this or that for XYZ corporation.........as if I'm going to be impressed by another Fortune 500 corporate office.

[TFP Admin]

I sure hope we get some replies from members who aren't installers. I guess I could start that off.

My favorite job, although I haven't gotten very many of them, is to design a logo and style for a flooring website. I'm working on one now where the owner didn't even have a business name chosen, so I got to do that too. I love the creative process.

My least favorite job is managing members on a forum (I work on 2 forums, but this one is the only flooring related). I especially don't like dealing with rule-breakers and those who actually try to get banned. I usually delete or edit their posts so a lot of people don't see the whole exchange. So when someone gets banned, I take shit for it from people who don't know the whole story - and usually the whole story is none of their business. It's a harder job than most realize and one of the hardest parts is trying to be the fair manager and not the good-ol'-boy.

Luckily my least favorite part of the job doesn't come along very often, so I love working here. Although I miss selling and installing floors, I think I'm beginning to like this job more than I liked that one. It doesn't pay as well, but there's a lot of mental challenges and personal satisfaction to enjoy.

Jim

[rgfloor]

Easiest job: Ya walk in and a row of chicken tracks is visible from 30 feet. Take ya pics and leave, Cha Ching, Cha Ching!!

Hardest: Mrs Joe Schmoe dilly dallies for half an hour over when and what time ya can come for the inspection. Calls back and changes it for the next day. Ya pull up and think "Why all the pickemups in the drive?"

The Schmoe's, their builder, the retailer, his installer and his helper, the Schmoe's attorney, the builder's lawyer, and two neighbor kids are all assembled to see "THE INSPECTOR". Hey let's have a cook-out!!!

Everybody want's to tell their version of "The Ten Commandments", (I don't need to hear any of it) while I work.

Now you know this is going legal so ya gotta document, document even though you can see the cupping wood floor from the street, and smell the musty wet basement the minute the front door opens.

Gotta love it!!!

[kylenelson]

Favorite part of my job? Being my own boss, taking time off when I need it. Working somewhere new every day. Working less hours than most people and making as much in a day. Seaming carpet that I can't find the seam in. Love those.

Least favorite? The physical detriment to my body. Too many times I have had to haul in long shots of 80oz softbac by myself. Not getting any benefits whatsoever. Having to pay for my own health insurance,business insurance, extra vehicle insurance, and supplies out of my paycheck. The pie slices keep getting smaller and smaller. Pounding concrete tack strip? Can I get an amen???? Commercial carpet with a TINY pattern that is nearly impossible to make the seam look nice with out seeing zippering.

[TwoStar]

My new favorite is building a shower from the subfloor on up, plastic, preslope, rubber sheet, concrete, waterproofing, and finally...tile. Walls, ceiling, curb. Yippee!

I am really getting tired of the jobs where I have to count on a helper to show up. I pay really good but the help around here is sooooo lazy. Any excuse not to work is a good excuse, I guess. Sigh.

[TwoStar]

rgfloor said Easiest job: Ya walk in and a row of chicken tracks is visible from 30 feet. Take ya pics and leave, Cha Ching, Cha Ching!! Hardest: Mrs Joe Schmoe dilly dallies for half an hour over when and what time ya can come for the inspection. Calls back and changes it for the next day. Ya pull up and think "Why all the pickemups in the drive?" The Schmoe's, their builder, the retailer, his installer and his helper, the Schmoe's attorney, the builder's lawyer, and two neighbor kids are all assembled to see "THE INSPECTOR". Hey let's have a cook-out!!! Everybody want's to tell their version of "The Ten Commandments", (I don't need to hear any of it) while I work. Now you know this is going legal so ya gotta document, document even though you can see the cupping wood floor from the street, and smell the musty wet basement the minute the front door opens. Gotta love it!!!

LOL!!! You should write children's book...I think with a little work you could be the new Dr. Seuss. Thanks for the laugh!