Monday, April 22, 2013

The Cottage View


After reading about the screen slated for removal, and the marquee and magnificent, larger-than-life, neon sign coming down the following day, I began to mull-over thoughts of a trip to the Cottage View Drive-In Theater in Cottage Grove, MN.
Mind you, I have no personal attachment to the that drive-in, but being a fan in general, and having visited it several times during the day on various trips through, each time noting the compounding neglect, I figured now was as good a time as any. So last Wednesday I left work at 11, rushed home, changing cars along the way, grabbed my camera, some Dr. Pepper for the road, and aimed the Blazer for Janesville to fill up the tank and top-off the tires. 

As is my style, I took the county blacktops and older state highways up to St. Paul. It was a beautiful day for a drive, and upon arrival, I noticed the twin entry/exit lanes were occupied by various semi trailers and utility vehicles. The major portion of the sign had just been lowered into place and attachment points were being welded to the top and bottom for support.



I strolled around and snapped a few pics and eventually decided to approach the one man not wearing a workers’ uniform. See, here’s the thing. This drive-in has been at risk for closing for the last several seasons. Dare I say half a decade. As a twin-cities suburb, urban sprawl had made its way right up to the backlot of the theater. The neighboring housing development literally towers above the main lot as the parking area was built on a flat lower than the surrounding embankment.


And let’s be honest, you can tell the writing was on the wall. The speakers had mostly disappeared, lights were falling apart, the ticket booth could have used some paint. Having known this for years in advance, I was going to see about trying to save a few artifacts, legally, that I could re-purpose for my drive-in.

So I approached the man standing there and learned that he and his wife were actually the long-time managers and were there to see the sign come down. No real emotion was expressed by him, but  the community had been rallying via facebook and there were other cars that had made a point to stop along the main road and snap a few photos.

The bad news is that I came home empty handed…but the reason is the good news. The sign, the screen, the projection equipment, and according to this fellow, the light fixtures I came to see about, are all being saved and transported to Hastings, MN.  A fellow with much land and apparently, deep pockets, has been rescuing endangered history, including churches and old-time jails according to his website. Visitors are invited each year for an old time power show as well. www.littleloghouseshow.com

Meanwhile, it occurs to me how we lost our own Hillcrest Drive-in back in ’00, and how social media didn’t really exist back then. Apparently, I provided a few photos to ‘drive-in jim’.  http://www.drivein-jim.net/cory.html  Wouldn’t it have been interesting if we had a Save The Hillcrest FB page with 18k hits. Not that it would have affected the outcome any. These decisions to sell-out are pretty much a done-deal before word ever gets out to the public.

Before leaving, I made a point of navigating to the upper neighborhoods, found a nice spot to park, and made my way down to the gravel to snap a few last photos.



And so, while I returned sans-fixtures, it was a gorgeous day for a drive, and rather than make excuses about this place being 4 hours north, at least I can say ‘I tried’.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Bamboo Installation Instructions for Those Considering Similar



When designing my new lab, I wanted to make a grand interior statement that would also delineate the entry area from the rest of the open upstairs. For economy purposes, the majority of the upstairs ceiling is drywall, so what does that leave as an alternative? Well, wood for one. I looked at pine T&G planks, the old standby. After spending hours picking through the boards at the local box store, and paying almost $1 per linear foot, and hauling it all home, I realized that even with the warmest finish I could find, the ceiling would still exude a cabin feel. Not the vibe I was going for. But not only that, there’d still be the knots, voids, and sap-weeping to deal with, and then the cost and time of finishing 200+ sq ft of the stuff. No, there must be something better. I looked at “prefinished tongue and groove planks” which turned out to be a composite of chip board and glue wrapped in a woodgrain decal. Umm, no. What else?

Pre-Work:
So I started doing some research about installing flooring on the ceiling. Answers were few and far between. Examples exist of people doing this, but tech forums are split on the subject. Apparently the idea is too much to handle for some. What I eventually deduced was that floating floors are out, for obvious reasons. Composite and laminate floors are made of layers that expand/contract at different rates and even though some are rated for a nail-down application, I wanted a homogenous material to avoid as much risk as possible; if a plank comes loose on the floor, fine. If it comes loose on your ceiling, now we have a problem. Same goes for “engineered floors” which are a veneer over a substrate material.

I had a look at the floor section at Menards and found some tongue and groove Honey Bamboo flooring that looked very appealing. Best of all it was pre-finished and on sale. Compared to pre-finished solid wood, it was a bargain at  under $3 sq/ft.

Now, I had two new problems…1) How to attach the planks. And…2) My joists are 24” OC while the planks are 37-3/4 long.

In reality, if I had 16” OC joist spacing and had confidence that the joists were perfectly straight (such as TJI’s), it would have been possible to attach the bamboo directly to the joists. This would have worked great in a basement. However, I wasn’t comfortable with the joint spacing, my joists were traditional 2x10’s so I couldn’t guarantee flatness, and this ceiling is also the underside of the insulated and vented roof (flat roof), so I had some concerns about where my dew point would form.

The solution? I decided to install 7/16” OSB over my joists as a base. This would help seal out potential dust and drafts that might work through the joints, provide a solid face to accept glue, create a thermal break, and allow shimming and adjustment between the OSB and planks if things got really bad. I attached the OSB using small square-drive trim screws of sufficient length to penetrate well into the joists, making sure the heads sat flush (or slightly recessed) with the OSB. Any panel joints that didn’t fall over a joist received blocking to keep the edges flat. I could have used sheetrock but I planned on both gluing and pinning the planks with my brad nailer and in my experience,  sheetrock would never hold the brads. Ultimately, straightness and flatness were the goal.

How to Attach:
The last thing I want to do is have these planks loosen up and break free years from now. Granted, they’re T&G which provides some assurance, but ultimately a failure of consecutive rows would result in a real mess. So…glue and brads. Using glue ensures the majority of plank area forms at least some kind of bond with the OSB it makes contact with; imperfect voids are filled. The brads do 2 things- they keep the plank in place until the glue sets, and they provide backup in case the glue fails someday.

So what glue? I ran a test with three of the most likely candidates I could find- Liquid Nails-Heavy Duty, Loctite PowerGrab All-Purpose, and Loctite PowerGrab Molding. All promised “instant grab” and were designed for attaching wood to most anything. All came in caulk tubes. The test consisted of gluing plank samples to a strip of OSB screwed to the ceiling and evaluating for various properties, both initially and after 24 hours. I won’t go into all the details, but Liquid Nails won out for quickest initial setting, strongest breakaway bond, lowest cost and it’s available in the large size caulk tubes. This is what I proceeded with for the project.

Layout:
First thing you’ll want to do is acclimate your material to the surrounding environment; I staged my bamboo for a couple weeks in advance. Meanwhile, consider your layout. Which direction do you want the planks to run? If you put up an OSB base, you can run them whichever direction you like. I suppose you could run them diagonal, but be advised, bamboo is tricky to cut if not with the grain. A high-speed, fine-toothed blade in a miter saw helps. For cutting around can lights and openings, use painters tape to prevent splintering (actually the bamboo fibers tear free and ruin the surface like pulling a thread from a sweater). A fine-tooth jigsaw will do the trick. For semi-circular cuts, approach from each direction and meet in the middle.

After you’ve picked the direction to run your planks, consider the room width. Classic floor layout rules apply here. You don’t want 3 full sections and a 2” piece. Better to have 2 full sections and split the difference out of 2 remaining sections. The “scraps” could be used to lead off the next row to stagger your joints. Ultimately, it’s an aesthetic decision to avoid a “zipper” look. Keep in mind the short edges of the planks are also tongue and groove so plan accordingly. It’s important to do this up front so you’ll also know how much scrap you’ll end up with. Knowing this in advance means you won’t need to run out mid-project for additional bamboo that may not be from the same lot.

Squareness:
Consider where you’ll start with your first row. Measure all 4 wall lengths up at the ceiling to see if one is longer than another. Use a framing square to determine a square corner for reference. Ultimately, I found my room width was consistent, but that one of the long walls was ¾” longer than the other over 24’. I determined that 3 of my corners were square so I knew where the ¾ gap was going to end up. BUT, in my case it made more sense to pivot the entire assembly out from the long wall starting corner by 3/8 and split the difference. Like the old adage- better straight than level.

Reference Line:
After you’ve got your pattern decided and figured out your squareness and starting point, it’s time to snap a starting chalk line. Getting the first couple rows of flooring in perfectly straight is important. It’s tough enough to do on a floor, but this time you’re fighting gravity, too. I did something a little different. My plank width was 4” including the tongues. I snapped my chalkline from 0” at one corner to 3/8” off the wall at the other corner, then I measured 4” out from this line and screwed my 6’ level to it. Now I could apply adhesive to the bamboo planks, stick them to the ceiling, and pull them tight against my level (checking to see that the groove edge of the planks were in line with the chalkline). After the glue set, I unscrewed the level and moved it down for the remaining pieces of the first row (since my row was longer than 6’). A long, straight 1x4 or 1x6 would do nicely for long distances. NOTE: If you attempt to brad nail this row through its tongue shortly after gluing the pieces up, they will shift. Avoid the temptation. If you brad nail through the face, you’ll probably splinter the planks. Apply firm pressure to each piece for 10-20sec and let setup for an hour or two. You might also be tempted to pull the level and continue with the install, but everything will shift if you try to pin the second row without letting the first setup, so just wait.

Continuing On:
With the first row set, pull down the level (or board) and proceed.

I like to put a couple brads through the tongue of each piece after tapping them home with a scrap of bamboo and my framing hammer. Make sure the first row doesn’t shift when tapping the second row home. Even pinned boards will move if the glue hasn’t cured. As you accumulate more rows, the combination of total glued surface area and multiple brads will make it much easier to tap the next plank home without fear of shifting. When choosing brad locations, look for the low spots along the plank when fitted to the previous row. If one joist is higher than the others and the OSB creates a gap at that point, then don’t pin your plank there or your bamboo will follow the curve of the ceiling instead of laying flat.

I left an 1/8” gap along the long walls for expansion. As you select your next piece of bamboo, look for surface imperfections and bowing. Reject any that will cause you grief. Also take a look at lot-to-lot color. Intermix pieces from different lots whenever possible or you’ll end up with obvious striations.

Do yourself a favor and set up a card table or other work surface ahead of time. I found it easier to keep a pile of pre-cut lengths in one pile, light full length planks in another, and dark full length planks in a 3rd stack. To save time, it’s easier to choose the next several pieces, lay them face down on the table, apply your adhesive (1/4 beads) and then stage them where they can be easily reached to avoid multiple trips up and down the ladder. Better yet, have a second person doing the selecting and applying the glue while you do the install (or vice versa). And if you decide to take a break, be sure to wipe excess glue from above the tongue of the last installed row to prevent interference when you resume your install.

Keeping it True:
As you proceed, continue to check for flatness. Like a brick mason keeping each course level, over long runs you may have to adjust the fit of individual planks to maintain straightness of each row as tolerances stack up. Most of the rules for installing bamboo on the floor hold true, but beware that most bamboo trim isn’t real bamboo at all, but rather MDF strips covered with bamboo decals. In my application, this wouldn’t do, so I went with oak and found a complimenting stain. If this makes a difference to you, check it out beforehand.

And that’s it!  Good Luck!

A shot of one of the areas now featuring bamboo. Sorry for the narrow field of view; stepping back any further resulted in the ceiling being 'out of plane'..like taking a picture of the wall to get the ceiling. Yeah, I like low ceilings.











Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Spring


Seems like forever since I’ve posted, but things have been busy here the last month or so. I’ve made a big push to get all things interior-related with CS3 finished up before 1 April. This has meant evening construction practically every day, even with my Snap routine. It’s also meant a hard-core return to the To-Do list which, without, had days slipping by without progress. If you can track it and cross it off, you push to get it done.

So we’re 3 days into April.  There’s 4 of 8 front windows left to stain and the trim (already stained) is ready to go up around them. There’s a door to paint, but it has to be warm out because the thing has to be open to get painted. Some WIDE trim to cover the interior balcony edge (what’s it going to be?) And the false beam to finish (the prework blocking is now done). However, I’ve been equally busy on the exterior so I’m still on even ground. The soffits are completely finished. The soffit can lights are in and wired up and the trims are painted. The remaining roof “foam” job is done. The Remcraft floodlight unit is in. I’ve got 24’ of front over hang insulated (24’ more to go). And the profile for the front steel fascia has been submitted to Menards to be bent.

Anyhow, there’s lots of non-CS3 things that will need my attention this weekend if the weather holds. The Lodge clerestories and triangle windows all need cleaning (while I’ve got the picker), and the triangles will need their yearly seal inspection. The cement deck will need a hose-down and seal. The wood side deck needs a powerwash and a repaint. The cone lights need removal and painting (they’re aluminum and have their original paint). The ‘birds beak’ needs final trimout (now that I have a brake). Plus the roof and fascia inspection. Foundation painting. Metal railing painting. And more, I’m sure.

Plus it’s that time of year to take the plastic down from the kitchen/laundry area and do a big spring cleaning. Knock out the cobwebs, vac and scrub the floors, get the place ready for another season. Yeah, we may not be out of the woods yet with the overnight temps, but I’ve had enough.