This is a joist hung from another. The joist hanger was created in the 1880s. Watch the video to fully understand what's going on.
What do you think was the original joist hanger?
You might be surprised to know that the master carpenters of old figured out how to hang joist using no metal whatsoever.
Watch and see:
Klein Stainless Steel Tumbler | It's the BEST ONE I've ever owned. Order TWO of them! CLICK or TAP HERE to order.
I have tested so many stainless-steel tumblers that come to me as swag that I've lost count.
I almost declined the request to test the Klein Tumbler because I couldn't believe you could improve on what I had seen.
I was WRONG!
I love two things about it in particular:
The diameter and the shape of the tumbler is perfect for my hand. The silicone-rubber outer skin allows you to hold on to it tightly even if the outer skin is wet. This is why car and truck tires are made from rubber, silly! Rubber is what you want if you don't want to slip!
This tumbler is the BEST ONE you'll ever own. If not, I'll buy you an Aglamesis pecande when we meet there at the store. CLICK or TAP HERE to order two of these bad boys.
Yes, I'm about to order a second one in case I lose this one. I use mine every day. In the winter it's filled with hot coffee in the morning. In the summer, it's iced coffee or chocolate milk. I love putting the tumbler in the freezer the night before. This way the cold liquids stay cold for hours and hours.
The orange lid is fantastic. It's leakproof. I've tested it turning it upside down. It's easy to open the flapper to get access to the liquid.
How to Draw Plumbing Plans | This is just a small part of a large set of plumbing plans that goes on 11 x 17 paper! It's also a riser diagram or plumbing isometric that meets or exceeds code. You won't find many that recommend a full-sized vent!
You may want to know how to draw plumbing plans because:
There are other reasons to draw plumbing plans, but those are the most common.
Plumbing plans are much more than just a bunch of lines. You need to have an intimate knowledge of both the plumbing code as well as lots of practical hands-on accumulated plumbing knowledge to ensure the drawings are correct.
Plumbing plans typically show the drain, waste, and vent (DWV) lines. Diseases can be spread in your home if plumbing systems are not installed right. The plumbing inspector reviews your plumbing plans to make sure you know what pipe sizes to use where.
You can try to draw them yourself, but the odds are you'll make all sorts of mistakes. You need to know all about proper venting requirements as well as the correct pipe sizes for both drain and vent lines. It's imperative you understand loop vents as well as flat venting.
First, you'll not be able to get a permit. You'll waste time.
The more serious issue is this: If your plans are wrong and you install the pipes that way, you can have serious drainage issues, your system will not work right, and you could have chronic sewer-gas issues inside your home. The best thing is to just hire a master plumber like me who can draw your plans in a few days or hours if you want.
Yes, I've been a master plumber since 1981 and I draw plumbing plans each week. I'd love to draw yours! I even offer an expedited fast turnaround in case you've waited until the last minute. CLICK or TAP HERE and place your order.
Yes, you can get phone support to help you with your plumbing project. You can also order my Best Plumbing Practices PDF document that contains years of tips and secret tricks. It gives you all you need to know to install drain and vent pipes.
CLICK or TAP HERE to set up a plumbing plans phone coaching call.
You're a new subscriber, aren't you? That explains why you're sitting next to Daphne, Dolly, Doug, Jenny, Marney, Betty, Ken, Shatasha, and a boatload of others that entered the room since last Sunday. Welcome! I think you're going to like the newsletter.
But you, yes you. How long have you subscribed? A week, a year, or maybe 20+ years. Thanks for continuing to stay on my list and open each issue!
Do you perchance remember the column I did about a pavement method that's unfortunately transforming from legend to myth? It's something you should know about. It may still be available in your city or town.
What would you say if I told you I had a stunning brown driveway at my last home? I'm talking about the same driveway Martha Stewart has at her home on Mt. Desert Island in Maine.
The decorating diva owns four or five homes I'm told, but her MDI driveway is the talk of the neighborhood. She and I chose to use a time-tested method. It's one of the ways tens of thousands of miles of public roads were paved between 1900-1930 or so.
CLICK or TAP HERE to see stunning photos of this attractive driveway and how it's installed.
Be SURE to watch the short video on that page.
Are your wooden cooking spoons, bowls, etc. stained by different foods? Here's mine after it got into a cage fight with some blueberries.
CLICK or TAP HERE to see how easy it is to remove the stains with no work. You can also use the magic cleaner to restore ANYTHING in your home that's water washable.
Wait until you see the AFTER photos! You'll think I went out and bought a new spoon.
Last week, I shared how to keep bats out of your attic or other dark spaces.
Maggie, a virtual friend of mine, is a subscriber like you. A few years ago, I helped her and her daughter whitewash their living room fireplace. CLICK or TAP HERE to see Maggie's before, during, and after photos. They used my recipe for REAL whitewash, not FAKE loser thinned milk paint that's an imposter!
Back to bats.
Moments after reading my column, Maggie emailed me with her true MUST-READ bat story!
With her permission, I copied the story and put it at the bottom of last week's bat column.
CLICK or TAP HERE and scroll to the bottom to read it. I'm SERIOUS - you MUST READ her story.
But don't bother reading it if you're good with wasting thousands of dollars and have no fear of dying.
Do you have kids or grandkids? Would you love to howl with laughter while creating lifetime memories?
I thought so! Good for you!
CLICK or TAP HERE to read about you can do this fun summer activity. You'll also discover how I helped set a new record in the state of Florida.
Soon you'll be the captain of your own cardboard boat!
Surely you know about the tragic condo collapse down in southern Florida, right? One-hundred+ people were suddenly sent back up to Heaven.
You're thinking, "Well, I don't live in a condo by the ocean so I've got little to worry about."
Well, you may have LOTS to worry about!
CLICK or TAP HERE to read what I think was the cause of the condo collapse and HOW A COLLAPSE MIGHT HAPPEN AT YOUR HOME!
Kathy and I own STAIN SOLVER. It's an amazing certified organic oxygen bleach made in the USA with USA ingredients. It can clean hundreds of things inside and outside your home.
If you've never tried it, I'm here to tell you you're missing out. Just yesterday, Shirley, a petite retired RN, called me to tell me how fantastic it is to get stains out of her colored blouses and knit tops.
STAIN SOLVER is both color and fabric-safe. CLICK or TAP HERE to get a small sample size to test for yourself.
CLICK or TAP HERE to watch a few SHORT videos of me using STAIN SOLVER. It's very easy to use and we've been told it's the best cleaner known to woman or man.
I wanted to give you a heads up about an upcoming sale. But there's a tiny problem.
First, all of our prices for every aspect of making STAIN SOLVER have gone up. Shipping costs go up quarterly and we offer FREE SHIPPING
Trust me, inflation is real. The causes are intertwined and complex.
It's impossible for us to absorb any more of these costs so we had to do a slight price increase. It's been a few years since we've raised prices, thus to able to continue to make STAIN SOLVER for you we had to adjust prices.
We manufacture 20,000 pounds at a time. This time we're making 279 of our SS50 size. This is a five-gallon pail of STAIN SOLVER.
Our SS50 is the BEST PRICE per pound - by far.
You should consider this size if you want to DEFEAT the price increase!!!! Buy one and share it with a friend, neighbor, relative, co-worker, etc.
Did you know if you freeze or keep STAIN SOLVER cold it can last indefinitely. Heat degrades STAIN SOLVER.
As soon as the product is made, hopefully by next Friday, we'll announce a PRE-SALE.
But, I fully expect we might SELL OUT of the 279 pails in days. The demand for that size is soaring.
You MUST REACT IMMEDIATELY to the PRE-SALE if you want one of the SS50 pails.
That's enough for a Sunday.
Next week is an apparel issue. I'll be sharing a tale about a very cool one-of-a-kind baseball cap my son helped design. Wait until you see the photo of it. I'm also going to share the website where we ordered the cap. You can do what we did and order your own custom full-color embroidered hat! I'll be sure to tell you about the FlexFit feature of my new cap.
I'm also going to feature some of my socks. My youngest daughter enrolled me in a socks club for Father's Day. Each month, some really FUN sock prizes arrive in the mail. Wait until you see the first two pairs. I was so excited and it will make sense when you see them!
Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
BEST CLEANER - www.StainSolver.com
Airwaves Boss - www.W3ATB.com
Do It Right, Not Over!
P.S. I like to do old-fashioned division and multiplication problems using a pencil and paper to ward off brain deterioration. Tropical Storm Elsa just blew over my house and dumped 2 inches of rain. How many pounds of water do you think fell from the sky onto the square mile that surrounds my house? Don't ask Alexa or Siri!
CLICK or TAP HERE and be amazed. I swear you'll think I made a mistake. Trust me, I double-checked my figures.
Here's rain water inside a new house. How much rain is floating around up in the sky? (C) Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
I like to do arithmetic problems the way I was taught in grade school. I still use a pencil and paper.
The goal is to keep my brain sharp. It's one of the reasons I like doing Morse code too.
My favorite pencils to use are Blackwing Naturals. CLICK or TAP HERE to order them. They're unbelievable.
Step One: You need to find out how many square feet are in a square mile.
Step Two: You need to calculate the decimal equivalent of 2 inches as it relates to a foot.
Step Three: You need to calculate how many cubic feet of water fall when 2 inches of rain falls on a square mile.
Step Four: You then multiply the cubic feet of water by 62.4. That's how many pounds a cubic foot of water weighs.
Two Hundred and Eighty-Eight + MILLION pounds of water.
HOLY TOMATO! Amazing all that weight is up in the atmosphere and there's are TRILLIONS of pounds of rain in a giant storm system!
This brain teaser was featured in the July 11, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter.
Do you need DIY coaching? Are you stuck with a:
Ask the Builder founder Tim Carter will call you on the phone or do a video call and become your DIY coach.
CLICK or TAP HERE to set up the call with Tim.
Read these testimonials:
"The 15-minute consult we had regarding my chimney crown replacement was a small price and worth every penny considering that estimates for the crown and chimney work were between $3000 and $4000. Your review of the estimates was insightful as you noted ambiguous statements and issues that would have left me exposed to additional "unknown" costs. Finally, your assistance with specifications for how the crown should be built was also helpful." - Chris W., Cincinnati, OH
# # #
"Tim, did I get my money's worth in consulting with you? You bet I did!
Here's a list of what I discovered from you in just 15 minutes:
1. How to cut pipe square2. How to properly measure pipe length3. The importance of seating joints all the way4. The proper sequence for installing pipe and fittings5. The importance of sighting and dry fitting pipe and joints6. To be humble and ask for help when I don't know what I'm doing7. To have a beer when the job is successfully completed (that was your BEST advice!)." - Bill Stannis
"Hello, Tim --
It was wonderful to talk to you and I am so grateful for your expert advice. We both know you have saved me thousands of dollars.
You didn't overload me. I took notes on everything you said, and you explained things very well and logically. Now I can sleep at night and not worry about this.
I am so grateful to you. And I'll be consulting you for every house project we do.
Thank you so very much." Lynn Cavalletto
CLICK or TAP HERE to set up a call with Tim.
Are you going to be pouring a concrete sidewalk, driveway, patio or apron slab soon?
Do you know you get ONE CHANCE to get it right?
Is your contractor going to botch the job and your new concrete spall or develop ugly random cracks?
How do you know it's going to be done right? Are you a concrete expert?
I didn't think so. That's where I step in to help you save THOUSANDS of dollars!
Why not invest just $10 up front and KNOW that your concrete work will last decades longer than it would have otherwise?
CLICK or TAP HERE now and download my Concrete Sidewalk/Slab specifications now. It's an INSTANT DOWNLOAD PDF document.
You get to see one of my original watercolor drawings! Peach might even be impressed!
As with all my AsktheBuilder.com products, your satisfaction is GUARANTEED. If you don't think the specifications will help you or you don't discover something you didn't know, just ask for a FULL REFUND.
Thanks,
Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
Surfside City Condo Collapse | This is a piece of rusty rebar inside concrete. As the rebar rusts, it expands and fractures the concrete exposing the rebar to even more moisture. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
This past weekend, my wife asked me all sorts of questions about the tragic sudden collapse of the 40-year-old condominium building near Miami, Florida. We’ve dated since high school and she knows I’ve got a geology degree instead of one in structural, chemical, or metallurgical engineering. All four of these sciences, and maybe a few more, are in play as more facts become available about the deadly condo calamity.
Why is this important to you? After all, you may not live in a condominium or a high-rise building. The early reports coming out indicate the issue might be weakened concrete as well as unstable soil under the structure. Once again, it’s going to take many months to do a forensic autopsy on this catastrophe. Keep in mind that much of what you see now in the news is speculation and past reports from consultants need to be combed through to pick out what signs there were that pointed to an impending disaster.
CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from LOCAL Structural Engineers if you're worried about things at your home.
My nearly fifty years of building experience coupled with an eye-opening editors conference twenty-plus years ago put on by the Portland Cement Association provide me with an insight that should put your head on a swivel. It’s rare to have a house collapse, but hundreds of thousands of homeowners just like you experience costly damage to your homes because of what might have caused the collapse of the condos.
Let’s first talk about concrete. The condo building was built using concrete and reinforcing steel within the concrete. Concrete is man-made rock. When mixed, placed, and cured properly, it can have tremendous compressive strength. This means it requires thousands of pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure to fracture it. It’s not uncommon for this PSI strength to be in excess of 4,000 pounds.
This is a cast concrete guardrail in Cincinnati, OH that’s just under 100 years old. It’s in excellent shape other than the cement paste has worn off revealing the small aggregate stone chips. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
However, this same exact concrete only has on average one-tenth the amount of strength in tension than it has in compression. Tension happens when you stretch something. A concrete slab suspended in between two beams will experience tension on the underside of the slab when you put weight on top of the slab. This same issue holds for ceramic tile, stone countertops, etc. Tile will crack if you step on it and there’s a hollow spot under it.
Steel, though, is a magical building material. It has tremendous tensile strength. The average rebar you might buy at a building supply house or home center is normally rated at 40,000 PSI. You can order it with a 60,000 PSI, or higher, rating!
This is why reinforcing steel is used in concrete construction. It brings to the party the tensile strength missing within the concrete itself.
But normal reinforcing steel has an Achilles’ heel. It can and does rust. When steel rusts, it expands. The expansion force is slow and considerable and it creates tension within the concrete surrounding the rebar.
Rusty angle irons holding up brick above windows can expand so much they push the brick out away from the wall. Rusty rebar in concrete can expand so much it causes chunks of concrete to fall out of an overhead slab or to fall off an important support column.
CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from LOCAL Structural Engineers if you're worried about rusted metal at your home!
But wait, it gets worse. Salt accelerates the rust or corrosion of unprotected steel. This is why you often see concrete bridge decks and supports under highway bridges in such bad shape in cold climates. The rock salt used for snow and ice control seeps into the concrete as the salty meltwater soaks into the concrete. This brine attacks the steel if it’s not protected.
Look at how saltwater can rust steel. This was painted steel and the ASTM 8117 scratch test! The piece on the left was painted with Rustoleum. The piece on the right was with XO Rust paint. CLICK or TAP HERE to buy XO Rust paint.
The Miami condo was just a couple hundred feet the ocean for goodness sake. Talk to any builder or remodeler who works near the ocean or a salt-water sea and they’ll have all sorts of tales about how fast poorly protected steel lasts in those conditions. This is not new. Mariners have long known that the sea eats men and iron!
Yes, you can purchase coated rebar, but you need to buy a large quantity. You may have seen epoxy-coated rebar being used on road and bridge construction projects. The coating is usually a light lime green. The rebar is almost always precut, prebent, etc. So the entire surface of the steel is coated. This is not practical for jobs in a typical residential application. Coated rebar could have prevented the collapse if it's determined that rusting rebar caused the catastrophic failure.
Building codes are a set of minimum standards. When you build something that just meets code, it's like getting a 70 percent on a test. You can always build better than the code. Keep in mind that local cities and towns can modify the model building codes. Local code officials can lower or raise standards of different aspects of the code.
Another chronic problem is inspections. The structural aspects of that condo may have not been inspected as thoroughly as one might like. Old newspaper stories across the USA are littered with accounts of corruption in building departments where inspectors are paid to look the other way.
Yes, you can buy special rebar that's an alloy of different elements. You may have seen highway bridges that are made from something similar. The giant steel beams are rusted and the corrosion stops at that point. A new bridge near my home here in central New Hampshire had this special steel rebar in the concrete.
Once again, it's usually not practical to use this special rebar in a typical residential application. Just take an hour or two and paint it. Keep reading.
This is why you or your builder should paint rebar before it’s installed in concrete. Yes, this is an extra step, but it’s not that hard to paint it. The paint can be rolled on, sprayed, or even brushed. It’s best to use a special metal primer, then a finish coat of paint.
Here's a great newer paint that's got the primer built in. This saves you TIME AND MONEY. CLICK HERE TO ORDER THIS PAINT. It comes in many colors. While you're buying this paint at Amazon, be SURE TO GET all the other tools you need in the following list.
All of the above also applies to simple decks as well. The internet is littered with stories and videos of tragic deck collapses. The nails, bolts, structural hangers, etc. in your deck are subject to rust. The treated lumber contains lots of copper that leach out with each rainfall. This chemical brew is similar to the salt water that probably is the root cause of the condo collapse. The copper-laced water accelerates the corrosion of all steel that’s part of your deck.
CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from LOCAL Structural Engineers if you're worried about your deck collapsing.
How do you prevent collapse or rust damage at your home? Use the best metal parts for outdoor decks that have a thick galvanized coating. Use hot-dipped galvanized nails or screws, stainless-steel nails or screws, paint all reinforcing steel and do whatever else is required so the iron or steel inside and outside your home doesn’t rust. It’s really that simple.
Column 1412
If you're a new subscriber and you speak Greek, I'd say "Teekanis" to you right now. You'd probably reply, "Cala!" Yes, yes, I know I butchered both words, but it's what my Greek bosses would say to me when I came to work each day at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati. Bottom Line: Hello! Bring more cheese out here to the steam table.
I'm actually writing about all my experiences at Skyline Chili in a book I'm producing for my youngest daughter. What we did with ice balls will make you roar with laughter. The restaurant had a Scotsman machine that made wonderful small cube ice that was perfect to make ice balls the size of baseballs. Use your imagination. But I digress!
That said, you may be a long-time subscriber who enjoys taking a stroll down memory lane with me each week. Years ago in the early days of Ask the Builder, I was in my office one morning thinking about a new column to write.
All of a sudden a memory of me sneaking into my Mom's bedroom while she was downstairs sloshed around in my tiny gray cells. I would slowly lift the lid to her lowboy cedar chest, bend over, and slowly inhale with my eyes closed. I loved that intoxicating aroma.
Not too many years after that, I'd also slowly inhale with some of my girlfriends, especially those that wore a perfume that smells like the current Indecent brand. I know, TMI!
As for my Mom's cedar chest, it's now in my possession and I'd never give it up.
It turns out I was in this minuscule minority of ten people in the USA who happened to like cedar chests and closets. That column turned out to be the biggest flop of Ask the Builder history!
CLICK or TAP HERE to read it and discover lots about aromatic cedar and how you can restore it! Aromatic cedar is a winner and it's still available.
Do you like being told what to do knowing that if you don't do it you'll be punished? I didn't think so. Our Founding Fathers here in the USA didn't much care for it either and they kicked tyrannical King George and his liege lord buddies to the curb 245 years ago.
July 4, 1776 - a day that should forever live in world history as the birth of true freedom and liberty.
How smart our Founders were! They understood that we have unalienable rights given to us by God, not some other man who happens to wear a crown and is surrounded by sellswords who pledge their fealty just because the powerful man (king) provides them food, shelter, and allows them to keep their heads on their shoulders.
Do you know what unalienable means? It means impossible to be taken away. Yet right now, there are quite a few people around you trying to tell you what to do, when you can do it, and doing their best to slowly strip you of your unalienable rights all while they distract you.
That's not a polite thing to do at a birthday party for goodness sake!
I suggest we take a big piece of birthday cake and smash it in their faces! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Or better yet, we can use a shaving cream pie so we don't waste the tasty birthday cake. Most definitely we do NOT want to throw mocha chip ice cream at these bad folk. That frozen delicacy needs to be in our stomachs!
Enjoy the day and try to reflect on what July 4th in the USA really means. It's not all about hot dogs, brats, and fireworks.
If you want to really grasp what's in play and happening each day right here in the USA, and your country too if you're not a US citizen, watch this short video clip and start to read the first book in the series.
"...There is no middle ground."
Gulp.
Really focus on the last two sentences Cersei says to Ned. Focus on the emotion and determination in her voice.
Cersei - you absolutely don't want to be on her bad side.
My son has a 3D printer and has made some amazing things with it. If you can dream it, software can help you design it, and a precision printer can create your vision in hours.
But what about upping your game? Use a printer that oozes mortar and create a house. There's lots of gushing going on about these 3D printed houses, but as often is the case, you're hearing and seeing just half the truth.
And you know the old saying, right?
A half-truth is a whole lie.
CLICK or TAP HERE to discover the not-so-pleasant underbelly of 3D printed houses. Yes, the moniker my kids have given me continues to live on.
As they grew up, they affectionately labeled me as the Dream Crusher.
I would retort, "You know nothing. I'm the Truth Teller."
Bats have been given a pretty bad wrap by Hollywood wouldn't you say? You almost always see them in horror movies.
Think how many mosquito bites you'd have if they weren't flapping around each summer night.
I remember as a kid being fascinated by bats as they'd swoop around just above the heads of my neighborhood buddies and me on those sultry and steamy summer nights. We'd try to stay out after dark as long as we could soaking up all that was wonderful in our tiny world of blinking fireflies on Riddle View Lane.
Bats are like us and they do need to rest. If you're like most, you don't want them creating Zzzzzzs up in your attic.
CLICK or TAP HERE to discover an unorthodox and inexpensive way to make sure bats don't get their mail at your house!
That's quite enough for a holiday weekend.
I suggest you reflect on whether or not it's such a good idea to pledge your fealty to those that want to tell you what to do.
As George C. Scott said in the open of the famous movie Patton, "The thought of it is hateful."
Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
Best Darn Cleaner - www.StainSolver.com
106 Record FD Contacts - www.W3ATB.com
Do It Right, Not Over!
P.S. How did you do last week in the fun Rechargeable Battery quiz? Were you in the vast majority that want a fantastic affordable charger that RESTORES to like-new condition worn-out rechargeable batteries? Who were the folks that said "No"? Crazy!
Build a Cardboard Boat | I used about 50 of these bumper stickers to help win the prize!
I was lucky to be part of the team that was destined to build a cardboard boat that set a Florida state record. The year, I believe, was 1999.
Mike Mangan, the public relations manager for Sears, invited me to my first ever Sears Editors Conference in Clearwater Beach, Florida.
Mike always held the event in June of each year as it was the peak of the low season and no doubt he got a fantastic rate on booking 100, or more, rooms for all the editors, vendors, and Sears brand managers that attended the event.
The events were typically held at the same beachfront hotel that was easily a 4-star hotel conference center. It was deluxe.
Before I give you the details of the cardboard boat-building contest, allow me to set the stage.
The Sears Editors Conferences were the best put on of any I attended over the 20-year span of time when I attended conferences hosted by manufacturers. These events allowed manufacturers to get the undivided attention of members of the working press. The Sears conferences were a three-day event filled with a perfect mix of work and play.
The first day of the conference was an evening mixer usually set up in a nice grassy area by the outdoor swimming pool. There was always plenty of food and drink and you'd rub shoulders with other editors and industry peers. All of the Sears brand managers and representatives who made the tools we'd see the next day were also mingling to get our ears and win favor with us so we'd feature their products in our publications.
The next morning the conference would start at 8 AM sharp in a giant room in the bowels of the hotel. These rooms were built for conferences, wedding receptions, etc. The space always had a U-shaped table setup where all of us editors would sit at. Around the edges of the room all of the new tools were on display at different tables and hand-on stations.
There were so many new tools to look at, that each one was only given about 10 minutes or so. It was an intense four hours of information overload and then lunch was served. After that we'd see a few more tools and there was always a hands-on portion where you could touch, feel, and use some of the tools.
Mike always let us have the afternoon off. He typically had two organized events you might choose to do, or you could just chill on your own in your room or down by the pool.
This first year, one of the events was build a cardboard boat. I was most curious about this and decided to join in the activity.
I believe we had to meet down by the pool at 3 PM on the smallish grassy lawn area adjacent to the pool where the mixer the night before was held. The hotel activity director, with Mike's help, had already decided who was going to be on what team. I think there were four teams of about five or six people on a team.
I was fortunate to be on Larry Eisinger's team. Larry was the true father of the home-improvement movement. He was a veteran of WW II, a pilot, and after surviving the war he moved to Staten Island, NY getting involved in the publishing industry. CLICK or TAP HERE to see a huge selection of many of the books Larry either authored, co-authored, or edited.
He became the editor for Fawcett publishing and they were cranking out how-to books at a blistering pace for WW II vets who were building things like CRAZY at their homes for their new young families.
Larry actually wrote a book about how he and his wife built their own new home on Staten Island. It's tragic that more of Larry's story is not curated. Larry and I became great friends at this conference as his weekly newspaper column was being syndicated by the same company as mine, Tribune Media Services.
It just so happened that Larry was a sailor and he was an excellent illustrator. He took charge immediately of our team.
Each team was given the exact same things to build their boat. I believe it was three 4x8 sheets of heavy cardboard, two 30-inch pieces of 3/4-inch PVC pipe, and a few rolls of tape, two Craftsman tape measures, and a few Sears razor knives. Sitting on a table off to the side was a secret building material that was available but not really mentioned. This was by design. It was a tall stack of Sears bumper stickers. I don't need to tell you that bumper stickers are waterproof!
The hotel activity director gathered us all around and said, "Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this fun team activity. You each have your materials and your task is to build any boat you want. Two of your team must get in the boat once built at the shallow end of the pool. You then have to paddle to the deep end touching the edge of the pool. Then you must return to the shallow end. Those on the team with the fastest time win a special prize. You have 45 minutes to build your boat. Good luck."
There was a burst of chatter among all the teams. Larry, being the senior member of the team, oozed respect. He drew a fast sketch of a simple canoe for our five-member team. He then assigned tasks to get things done. It was my job to build the paddles.
I knew that the secret to victory was to make a paddle that wouldn't turn to mush. I'd need two or three layers of cardboard to make it stiff and I needed to somehow make it water-resistant. That's when I glanced over and saw the bumper stickers on an unattended table ten feet away. I sauntered over and took a stack about 3/4-inch thick. No one else seemed to even give a hoot about the stickers. It was mayhem there in the grassy area as the other teams were frantically trying to build their boats. That was fine by me.
I didn't want to give away our secret, so I wandered away from the crowd with all I needed to build the paddles. Twenty minutes later, I was finished and they were completely covered with CRAFTSMAN red, black, and white bumper stickers - two layers to ensure no water could get to the cardboard!
Larry and my other team members did a marvelous job on the canoe Larry designed. It turns out Larry had written a book about building boats. It was serendipity!
The 45 minutes went by in a flash. There were four teams if my memory serves me right. They were picked at random to enter the pool. The first team successfully got in their boat and started to flail about. Within 20 seconds their paddles fell apart. I was grinning the entire time.
The second team didn't even get to try to paddle. As they tried to get into their boat, the keel buckled, the boat sank, and the two people got drenched. Everyone was howling with laughter.
The third team did a magnificent job watching how to gingerly get into their boat. Off they went across the pool to the other end, they turned, and got back to the shallow end. Victory for them!
Larry then said almost in a whisper to our two sailors, "Remember, when you get to the other side do NOT turn around. Just start to paddle in reverse."
My team launched and the paddles worked like real ones. They didn't transform into pieces of sliced cheddar cheese staying stiff the entire time. Our two marine explorers touched the far end of the pool and were back to the starting line in 43 seconds I believe.
"We've got a NEW RECORD time," the hotel activity director announced. It turns out we had beaten all previous times for this event. The activity director went on to tell us that the cardboard boat-building activity is the most popular thing he does for conferences. I couldn't agree more.
It's really a fun team exercise and if you ever get to do it, look around for the bumper stickers!
The night of the second day there was a feast on the beach under a giant tent. Food and drink were abundant. There was a live band and you could dance. It was always a spectacular evening with tiki torches setting the perfect mood.
Because some drank too much, the morning of the third day had a shorter show-and-tell of new tools. I always felt sorry for those Sears vendors because most of the editors had a serious hangover. The event was over at 11:30 AM and Sears provided box lunches to all so you could eat as your limousine shuttled you to the airport for the flight home.
I was really lucky to attend the last of the Sears Editors Conferences. It was a golden time of being a member of the home improvement press. I'm afraid now that all too many companies have found out that ZOOM virtual conferences are so much cheaper. It might be a very long time before a conference like Mike used to do for Sears happens again. If you're invited, by all means go and thank your lucky stars.
This story was shared in the July 11, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter.
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