A Handy Friend is a Friend Indeed

Okay, folks, buckle up. This is a picture-heavy post and you may want to view it on something that's not a mobile device. Also, it's about a local company but they're so great I want to share them far and wide.

They're that awesome.

So you may know that I live in what is popularly called a mobile home, although the correct term is manufactured home. Most of these are made - that is to say, manufactured - in a factory somewhere and then moved (hence "mobile") to wherever they're going to spend their lives. So they are typically made with lighter weight materials than "stick-built" homes so they can be moved after manufacture.

One of these lighter materials is pressboard subflooring. Which consists of sawdust and glue pressed into sheets.

Now, pressboard subflooring is fine, as long as it stays dry, no termites, etc. It's not ideal for building, but it's a lot lighter weight to move than 1400 square feet of one-inch plywood. So as mentioned, it's typical in manufactured homes, and up to code.

But then you get a leak (we're not sure from what, as it evidently started well before Laston's death in 2016), and that pressboard... just disintegrates. And then you have what is essentially linoleum over bare support joists - no subflooring.

This is dangerous.

So the floor needs replacing, and as quickly as can be easily managed at that. 

Mind you, this work started the same day as my first day back to (close-to) full-time, in-person work in over a year, the girls' first day of in-person school in over a year, and in the middle of allergy season. Because adding sawdust to the pollen is a great idea! <giggle> Got a bunch of masks available, though, so we're good. Silver linings.

I seem to have misplaced my Before photo, but just know that it's a darker and dingier off-white than the new floor. You can see bits of it here as they are trying to get it off the joists and the little bits of pressboard that were still hanging onto the joists. The guys were great at explaining the basics of construction and the hows and whys and wherefores of what they're doing. I imagine I'm not the savviest homeowner they've ever had, but I'm not the least savvy, either.

Then here is where they've gotten most of the linoleum up (and tools and a work boot). I had to go to work, but these guys are bonded and insured and I've spent most of the morning with them; they're decent, so it's all good.

I enjoyed interacting with these two people working on my floor and the one who runs the company; they are responsive, helpful, and informative. Also they never once gave the impression that they were tired of explaining things to this clueless homeowner, which is an awesome trait in a craftsperson!

When I got back from work, both kids were home from their respective first days back to in-person school, and full of stories about the first day - they each made friends (they've been in class with these people all year, but neither of them is great at connecting with people they don't already know online), Liz got to (do a simulation of) light a battery on fire, and it was all kind of great, although masking inside the house because workers and dust is a bit of an issue for us all. Temporary, though, so that's okay.

And this picture is what I came home to. 

Yes, a slab of plywood over the gaping hole in my kitchen floor, which is the next pic. After they took up the plywood Tuesday morning, this is what we could see - a rectangular hole with wooden support joists and pink insulation. Also yellowish insulation. And under the insulation is... cardboard. This is not a sturdy and safe floor, hence the project at hand. 

But back to Monday night; oh, well... hmm... I hadn't thought of the difficulty in cooking. I mean, I knew that the oven and stove would be off-limits (as well as the dishwasher), but I had assumed I would just use the toaster oven or the microwave for a few days. I hadn't considered the dust everywhere and the difficulty in getting to the microwave and the toaster oven, though. (Don't worry; the fridge was plugged in (in the dining room) so we were food safe... although we couldn't make ice).

There was quite a lot of takeout in our home this week. 

And then there were a number of short stages involving various levels of, well, leveling. They cut new plywood and put it down to fill up the holes. They put some cement stuff over that and let it cure overnight, then added thin sheets to level it, put more cement stuff over, and glued down the new linoleum (and put the trim back on the wall). And on the fourth day (that sounds very Genesis, but nothing so dramatic), they reconnected all our appliances, tested them to make sure they a) don't leak, and b) they function properly. 

All in all, it's a very good thing. The only casualties were a single broken egg (while moving the fridge) and a single broken plate (the plastic cup Lizzy pitched into the sink from the other side of the kitchen to avoid the drying floor should not have broken a plate in the said sink!). And possibly to our arteries and pocketbook due to all the takeout. Oh, we tried to get "good" takeout - it was mostly not fried crap - but also not home-cooked fresh food. 

These are acceptable losses. And none of them was their fault in any case.

But regardless, Handy Friend, LLC is an awesome company with awesome people who do awesome work. And that's the important thing.