The title explains why it's been forever since I last posted. I've been spending all of my non-Steak n Shake nights at the store putting down underlayment for my as-yet-untiled floor. Thankfully, that is soon to be remedied, as we will be tiling this weekend. Remarkably, there is still an outside chance we'll get open in time for the March 1 Unofficial Pub Crawl through the streets of Uptown Normal. Of course, that goes on the assumption that we can get the place built out and inspected by Friday, because only I and other idiots work weekends. We also need decent enough weather in order to get my dumpster pad poured and the enclosure connecting the walk-in cooler to the store built.
As for the aforementioned flooring, I definitely got myself into more than I bargained for. Thankfully, my dad and David (restaurant manager) saved my ass. They are both handy and thorough, and by extension are able to make sure the job is getting done right, and that I can be put to some good use, as well. See the pictures to get a better idea of what we're up against. We had to lay 5/8" thick chipboard in the kitchen to bring that floor up to the level of the dining room. Once we did that, we had to go over the whole restaurant front to back with Luan hardboard 1/4" thick underlayment to set a nice even base for the tiles. Before we could do this, we had to fill in all cracks with Durham's Rock Hard, which is by far the world's coolest substance because it goes from liquid to frozen solid in less than five minutes. We also had to replace or re-glue all broken or loose tiles, as well. And before we could underlay, we had to sweep and mop over the old tile - we had to change the mop water every two feet because it had been so long since the floor had been cleaned. So the rest is easy, right? I wish! We now get to thoroughly sweep over the underlayment, prime it, wait a few hours, apply leveling compound where necessary, chalk out where the tiles will lay, and then hope to God we've done things right so that our tiles don't start cracking or randomly popping up once we're open.
I'm still glad we're doing this, though. If we hadn't, we'd be at the mercy of flooring professionals who likely work the same 7-5 hours that all union laborers work. Our working nights and weekends - while the place is empty - is a major reason why we're not further behind schedule right now. I admit that I took on flooring myself solely to save money, but it turns out that the time gained is probably even more important than that.
Anyways, I have a ton more to report, but need to get off to the store and floor some more. All sorts of things are coming together next week - I hope. Wish us luck as we TRY to get open for that pub crawl!
The Old Man looks like a broken Transformer, but definitely came in handy.
If you don't have a clue about flooring, it's a good idea to hire a manager who is a black belt with a jigsaw - especially when you have to cut pieces like this.
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