Firewood

Not sure if this is "Carpentry" but it is covered under the catagory of wood working. To a lot of people there is no better smell or feel than that of burning wood. There are a great deal of wood types and densities all of which are good for certain applications. Shag Bark Hickory is one of the heaviest woods native to North America and is also the best burning wood with a pleasant fragrance and contains the most BTU's heat output of these heavy woods. Softwoods such as Douglas Fir and pines are quick and hot burning which is good for camp fires but they also give off thick moist smoke which can form Creosote in your flue or stove pipe so limit softwood to the job of campfire wood and firestarter. Hardwoods such as Cherry, Poplar, Oak, or Maple to name a few are very plentiful in North America and are the best woods for burning in a Fireplace or Wood stove. They create little ash and minimize the creosote build-up in your flue. Regardless of which wood you decide to burn you should have the flue cleaned and inspected by a knowledgeable person at least once a year.

Wood to burn can come from many sources the easiest and least expense is gathering peices you find on the side of the road. Utility companies and homeowners are trimming trees constantly and free wood to pick up and burn is limitless but you constantly need to be on the look out. Local firewood dealers are another good source for wood to burn and usually it will be pre-seasoned so they drop it off, you stack it, and your ready to go. From logging companies you can order a whole truck of logs to cut, split and season. And some local tree cutting companies will deliver logs that they cut in the area for a small fee of course. After you have a sufficient pile of logs the next step is cutting and splitting. Splitting wood is a chore no matter how you look at it but it can be made a little less troublesome if a friend helps. If you have a voluteer to help you, your best bet would be to get all the logs cut to size by your self with a chain saw and then rent a hydralic log splitter for when your help is available and you should be able to split 4-6 cords of wood in a day with a helper. After your done splitting you can finish out the day utilizing your help and start stacking the wood.

With all woods they need to be seasoned and depending on the species, stacking location, and moisture content the drying time can vary. But a good drying time rule of thumb is 6 months neatly stacked under partial cover. I gather my firewood in the fall and winter and start cutting and splitting and stacking in the winter. Then in the spring and summer when my wood shed is empty form burning all winter I move the wood I gathered last winter under the cover of the wood shed for drying all summer. Then in the late fall the wood is plenty seasoned for burning.

Most impotantly have fun and enjoy the warmth all winter.

Preparing a floor for tile installation

Let's assume you have a bare floor and that all that is there now is 3/4" plywood with the 96" long edge running perpendicular to the floor joists. If the plywood is running in any other direction you will need to take it out or add 75% of the recommended sub floor thickness on top of this improperly installed sub floor. You want this plywood to be clean from glue, dirt, protruding screws or nails. For tile installation the minimum sub floor thickness you want is 1" for tiles smaller than 6" square. For larger tiles  up to 13" square the thickness should be 1 1/4". All of these recommendations are my opinion and what have worked for me this does not guaranty these opinions will work for you. For tiles larger than 13" I recommend a 2" cement layer or a 1 1/2" thick sub floor. So with this all said lets proceed.

So again assuming your floor is bare 3/4" plywood clean all dirt and debris of the floor hammer down any nails that are sticking up and screw down any screws that may be sticking up above the plywood surface. To prevent squeaks under the new floor I screw the plywood to the floor joists every 6 " and within 1" of any existing nails using a 1 5/8" to 2" black coarse thread sheet rock screw. To perform this task I use a Impact driver screw gun if you don't have one you could also use a regular drill you want the drill to have a slower speed around 2000 RPM and a variable speed trigger is preferable in either drill. You can usually tell where the floor joists are by looking at the exiting nails. or when you drive a screw into the plywood the screw will strip out if it did not hit the joist, if it does hit the joist you will feel the torque of the screw grabbing the wood as the screw drives into the wood. Once you suspect where the floor joist may be drive a screw in to see if your right. If you miss back the screw out and try a different spot about an 1" away from the last hole perpendicular to where you think the joist is, repeat this step until you find the joist. Some people like to use a stud finder but in my opinion they are not always accurate. Once you find the joist you can assume that the other joist run parallel to this one at 16" from center to center parallel to this one.

When every joist in the room is screwed every 6" we can move on to the next step. Installing the next layer of plywood. My preferred method is to use 1/2" plywood over the lower 3/4" plywood to achieve a thickness of 1 1/4" and then glue the tile to the 1/2" plywood. If you can afford the extra height a better job would be to install a 1/4" cement tile backer board over the 1/2" plywood which further stiffens the floor and give the tile a better surface with which to bond. When planning out laying the 1/2" plywood it is absolutely necessary for the grain of the plywood or the long side of the uncut 4'x8' sheet to be perpendicular to the floor joists. And also plan the edges of the 1/2" plywood to be offset by at least 16" from the joints below. You don't want any of these joint to land on top of each other. Before the cutting begins sweep the room and vacuum the whole area to prevent any dirt or sawdust from getting trapped between the layers. As you cut these sheets and place them on the floor in the room. Screw them down to the floor joist with 1 5/8" to 2" sheet rock screws putting a few screws on each edge and a few in the middle. Once all the sheets are cut and fit in the room all of these sheets need to be screwed like the 3/4" layer underneath. First screw all of the floor joist every 6" with the 1 5/8" screws and on this layer you need to screw the two layers together with 1 1/4" to 1 5/8" screws every 6" over the whole sheet.

And now you have a sub floor of sufficient strength to install tile.

 

The long and the short of baseboard molding.

Baseboard that lowly molding serves many jobs. Most importantly to beautify the joint between the wall surface and the floor surface. But also to protect the wall from mishaps with feet or furniture and also errant toys. Baseboard is usually attached with nails in residential settings but could be screwed or glued in commercial ones. Most being made of wood but could be rubber, tile, metal, and various other materials. Installation is pretty straight forward cut and install the long peices first and then use the smaller peices to finish up. Inside corners get a cope joint and outside corners get mitred, the end of a run will get a self return and joints in the middle of a run get a scarf joint. A future post titled "Widely used carpentry joints" will detail the different joints used. 

Ray,