The linoleum in the bathroom looked warn, faded, and dated. The company with the best reputation in town for tile provided a quote, $3000 for three bathrooms and an entryway. Problem, I was short $3000.
in my tour through home improvement stores, I saw it. A room that looked like real wood. Theater, Faux Wood Stick Down Tiles! If I did it myself, I could practice, rip it out and mulligan a do over.
I talked to the Home Depot Floor rep, viewed several websites, and decides to tackle the job. I would need to buy backer boards to ensure the floor was flat, to remove the toilet, pull up the old floor and give it a go. I small talked with my neighbor, and he offered his circular saw. I accepted and said thanks.
I looked the saw over…the cord was pieced with no less than three patches of electrical tape. the model was old, one without the automatic shutoff feature. I put on safety toe boots, a pair of safety glasses, a pair of gloves and used it anyway. I started the day with a Chip Gaines shout out ” Demo Day ” and swung the claw of the hammer into the floor. hammer.
I kicked up a piece of flooring. held it in place on my foot and powered on the saw. The blade hum and got stuck. I figured it was old and pressed the button, it hummed and stuck again. I pulled the saw away from the floor and it would not move. I jerked and noticed the blade was stuck on the side of my safety boot. Hmm. The minute the saw released, it whined to full speed. This startled me. I pushed the button and turned it off. I saw the half inch slice into the side of my shoe. If I was wearing tennis shoes, I may not have a foot. If it was an inch further back, I would have sliced through the leather. I stopped to regroup. Using a neighbor’s 1950’s circular saw had the best intentions but. to weekends do it yourselfer it was disastrous. I went to Home Depot and bought a Dremmel MultiMax Oscillating Saw with extra blades and a plastic yellow Mitor box. This looked like something I could handle for a bathroom floor project. The blades would be in front of me. Each cut would be deliberate. I might save my hands and feet. Thank you Dremmel.
If I had to do it again. I would rent a saw from Home Depot and get a personal lesson from the Store employees as well as read the manual on power tool device safety. Who wants to start a weekend as a do it yourselfer and wind up at the Doc in the Box Urgent Care?
