More Brewing

Today I kegged Delicious Aloysius, which is full of Glacier hops and is named after an icy fictional detective.  A few weeks ago, the recipe went something like:

Delicious Aloysius

1 lb Briess Caramel 40L
6.6lb Extra Light Liquid Malt Extract
1 oz Glacier - 60 min
1 oz Glacier - 15 min
1 oz Tettnang - 0 min
Safeale US-05



Anyway, I had an idea.  I always spend a lot of time filtering the hops from my wort, and I figure the problem is my filters are too small.  The ideal case would be a tight screen about the size of a sheet pan, which attaches to a sheet pan with a hole in it.  I could attach some rails to it so I could slot a funnel onto the underside.  Then I could pour a lot more beer into the fermenter before I ran out of working filter medium.

So yeah, I'm going to see if I can find the parts to build such a thing.  Wish me luck.

The Birth of a Thousand Cuts

Here are some pictures of the flooring we put in:

Notes on Installing Laminate Flooring

So we just spent the weekend installing some laminate flooring in our living room.  It's surprisingly like work.

First, why laminate and not hardwood?  Well, we got a bunch of samples of both that we liked, and performed the highly scientific test of beating them against each other to see how easily they scratched.  The high-quality laminate stuff was by far the most durable, and it looks very similar to the real stuff.  Now that it's installed, you can't really tell that it's not hardwood, except that it feels different than hardwood to bare feet.

So, what does a person need to know?  Well, I needed a lot more tools than any of the online guides mentioned.  At various points I used:

• Tapping block
• Deadblow hammer
• Pull bar
• Spacers
• Measuring tape and ruler
• Level
• Miter saw
• Regular circular saw
• Circular saw with adjustable depth
• Hand miter saw
• Hacksaw
• Plant trimmers (for clipping tiny pieces off the thresholds)
• Screwdrivers of all sorts
• Drill
• Utility knives
• Electric jamb saw
• Hand undercut saw
• Sheetrock saw
• Various types of pliers
• Table mounted vise
• Dremel tool with cutoff blade
• Assorted safety equipment (goggles, earplugs, gloves)
• Wood glue

In other words, it's not something you should attempt unless you have a fairly well stocked toolbox.  You'll have problems, and you'll need to solve them.  Check out my hooks while the DJ revolves them.

I made some mistakes in the process as well.  The big ones:

1. The thresholds I got to cover transitions require a little over an inch of space for this aluminum trough that you have to screw down.  When I started, I only left a spacer's worth of space.  This meant I had to do some fairly serious cutting with the flooring already in place when I realized my mistake.  This added a half day and a trip to Lowe's to the process.
2. While you should leave that inch for the threshold transitions, you don't necessarily want to screw the troughs down first, because they'll often need something under them to provide extra height.  For a few thresholds, I ended up solving this problem by putting down scraps of underlayment.  Later, I went to Tractor Supply and got a big bag washers for about 50 cents, and I'm using those for the last few.  My bathroom, for example, has a threshold trough that's five washers higher than the subfloor.
3. There will be places where it is difficult to lock a board in place.  For example, a board with an angled end can be very difficult.  Your best bet is to realized early that you can sand off the locking lips of the plank (a flathead screwdriver will make short work of them as well), and glue it in place.

What else?  There's a fairly specific angle for your tapping block that won't damage the boards.  It's not quite flat, but it's not too steep.  Maybe 10 degrees.

If you purchase the quarter-round made out of PVC, it's white all the way through.  That means you don't have to paint the ends when you cut it.  It's also a little bigger than wooden quarter round, which means you can cover more.

In one very tight area I ended up removing the baseboards as well - there just wasn't enough space to work otherwise.

It would've been really nice to have a jigsaw.  

I didn't realize at first that I could lock the planks from any direction.  The instructions suggested an only-left-to-right-and-down sort of thing.

Once you've put threshold in the metal trough, it's pretty much in there.  A few times I was able to very carefully remove it with a butter knife.

Also, my dog doesn't like running on it.  I still don't think hardwood would hold up though - he makes a pretty big splash when he jumps to or from the couch.

Keep your vacuum cleaner handy - you're going to track in a lot of sawdust.

That covers most of the stuff that wasn't in any of the instructions or Youtube videos.  I recommend you do this stuff yourself when you can, at least once, because it's a great learning experience.  After you've done it once, it's okay to pay someone (example: I'm going to pay someone to repaint the kitchen and living room.  I've painted rooms, and I know the process, and I've decided I don't have the patience for the detail work.)

Carpet on Craigslist

I just posted an ad to Craigslist:

About 250 ft^2 of carpet and pad, free to anyone who has the means to haul it off. What would you use this carpet for? Here's a few suggestions from our crack team of flooring scientists:
* Re-carpet your dorm room
* Add some warmth to your man-cave (don't your feet get cold on the concrete when you go for a beer?)
* Hang it on the wall and paint a soft, fuzzy mural, you avant-garde paradigm changer!
* Carpet the ceiling of your stairwell, just like The King
* Re-upholster your vintage '73 Chevy El Camino (fuzzy dice not included)
* Add it to your Craigslist used carpet collection. *shudder*

Whatever you plan to do with this shining example of freecycled goodness, this fountain of fabulous flooring, this diamond in the fluff, you should do it soon, because I'm taking it down to the dump in the next day or two. For real.