A comment was made by someone I respect a lot on this site even though he loves hanging paper more than painting. He made a comment, having been brought in to paper rather high end homes, that it seemed carpenters never carry squares anymore.
The last beauty of an old house I worked on gut toward finish, was a balloon thing constructed around 1898 around the shell of a Victorian. I guess with all floors involved it came to 2,000-2,400 sf or so by the time the basement was finished.
The amazing thing about the house? You could take a square to any joint. And up down and across---PERFECT. Every piece of antique trim was perfect to floors and ceilings.
The house had settled, perfectly square but toward one corner.
Things like the steel wheels and tracks for giant and beautiful pocket doors had to be adjusted for gravity of course. But...
The owner ran out of money. He had to sell and I stayed with the project until the the new owner came in with carpenters having pretty levels of all kinds. I just scratched my head as one leveled a floor for new tile and with a very nice laser level spun a line all around the room showing the trim was off, the fixtures were crooked. The paper hanger must have been drunk, etc. I pointed to the ceiling and suggested the angle might look weird if he did it his way.
I spouted off too many times and was finally asked to take my silly square and go home. Chalk it up to level headed thinking I guess.
Anyhow, I thought of commenting on a current thread about how to level a subfloor for tile with the newbie owner admitting he sees things off 1/4" here or there. Anybody ever seen thing off 1/4 that did not turn out to be more?
Was thinking a square a handy thing for people to have. Of course I have all sorts of laser and other levels but I adjust them for the way a house has settled. Especially if it has fallen more or less as a unit. I lay floors and even tin ceilings at times, square, not level. Paperhangers breeze through my projects. One tool.
A square. Levels and blumbobs only establish your relationship to true gravity which exists in no home for longer than minutes.
The last beauty of an old house I worked on gut toward finish, was a balloon thing constructed around 1898 around the shell of a Victorian. I guess with all floors involved it came to 2,000-2,400 sf or so by the time the basement was finished.
The amazing thing about the house? You could take a square to any joint. And up down and across---PERFECT. Every piece of antique trim was perfect to floors and ceilings.
The house had settled, perfectly square but toward one corner.
Things like the steel wheels and tracks for giant and beautiful pocket doors had to be adjusted for gravity of course. But...
The owner ran out of money. He had to sell and I stayed with the project until the the new owner came in with carpenters having pretty levels of all kinds. I just scratched my head as one leveled a floor for new tile and with a very nice laser level spun a line all around the room showing the trim was off, the fixtures were crooked. The paper hanger must have been drunk, etc. I pointed to the ceiling and suggested the angle might look weird if he did it his way.
I spouted off too many times and was finally asked to take my silly square and go home. Chalk it up to level headed thinking I guess.
Anyhow, I thought of commenting on a current thread about how to level a subfloor for tile with the newbie owner admitting he sees things off 1/4" here or there. Anybody ever seen thing off 1/4 that did not turn out to be more?
Was thinking a square a handy thing for people to have. Of course I have all sorts of laser and other levels but I adjust them for the way a house has settled. Especially if it has fallen more or less as a unit. I lay floors and even tin ceilings at times, square, not level. Paperhangers breeze through my projects. One tool.
A square. Levels and blumbobs only establish your relationship to true gravity which exists in no home for longer than minutes.
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