Buying A Home? Don't Panic! with John Laforme

Hardwood Floors With Kevin" Im A Floor Guy" Lehouillier From Colonial Floor Service of Pepperell Massachusetts

July 09, 2022 John Laforme / Kevin Lehouillier Season 1 Episode 26
Buying A Home? Don't Panic! with John Laforme
Hardwood Floors With Kevin" Im A Floor Guy" Lehouillier From Colonial Floor Service of Pepperell Massachusetts
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Show Notes Transcript

In this podcast episode I am joined by an old friend Kevin Lehouillier who fired me for being late when i worked for him when i was a young lad. True story! Well Kevin has been in the hardwood floor business for over 40 years in Pepperell Massachusetts. Kevin explains the flooring process for all of us.

About Colonial Floor Service:

We are wood floor specialists! Unlike some other flooring contractors that service all types of floors, we specialize ONLY in wood floors. Colonial Floor Service is the company to call for all your Middlesex County MA hardwood floor service needs.

"I firmly believe in providing a professional and expertly driven service to my customers. Every flooring project is treated as if it were my own. With Colonial Floor Service of Pepperell, you can count on a beautifully finished wood floor to enjoy for many years to come!"

Our Services

Expert Wood Floor Installation, including 2-1/4" Strip and Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring, Pre-Finished Flooring, Engineered Wood Flooring, Parquet Flooring, Custom Borders, Herringbone, Staircases, and more
Wood Floor Refinishing, including Sanding, Finishing, Commercial Water Based Finishes, Oil Based Polyurethane Finishes, Staining and Color Matching
Wood Floor Repairs

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John Laforme
Certified CREIA Inspector Member #0155263
Home Inspection Authority LLC

Former President of CREIA Mid Valley Chapter
Former Vice President of CREIA Mid Valley Chapter 


Contact Kevin "Im A Floor Guy" Lehouillier Directly:

978-433-6480

colonialfloorservice@gmail.com

https://www.colonialfloorservice.com/

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John Laforme:

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast Alright everybody, welcome back to another episode of home inspection of authorities Straight Talk podcast with me, John laforme. Im a CREIA certified home inspector from Los Angeles, California. And the topics we discuss on this podcast are about buying homes selling homes, inspecting homes. So if you're a home inspector, home buyer, real estate professional, this podcast is definitely for you. Alright, everybody, we're back. And today I have with us the one and only Kevin Lehouillier from colonial floor service. What's up, Kev?

Kevin Lehouillier:

What's up, John?

John Laforme:

You're the second Masshole I've had on here soon in the past month.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Good. Let's see how I do.

John Laforme:

I grew up with this kid. And you know, I don't remember exactly what grade we started hanging out in. I don't remember back that far. But I do remember you and I did Halloween as kiss. By the way you ever find those photos?

Kevin Lehouillier:

there somewhere? I'm

John Laforme:

there. Anything to see. I wouldn't give anything to see those. That would be so funny to look at photos of that.

Kevin Lehouillier:

I probably do. You probably have

John Laforme:

him somewhere. Yeah. Sweet. So you have been doing hardwood floors. Since I can long as far back as I can remember. I actually worked for you for a little while. And I can't remember. Did you fire me? I mean, did I do something stupid or what?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, I fired Yuh. I was actually thinking about that. And I think it's probably being late. I'm wondering if you were late person? Because I find a lot of people for being late.

John Laforme:

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I just can't, I just can't remember.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Me neither.

John Laforme:

I can't remember that far back. But I do remember the big machines and all the dust and all that stuff. And it's just like, wow, you know, you and I lost touch for several years. But on occasion we you know, call each other or whatever. I remember inviting you to my my 44th birthday I had there. And lo yep, I showed up with a visit of my family. That was a long time ago. And now we're much older. And you're still doing that exact same business. And that's that's commendable, man. Yeah. How many years you've been doing it?

Kevin Lehouillier:

42 years?

John Laforme:

Wow. 42 years. That's impressive. And the reason why I thought you'd be a good guest for the show is because, you know, oftentimes I run into hardwood flooring here in California. And, you know, it's typically worn out when I see it. On occasion, I'll see some some homes that while they've actually spent the money and had these things, they had these things that are refinished, and so forth. And so, you know, I've always had questions about, you know, refinishing floors, repairing hardwood floors, and so forth. So, having you on the show to explain all that would be really great for home buyers, home inspectors, because when you find it, well, as a home inspector, we have to report it. You know, if there's something bad with the floor, like we see damage, maybe it looks like it might be wood destroying organisms, like you know, termites or something like that. Or it's just worn out, you know, we just want to know how to report it and so forth. So you with all your experience. I mean, tell me about what type of floors you typically deal with with hardwood? Is it a certain brand? Is it a certain material?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, I mean, I mostly just buy one, one company's product. It's 10 oaks and it's clear, clear grade. The reason why it's a good mill and the boards are longer than some of the regular Selectmen better stuff.

John Laforme:

Okay, so we talked in like, a pine board or, I mean, what have hardwood, how what's the material that they're made out of? That's what I'm kind of trying to,

Kevin Lehouillier:

I guess 90% of what we do is Oak, get some, get some pine but not not a lot.

John Laforme:

Not a lot, okay. And the majority of your work is is it just basically refinishing or It installs, what do you mainly

Kevin Lehouillier:

do? Well, it's interesting because if I install it, I sand it. So that's 5050. But, and then the ones that I just refinish. So, yeah, so it's, you know, maybe 7030s 30 B in the install part of the jobs and then 70 being just sanding work.

John Laforme:

We got it. Right. And I know one thing that job is very involved. Like, there's a lot yeah, there's a lot of steps to this, right? Yes, yes. How many steps would you say there is to doing a 1100 square foot house, all hardwood floors,

Kevin Lehouillier:

I would have to say, three, six to seven.

John Laforme:

Okay, six to seven. By all means, tell me what they are?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, to start off the job, you're going to use this big machine that we'll see at some point in this video. But it's basically, for me to start out a floor, I crossed the floor out really good to get rid of any ripples from another flow guy, or homeowner. And by crossing it out, I'll be able to cross out the boards that some boards are softer than others. So when you cross it out, everything's equal. So

John Laforme:

Now does that mean? What does that mean crossing it out? Well, it's

Kevin Lehouillier:

like almost like putting an X in the room. So so it kind of like you'd go in at an angle like an X not quite that drastic. But you would rip rip across across the boards, which, like I said, would eliminate the fact that some boards are softer and harder. Whereas if you were to go straight, it would pick up the high and the softer and harder boards.

John Laforme:

Oh, I see. Okay. In other words, you're going across the grain, you're going across the grain, basically ripping it up. Okay, so you go on. So instead of following the line of the board, so let's say they're all going to the left, you're going to be going you're going to be going at an angle left's correct or left to North, in other words, okay, okay, that makes sense. And then that just helps you eliminate any kind of, you know, height differences in the floors, it just brings it all even.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yep, yep, it helps it helps any kind of a bump in the floor. Like I said, if there's any ripples in the floor, or from, you know, someone doing it themselves, or, you know, another floor guy that may not know that much about it. So I'm not just cleaning out his holes. I'll be ripping across them. So that will make everything flat.

John Laforme:

You mean another hack? Yeah. We got some hacks. Okay. Hey, man, this is this is just a podcast, you say whatever the hell you want. They're going worry about it. We're not throwing names out there. They know who they are. I see hacks all the time. I don't I don't mind talking about them because they know who they are. So anyway, now that's cool. So that was basically step one. So

Kevin Lehouillier:

that's okay. It's and then then what I would have to do after that would be Step two would be to straighten the floor out rough. Okay, so now you're gonna go with the grain and take out them CrossMax Okay, so that would be the second step and then we would go after going around the edges with the edger which would be another step and then with this radiate is which most of the time they might have a small machine that's called the little radiator machine that will get underneath the underneath the

John Laforme:

heat is under the radiator machine.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, well under cabinets, the front of cabinets

John Laforme:

sounds like a detailer. So you can really

Kevin Lehouillier:

just with the edge it's with the edges can't with the edge it can't get

John Laforme:

oh, okay so you have an edge here but this is

Kevin Lehouillier:

the the edges for the baseboards against the baseboards more sure. So so it wouldn't go underneath the the heaters, you know?

John Laforme:

Okay, got it. That's a good point. I didn't think of that. I mean, I understand the edging because you got cabinet sometimes you get baseboards. I get all that, but I didn't know about that. I didn't think of that getting under radios. Why? Because we don't really have radiators here. Okay. Trust my mom has like six ohms at her house. Yeah. And lo you can check out my mom's got those old radios. She never wanted to upgrade her heating and cooling system. I'm like, Mike, just just install it, man. You know, things. I don't like air conditioning. That's what he says. Yeah, some of them. Sounds good. All right. That's all right. Love you mom. Anyway, so that's cool. So then what what steps are after that?

Kevin Lehouillier:

So then we would have to that step and then we would have to go with the big machine again. Then do a fine. Fine cut. Okay. And then after that there's a buffer. which I didn't get a chance to videotape for this show. But that one would connect the circular mocks from the edger to the straight mocks, which would basically take out all the circular mocks and make all the flow nice and smooth and like a piece of glass.

John Laforme:

Wow, that's cool. Sounds like a lot of work, man. That's, that's a lot of work. And so do you have any employees or anything like that?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Not at the moment? Nope. I've been doing it on my own now for maybe 20 years.

John Laforme:

Wow, dude, how do you how are you getting those big machines out of the truck all the time left pretty heavy.

Kevin Lehouillier:

The big machine comes apart. The newest addition to the company is buffer sanda. They call it a sander more than a buffer. And it weighs about 200 pounds. And that doesn't come apart.

John Laforme:

So I think you sent me a picture of that.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yes, there might be a picture of it. Yeah, I don't I don't. Yeah. All right.

John Laforme:

Well, we're gonna get into some pictures eventually here. So we'll get into that stuff. So basically, that sounds like a lot of work. So So Kev, I have a question. Make believe I'm a homeowner. And I'm living in my house. I'm already living there. And I got my furniture everywhere. And I mean, I need I want all my floors redone, research, sanded and refinished, because they all look like hell. So how is that going to inconvenience me as a homeowner? What do I have to do to prepare for you? Do I have to move everything out of my house? Or are you going to do one room at a time?

Kevin Lehouillier:

I do the whole house, they'd have to empty it, put it put the furniture in the garage or in a pod or something?

John Laforme:

Okay, so that is a big inconvenience, then. Yes. Because I'm living there. Right. Yeah, so that Okay, so that's a good point that a lot of people probably don't think of that before they call you. Like

Kevin Lehouillier:

the most of the time that people go on vacation while I'm doing that. Really? So let's schedule a vacation. And then yeah,

John Laforme:

so the spending money on a vacation and the spending money on you. So these people standing on their wallets when they call you? I mean that I have a lot of money or what?

Kevin Lehouillier:

I don't I have no idea how much people know That's hilarious. Whatever works for them going on

John Laforme:

vacation. Yep. So you're just wow, that's a that's interesting. I had never thought of it that way before. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So what if you don't have any customers that don't go on vacation? Is that what you're saying?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, if they want the whole house done, you'll have to stay at a hotel or a family member's house.

John Laforme:

Okay, so So okay, as a homeowner, you are going to be inconvenienced with this. So if you're not going on vacation, you're gonna have to stay at your in law's house and I could be held. Right. So it's hard. It's hard to say but okay, that's, that's, that's putting it in perspective. And that's, that's given everybody a realistic understanding of what's involved for you to do your job. And I think the beauty of that is if everyone's moved out, no one's there bugging you. That's got to be cool. Is walking out your headphones on?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yep. Yeah, nobody wants to be in my space anyways.

John Laforme:

It's noisy. It's very noisy. You have to wear headphones. No idea for sound.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yep, I do. Yep. All the time. Yep.

John Laforme:

And wow, that's, that's interesting. So you just mentioned a lot of the steps that you go through for one house. That's, you know, we use the 1100 square foot there for an example. So if, if it's a brand new construction house, you're installing the floors, right? Correct. So after you do all that installing, then you still have to sand them. Correct. They have to be sanded once they're if they're if they're new product.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, if it's a new product, definitely but a lot lots of times the builders are doing the prefinished stuff so they eliminate the sanding process.

John Laforme:

Okay, so you don't have to do as much sanding or you just got to do a minor sanding

Kevin Lehouillier:

you just install it our flow is already finished. Oh,

John Laforme:

so they're all stained and coated what's the what's the top coating on this you're using?

Kevin Lehouillier:

It's something the factory uses I it's some type of Bo BOC I believe what waterbased type

John Laforme:

like a polyurethane.

Kevin Lehouillier:

It's not it's not because it's all cured by UV lights. Quickly but I believe it's a acrylic. Okay finish on him.

John Laforme:

And what do you now when you're doing a old floor and you're refinishing it? What do you use for the topcoat?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Polyurethane. Okay, so

John Laforme:

you are so it was wasn't crazy thinking of that's probably all I remember from working for you was the smell of that.

Kevin Lehouillier:

I don't smell it anymore.

John Laforme:

Major headache. Even thinking about that stuff. Give me a headache. Well, most homeowners want to know when there's a problem with the house that I'm when I'm inspecting is how much does it cost to change to fix it and correct it or redo it or upgrade it. So let's get let's use a 1500 square foot house with all hardwood floors. This particular house we'll talk about first is just, you know, built in the early 1900s. It's got all hardwood, it's got some damaged areas, nothing too major. What do you think it would cost for you to go in? And do everything you have to do to get that thing looking new again?

Kevin Lehouillier:

I would say probably about 4000 rolls.

John Laforme:

Okay. And how long do you think that whole process would take?

Kevin Lehouillier:

It would? Six days.

John Laforme:

Six days? Yeah.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, the process is basically three, three coats, so you can only do a coat a day. So that's three days right there. Okay, and then then, you know, have three days to get it all sanded and prepped. Right to be to be coated.

John Laforme:

So Kev, well, on that note, let's, uh, let's take a look at some of the photos that you sent me because you sent me photos and I sent you photos. So let's just go through some of these. So people watching the YouTube version of this podcast can actually, you know, get an idea of what we're talking about. So, so that looks like a what a six inch plank or a four inch plank. What is it?

Kevin Lehouillier:

It's actually like almost 10 tennis boats. Wow. Wow. Okay, those

John Laforme:

are big boards. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that that floor looks. It looks worn out. I could see why they'd want to call you. So tell me about this type of floor. What kind of wood is that?

Kevin Lehouillier:

That is a hard pine.

John Laforme:

Okay. And that looks something like that. Okay, good. Sorry.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Something that they would use in the old houses years ago. So this is a pretty old house.

John Laforme:

Do you happen to know what year it was? area?

Kevin Lehouillier:

I believe it was 818 18.

John Laforme:

Wow. I've never inspected a house. 1818 before. The oldest the oldest I've ever inspected was like, I think 1901 Wow. 1901 over here. And do that thing was all brick. It was it was a mess. Yeah, I think that I think the buyer walked on that one was right bricks. Not reinforced. We live in earthquake country. So. Oh, okay. And yeah. So yeah. Okay, so this floor here. It's obviously worn out. It's really old. As you just mentioned. That's, that's a pretty old floor. So what was your when you just trying to? I'm just trying to understand like, what you? What's your thought process when you show up and see this? I mean, what do you first think and Oh, shit, I gotta I got a lot of work ahead of me. I mean, what's going on?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Know these kinds of flows actually excited me because the outcome is amazing. Okay, as you tell, for what? For, for the amount of work that they are to get them to the finished product, which we'll see. It's pretty impressive.

John Laforme:

Yeah, we're gonna get to those photos. Yeah, so Okay, so let's take a look at the next one on line which would be

Kevin Lehouillier:

uh, let me let me okay, you got more to say I would just want explain one thing in this picture. You see in the cracks. They were all white. Okay, correct. Yep. Okay, so what that is, is people are putting filler in them cracks. You mean wood filler? wood filler? Yes. Sorry. And what ends up what ends up happening with that situation is the puts more pressure on the boards. So now when the boards get moisture, you have that filler in there, the boards make more room. So these cracks are pretty big once I clean them all out.

John Laforme:

So you mean expansion and contraction tech comes into play with different different temperature changes, different temperature changes, makes the wood shrink and expand different times. Okay. And it so it adversely affects the wood floor. Yes. Wow.

Kevin Lehouillier:

We'll see. I can explain more with the other pitches but

John Laforme:

yeah, okay. Yeah, that's that's, that's really interesting stuff right there. And it looks to me like you cleared out all the Woodfill you just mentioned

Kevin Lehouillier:

that's Yeah, yep. I took all the filler out of the cracks and prepping up for another step.

John Laforme:

That's a lot. That's a lot of filler you pulled out of there. How long that takes.

Kevin Lehouillier:

That was a good I'd say three hours.

John Laforme:

On your knees.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Oh, yeah, let's see that don't matter.

John Laforme:

I'm just saying you're on your knees. What you pull it out with a screwdriver? Yeah. Yes. The screwdriver. Okay. You don't have to use a special tool for that. That's, that's so big. Other big Okay, so they just pop right out. And then if they're not really, and he's very well, either, I'm sure

Kevin Lehouillier:

a little bit, but not really. Yeah, got it.

John Laforme:

Alright, so this is third photo looks like you swept everything up that you just scraped out. And that's a like, I see dog hair on there. Maybe that's a cat. Because there's a lot of a lot of stuff in there. All right. So a lot, a lot of a lot of debris there. So the next picture, I'm seeing some weird sand marks here. So we're looking at some really crossgrain sand marks out is that right? Correct. Yep. So go ahead and fill me in on the rest of this.

Kevin Lehouillier:

So what I'm trying to accomplish in this process, the boards kind of what I was explaining what the board's getting that Philip put in him, what ends up happening, there was very moist basement so that Philip just puts a bunch of pressure on the boards. So now these boards are trying to find room when they want to expand. Yeah, now they're getting pressure and they're crowding. I see. So all the boards the top, the top is, you know, you could see the lope where it's black in between the boards. That's a low spot of the board. Right, right. So what I have to do with this particular floor is I have to go over all the boards and cross the tops off. Okay, the set the center's, if that makes sense. Yep. Totally. So that's what that picture is. Right.

John Laforme:

Okay. Yeah, I can see what you mean by the cupping, because that's how you have the high point low point. Now what about is the end of that floor where it runs into the baseboard? Is that is that floor going under the baseboard or right into the baseboard? Right into the baseboard. Okay, so the baseboard was put in first, and then the floors were put in. Interesting over here, it's a bit different. They typically typically run the floors, almost right to the wall, and then they put the baseboard on top. Okay, that's what I see over here. But then again, I may be just looking at it from a mostly remodeled, you know, perspective. So it might be the original houses might have been a bit different. So a few seconds ago, you mentioned, this basement had a lot of moisture. So let's remind everybody that you know, you're on the East Coast, and they have basements. So this is a bit different than what goes on here in Cali. Where, on occasion, I'll find a basement. There's very few homes here with basements. And when they are present, they are tiny. Basically, you probably don't know this, I'll just fill you in. So basically, when I find a basement, California, it was only there just to just to hold the water heater tank. The water heater tank and, and or both the water heater tank and the octopus furnace. So basically, there were only so big just to just to, you know, be able to put those in there and the stairs, there like this. The stairs are like oh, I mean, I'm not even I'm not even feeling comfortable walking down those stairs. And they look like they were built in 1912. So I'm like hanging on to whatever I can when as I walk down like this is so dangerous. It's like a slide. One wrong move and you're done. And then so and on the East Coast, you know, we both grew up, that's all basements now you can finish off your basements down there and all kinds of stuff. So you're saying that in this particular house, there was moisture underneath in the basement and that that might have been contributing to some of the problems here? Yes. Okay, so when this floor was installed, they don't put any kind of vapor barrier under it. Is it because the house is so old?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah. Because the house is so old and there was nothing like that. No.

John Laforme:

Yeah. So there was no there was no vapor barriers back then we know that. Yeah, so you buying an old old house and it's still everything's original to the structure then. You know, you don't have today's modern technology with that type of stuff with you know, underlayment or any kind of moisture barriers and stuff like that unless somebody already did it. But in most cases, well that's interesting. So I see what you're doing here. You got a you got a floor that's got a bunch of cupping in it. You're sanding it, you got high points, low points, and then you gotta get it all even huh Correct. That's your goal is to get it all even.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Exactly. That's the only way the machine is going to run properly on it.

John Laforme:

Got it? Okay. All right, let's go to the next photo.

Kevin Lehouillier:

So what this is what you see in there is a filled the cracks with cocking. Ah, latex caulking. Yep.

John Laforme:

So tell me about that.

Kevin Lehouillier:

So the reason why I like to do that is it gives the floor a really unique look. Eliminates looking down to the basement. And a lot of things like you've seen I pulled out of there from getting in the cracks. So it's pretty cool. It makes the floor pretty clean.

John Laforme:

So there's no sub floor under this.

Kevin Lehouillier:

There is but the boards are the same direction because they're concentrating on going across the joists is still

John Laforme:

Oh, wow. Wow, that's good info. Man. That's interesting. I had that's I wouldn't have expected that. Yeah. So the all running in the same direction? Correct. Ah, interesting. So if there's cracks in the Sultan and those boards, the board the sub flow we're talking about is probably what a one by six.

Kevin Lehouillier:

They're pretty big boards down there, too.

John Laforme:

Okay. Oh, that's right. You should just like 10 inch. Yeah, these had these attendance attends but

Kevin Lehouillier:

the other ones could even they bury, you know, I'm just guessing that they would have used the scrap parts of the trees. Right lower pot, so it could be anything down there. That's why there's big spaces that you, you know, you might land on the same crack and be able to see down in the basement.

John Laforme:

They like and no one's gonna see this. Let's just use this shit. Well, it makes sense. Yeah, I get it. I get back. And you know, you said that was what? 18 What? 1818 Wow, that is so old man. Yeah. Damn. Wow. Okay. So, all right. So you filled in with? You said it was cocking. Yeah. Latex caulking, latex caulk, and it's black. All right. So you, you filled all that in. And now you're going to start sanding is that we're going to do next Correct? Ah, okay. Well, I would expect that you would sand the floor first. Then put the cocking in. But yeah, explain that to me. Because that's, that's, I would have guessed the other way.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, it's pretty messy for one thing, so you don't have to worry about you know, putting it in like that you would have to did it after you would have to tape off all the cracks, I would think you know, and so you could peel the tape away, but then you'd have an edge on the cocking. So Right. Putting it in before that, I'm going to sand it level with the floor. Okay, so it's all going to have the same

John Laforme:

right now obviously letting it letting it dry for a day or so to I'm sure. Yes. Correct. Yeah, so that's nice and dried out and everything. Okay, interesting. All right. Let's go to the next one. Which is number six. That does look pretty cool like that. I could see that now you sanded it. I could see the black hawk and that does make it stand out. Yeah, it's got a nice look. Yeah, and I like the fact that you can still see the nail holes. Yes, it gives it a nice aged look, you know, rustic I guess. Yeah, that's that looks good. I like it. So when you're using your sander on something like this, like how does I'm sure I'm assuming you have a big sanding bag that catches all that material right so how many times we got to change that on the floor like

Kevin Lehouillier:

I don't know I think I left that job but probably I'm gonna say probably seven to eight but I think it would made it may have been closer to eight bags of sawdust. Wow. Which is trash bags, a black trash bag 30 gallon.

John Laforme:

Do you repurpose that sawdust so you just toss it?

Kevin Lehouillier:

I do not know. It just gets tossed unfortunately.

John Laforme:

Okay. All right. You don't you don't throw it back in the woods. So it goes back to its original maker. The trees

Kevin Lehouillier:

Oh, nope. Customers do I've seen them do it.

John Laforme:

reminds me why I got that from my Happy Gilmore. Remember Happy Gilmore. He's gonna Yeah, he's picked up I picked up a rake or something we do with that rake. I'm just gonna throw it back in the woods. We'll be back with his family because it wouldn't make a good movie. I watch it every time it comes on. Hilarious by the way, Kev, I'll be good. I'll be getting you one of these. Good. I like them. Your own car. Pretty much anybody watching right now we're listening, I've been getting a lot of requests for these coffee mugs I made. It's awesome. So what I did recently was I just opened up a Shopify store. So I'm gonna have a link to that in the description on the podcast and a YouTube video. anybody listening or watching, you can click on that. And you can get a t shirt like this, buying a home, don't panic. And coffee cups, and there's going to be some other merchandise on there. So people are starting to request that a lot. And I can't keep up with the order. The requests. I'm just like, You know what, I need to do this, simply. So I created a website for it. So but I'll get you one of these men. Cool for being a guest on the show. So all right, cool. So that's that floor looks really good to me so far. And this is and this is not coded yet. Colored? Are you going to put a color that

Kevin Lehouillier:

that flow is not going to need any color? That old flow has so much color? You wouldn't even touch it with a color. Okay. Okay, you know, it would it would be a shame to put stain on that floor.

John Laforme:

Right? I was like seeing the edge. It looks like you didn't finish the edges yet. Right? Is that we gotta do you gotta clean up the edges. The edges of, you know, the baseboard and stuff. I think they're all clean now, isn't it? Now it doesn't look like it to me. So it looks like you probably just haven't got to that part yet? I guess I don't know.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Oh, maybe? Yeah, let's look. You don't remember? I'm trying to see because it should be bigger. But ya know? Yeah. Correct. Because I know what I did. Yeah, I went across the grain they just to read some of the old stuff off. Yep, you're correct.

John Laforme:

Okay. So, all right. So you're gonna put a polyurethane on this? Correct. Alright, fill me in on what you what you got to do next.

Kevin Lehouillier:

So like you said, we're gonna go around the edges with the with the smaller machine, clean up all the edges on it. And then after that, you know, there's a hand scraping process that we have to do on our hands and knees.

John Laforme:

Say we You mean you right?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, right, me. That's it. Sorry.

John Laforme:

I'm not helping you. I know. I'm not there.

Kevin Lehouillier:

That's right. Maybe you remember scraping contents? I don't know.

John Laforme:

I don't know that. Yeah. All right. So then what, then you're gonna

Kevin Lehouillier:

then we're going to use that. That sand that buffer sander. You know, that will get the floor all nicely. sanded equally. Okay, before the finish.

John Laforme:

Tell me about the finish.

Kevin Lehouillier:

The finish? Well, it's an oil based Polyurethane. It gets applied by brush around the edges and will applicator in the middle of the floor.

John Laforme:

Okay, cool. All right. Let's go to the next photo. That looks like a satin finish on that one.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, 99% of the customers are a satin finish.

John Laforme:

Okay, so so this is the same house, right? Same room. Same floor. Okay, correct. So it looks like maybe that's just maybe that's just one step. And then we go to picture number two, and it looks a lot shinier.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, that would be wet. So if you Yeah, so are you looking at the finished dried? I see before before I scuffed it up. I would have gone to the the other the other one and I took a picture of the flow wet. So I see. Sometimes people kind of want to know what the cloth looks like. So instead of you know, instead of I don't know, I might do one plus job a year. So I'll have that picture of the floor wet and I'll give people an idea. This is what satin looks like this with gloss looks like.

John Laforme:

I like the gloss. No, I like that. It looks like an ice rink.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's on a floor like that. It just Yeah. You can't do that.

John Laforme:

You can't do gloss on the floor like that. No. Why not? I just don't like the way it looks.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Hey, look, I gotta sleep at night.

John Laforme:

I see So personally, you don't like the way it looks. But your customers might? Yeah, not many of them. Not many of them. Okay,

Kevin Lehouillier:

no, no one a year.

John Laforme:

Yeah. I don't know, man. I kind of liked that. I gotta I gotta have to defer. What Yeah, on that one. I'd be like, Kev I want my all my shit to be shiny. Like my shoes.

Kevin Lehouillier:

And you know, my comment is do you have plastic on your furniture too?

John Laforme:

I don't. But I have been in a few houses like that. Yeah, every once in a while I walk into a home inspection or like a 1960s era. And I literally, I felt like I close my eyes opened them and I was back in the 60s. Everything in the house. Like some of these people like kept it pristine, I'm talking shag rugs, talking all the all that they call it mid century, mid century, Mid Century Modern as the as the as the name for it. And even they even have the furniture from back then I'm not sure if it was exactly from them. But they, they furnished it to match the home's original style. It's amazing. And everything worked. Like I go through the house, all the faucets are good. And like Damn. Wow, I was really impressed. I congratulated the home. I was like, this place place is amazing. And like, why am I because we don't get to see this every day, man. It's like a treat. You know? It's it's, it's inspector porn. And we don't get to. It's really cool to see that because we don't get to see it a lot. You get excited about certain things kind of what kind of weird like that. So that that was a cool process for 1808. House. That's that there's some great stuff, Kev good work, I get

Kevin Lehouillier:

a lot of satisfaction in that flow. Yeah,

John Laforme:

I can tell by the way you talk. And by what we're going well, you know what the pictures look like, I can see that you're you're a you're big on detail. And you take a lot of pride in your work. I could tell that so anybody listening in you're in the peple Pepperell, Massachusetts area or surrounding areas. Give Kevin a call, man. He knows he knows his shit when it comes to floors, but he doesn't work Sundays. Got that? Give the guy give the guy a break. Take shorter vacations. So anyway, let's we'll see what other pictures we get here. Okay, before we go, before we go more into the next floor that we're going to talk about with you. Let's, let's go to some pictures I sent to you of stuff that I find. I just want to get your opinion on it. I'm not expecting you to have answers for me on it. But I'm just curious as you know what you think of it? Because all right, sometimes these some of these things are rare. Some of them are common. What you're looking at here is a wall furnace. As you can see, there's a wall furnace on the wall there. The bottom of it. Yep. But that was added later. So this house wasn't built with that wall furnace was built with a floor furnace. Okay, we call that a gravity floor furnace. So right with his patches is with a grill used to stick through the floor. Yep. Because that old furnace was underneath the house in the crawlspace. So this is what I see. And when my customers look at it, they're like, Oh, John, what is that? Like? Oh, that's just that's just where they patched the floor with a old furnace used to be? Yeah, but it looks ugly, am I? Well, it just looks like it wasn't finished to me. I think if they had done that, and then re sanded the floors and and didn't have such big gaps. It wouldn't look so bad. You know? So tell me about these gaps that I'm seeing between the old boards and the patch boards. What they do wrong there. Can you see that?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, I mean, the first thing I see wrong there is, you know, you get these little two inch spaces. It's almost like, you know, stitches in your arm when you get a cut. You know, it's yeah, it's obvious, you know? So that's number one. Just, you know, for me to do something like that, I would have brought that out three feet. Oh, I see that in a staggered way.

John Laforme:

So you stagger each board within three feet of each other.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, that whole section where they're going, like, you know, you could tell where the vet was. So all the old boards are on the same line, right? Correct. Yeah, what I would do is I would peel that back three feet in different jagged lines randomly throughout that three feet. Right, right. And well, I believe I have pictures that we'll see on how I do my process and how I make that disappear. But yeah, some guys are okay with just doing that and, and being okay with that. It's

John Laforme:

see I just learned something new right now so that that's important because that that goes along the same line of wall siding. When you're doing clapboard siding and stuff like that. I walk up to houses and I see five boards in the exact same line. I'm like, oh man. Once again, I gotta report this and tell them A customer bad news, by the way, Mickey Mouse did you siding? You know. So it's the same thing. So basically, you know, what Kevin is trying to say here is, you know, when you when you're attaching boards together, whether it's on a floor, and I'm saying whether it's on a wall doesn't matter, you don't put them in the same, you know, put the butt joints in the same line going up, they got to stagger. And that creates strengthen the floor, it's going to create an intense strength, structural integrity in that little area. And it's also going to make it look a lot more blended, where you won't even notice the patch. So correct. So my next question is doing it your way on this particular photo? How, how are you able to pull up those original boards without damaging the ones around it?

Kevin Lehouillier:

So what you what you do with them is you use a skill saw, and you take two cuts out of the middle of the board. Okay, pull that middle, pull that middle out. And then you pull the sides in.

John Laforme:

Ah, got it. So you're not damaging the ones around it. Correct. Interesting. did. I just learned something new today? I love it. I love learning new stuff. Now I'll be going Hey, anybody want to talk about these floors? I got answers for you. I got answers. All right. So once again, that's just a photo of where an old floor gravity floor furnace used to be. Okay. And then let's go to the next photos. Oh, this is a 1908 tile floor. Yeah, it's labeled 1908. Tile Floor. Yep. Okay, so this here is it's not a 1908 tile floor, it's actually a 1908 house where they installed ceramic tile in the kitchen area. And this here is something we got to get into because this is not a great product to put on a house built that long ago. Unless you've already gone under the house in the crawlspace and reinforced all the posts and Piers, maybe added some extra beams going across with with additional posts and Piers. Because these homes built back in 1908, the way they structured them is a lot of flex in the floor. So a heavy person in the house, for example, or a whole bunch of people in that on this floor at the same time can it's going to flex. And guess what ceramic tile isn't designed to flex. It's very brittle, it's going to break. And that's why we're seeing this here. And this is something that I don't recommend anybody do in a home that has all hardwood floors. And then they install in the one room like the kitchen, I want tiles in my kitchen. Well, that's great, but don't expect them to last because they are floating the floor. I'll give him credit for that they do float it with a lightweight concrete. But then what that causes is a height difference from the kitchen floor to the whether it's the dining room or the living room that when you step out of the kitchen. So there's a height difference that to me, that's a trip hazard. And it doesn't look very good. Overall, it just, it looks like shit. I've never seen one that looks good to me. People like oh, you know, I noticed I have my customers say, you know, John, I noticed I have to step up here and like, Well, yeah, that's because they put a non standard floor install here. And they had to float the floor, which means give it a solid base under it. Let's still look at all these cracks. I mean, these cracks ain't from somebody dropping a pot on the floor. These are from, you know, these are from just flexing. As you can see, these cracks go in all different directions. It's not one, there's not one line going straight across the floor. If that was the case of the guy, you know what you might have one weak support right there, or something like that. But overall, this is this. That's the reason for this. So as you can see, this is a different house. It's this is a house built in 1922. Once again, it's got hardwood floors, and then in the kitchen. They decided to put a float on top of the sub floor there they probably I'm not sure if I'm not sure what was in the kitchen first I have no idea because I just don't know. But somebody came along at one point and said hey, I want tile on my kitchen. And this is what they did. So as you can see, I can literally see the grouting underneath the tile there Look closely, and then the reducer is not even correct. The reducer is the part that takes the height of the kitchen floor, and tries to blend it with the height of the living room floor. So the reducer itself is also a trip hazard, because they didn't do it right. So this just looks like shit to me, I don't know why anybody would want to do this. So I would say this was installed by a non qualified person, somebody who's just trying to satisfy the customer, customer price that is want this done, or they did it themselves. So this is not gonna last, this is a floor, that's not going to last, that eventually they're going to develop cracks in that floor. These, these edges are going to start getting chipped and people kicking on them and stepping on them. Or if they have a rock in their shoe, and they walk on that it's, it's going to cause all kinds of problems. So I just wanted to show that to you now do you see stuff like that cuff?

Kevin Lehouillier:

I do. When I I see that type of stuff. And what that tells me right there was people of just putting on on top of every other floor that was on there, right? Instead of doing the way I would probably do that would be to basically cut out the floor, bring it right back down to the original sub floor. Right and then start over with the material you need to make it level with the wood floor. That's good point, people do this stuff and all the doorways change, you know, the doors, start scraping on the X, you know, exterior doors, the scraping on the tile, yep, or the wood floor, because they're building it up and everything is set up for that build up. Right, but they're too lazy to cut around the cabinets and cut the board out. So they'll just do this. And, you know, I mean, I run into this type of stuff, and I leave it up to my customers and I'll give you a price I would say pull up, pull it out and go right from the sub floor up. That way you have everything nice and level, everything's the same, you don't need them.

John Laforme:

Another Another words, that is the correct way of doing a floor. As opposed to just stacking stuff on top. It's like a roofer. Okay, you know what you need new roof. But today, we're going to offer you this option, we are not going to take off the shitty roof, we're just going to go right over it, and then you'll never see it again. I don't agree with that stuff. So going back to putting, I want to stay on this tile floor on the wrong house type topic here, because this is something a general homeowners not going to understand because they don't understand floors, you know, I don't expect them to understand what floors are and how they work. So and how I'm sorry, how they're installed. And when I see this, I'm like, Look, this is not a good situation, it's not going to last. It's not sustainable, this stuff's going to break. And then you're going to be calling me and about a year ago, and hey, my floor is cracking again. Well, I told you before, it's it's not designed to be there, it's it shouldn't have been installed in the first place. And to clarify this a little more. You know, out here in California, we do have slab foundation houses. You familiar with that? What that is, that's it, there's no basement, it's just concrete poured right on top of Earth. And that is the ideal place for tile. That is ideal place to put tile because it's got a really solid bottom to it. The only time I think your tile would crack there is if it wasn't installed right in the first place. Or if there was a foundation crack developed on the slab, which is not too uncommon, it does happen. But you'll you'll know that because it's typically a consistent line that runs across the floor in one direction or the other. I just saw a couple of those last week actually. And staying on topic with that it's, it's okay on slab to have tile, and that's typically the best place to do it. But if you're buying a newer home with a second floor, and it's all wood framing, I understand that the wood framing nowadays is a lot thicker. And there's a lot more of them in across the span of the floor than there was back in the 1900s the early 1900s. Or, you know, like Kevin's talking about here 1800s. So, the base of the house is going to dictate how well your floor holds up. So like I said, if you want that look and you want that look in your house, you're entitled to it, it's your house, but understand that you need to really beef up the supports on your floors. If that's what you want if that if your house was built that old way back way back in that older era, because otherwise you're just going to have problems you're going to spend all that money and next thing you know shit my floors crack That's not it's not it's a pain in the ass. So you don't you don't want to do that. Install it in the wrong room. I call it the wrong application for this house, the wrong application for this house. And let's see. Anything else you want to add to that? No, I covered it. All right.

Kevin Lehouillier:

I covered it. All right, he covered it.

John Laforme:

So let's go to another photo here. Cuz this is this is a 1922. House, this might be the same house of the one we just looked at. A can't remember. And 1922. No sub floor. So I don't know if you find this here and find this where you are. But there's no sub floor here that that flooring we're looking at in the crawlspace. By the way, this is a crawlspace where it is. That is the bottom of the finish floor that's above.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Now, when I was looking at this, and I don't know if you check this, something like that would be done in a house here that one of the wooden ceiling. Wanted to see that look downstairs. Oh, okay. So they would actually have done that in one and a quarter inch stock.

John Laforme:

But that's on the second floor. Yes. Right. This is the this is the first floor.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Right. But yeah, I understand that. But what I'm saying is the first floor, this could be one and a quarter stock as well. I didn't know if you look at that.

John Laforme:

No, I have no way to access. Like, I'd have to know what the house apart to see. I can't tell. I can't get a tape measure on that. Yeah.

Kevin Lehouillier:

So I'm just guessing that's the way you would pull that off. That's just my thought.

John Laforme:

Right. So let me fill you in on the building codes. In the early 1900s. There wasn't any. There was very little to the any kind of a building code. So the best way to explain it is there's a new street being developed called Elm Street. Okay, we'll call it Elm Street. And then we got six houses on one side, six houses on the other side. Tom's construction was hired to do the ones on the right, Joe's construction than the ones on the left. The way Joe likes to build. He doesn't like sub floors. He just wants to do this type of install or whatever. But the other guy cross street he puts in sub floors. Guess what, there's nobody driving around going, hey, you know what, you can't do that. You got to do it this way. That's just how it was. So that's why this is very rare to see. But I have seen this a handful of times over the past 10 years. So it is there. I'm not saying there's a problem with it. I'm not saying but if there's a damaged piece of floor upstairs, you can typically see into the crawlspace. Okay, that's a problem. Because now if if that if that if that crawlspace is taken on water as a moisture intrusion issue, then that moisture can get into the house. And I have I mean, that goes without saying any any house, even with a sub floor can have a hole going into the crawlspace. I mean, it's not uncommon to find that actually, but that's how I describe it. So if I tell my customers, you know, the house is constructed without a sub floor. And I gotta say it in a way where I'm not alarming them. I'm not trying to scare them or anything, I'm just letting you know, just just so you know, what I've observed is there's no sub floor where you're standing right on the hardwood floor that can be the bottom of that hardwood is being seen in the base in the crawlspace. And luckily it's 16 inches on center. And I'm sure it's a pretty hard wood to otherwise it'd be a ton of flex up there. But I've been in some houses, same age, close to it maybe a little little older than that and I felt quite a bit of sponginess in the floors. So it depends on how they lined up their floor joists. It really does and depends on the age. So yeah, if I was if I was buying a house like that and and I was going to spend money on my floors, I would probably have a general contractor come in, get underneath the house and just put add some more floor supports. It is really sure that thing up. So there was no there was so that there was no worry about having any kind of you know sponginess of squeaks or and all that stuff so and that brings up another topic squeaky floors. Give me your opinion on that because I'm sure you experienced that a lot.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah. The only true way to get a squeak out is to locate with the Joyce's. And it could be as simple as a, you know, a galvanized finish nail works the best, you know, okay, but you have to put you have to try to put them holes in the floor so they're not going to be noticeable. So myself, I would try to fit them in a grain so that they would blend in you wouldn't see though. Right on the try to mask it. Yeah, yes. Yes. And that works pretty well.

John Laforme:

Yeah, so. Okay, attention homeowners. wood floor squeak. Is it safe to say wood floors? Squeak? Yes. Okay, so that's my point. So even even, you know, second floor houses with carpet, the floor squeak. All that is is your sub flooring. seems to really get people's attention when they hear a lot of squeaking on the second floor. It's just because the nails that come through and maybe then when they shot the nail, it missed the joist. It's really an easy fix. But you do have to peel back your car. You don't just put nails through the carpet to fix it.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Right. So you gotta Yeah, you gotta pull back. Yeah. Okay, do have a, they do have some type of a screw that goes in that the head pops off. If you want to go to kaput. Oh, really? Yeah.

John Laforme:

Nice. I didn't know that. Thank you for that. Do you know what that nails? I'd like to look it up?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yeah, I just I just know that. I've seen them. I haven't used them. But I've had people mentioned it to me. I wouldn't work with the wood floor because it would be too big. You know, for the wood floor. But with the word you're going through the carpet, and you don't want to pull it down with the head. You put this thing in there, and then then the head pops off.

John Laforme:

Yeah, but how do you know where the joists is? Looking card would

Kevin Lehouillier:

have to figure that out? That's always the

John Laforme:

Yeah. Yeah, so I'd be careful with that one folks. Sounds like an easy fix, but you might just be screwing that into nothing. Nothing. Because underneath your sub floor joists that go this way. So it flows like this. So if this this particular joist is as is where the problem is, and because the the plywood right here is typically not nailed correctly and it kind of it's going like this, and you start screwing those things in you keep missing the spot. You don't know where it's at, you can I guess you can try to get lucky. But yeah, maybe call a pro for that or pull the carpet back. Take a fine one and the joists and the nails are snap a line with a chalk line. And then bam. Just get some really good deck screws. And you'll never have that thing move again. That's right, guaranteed. I've done it many times myself. Last house I remodeled. pulled up the carpet because I did the whole room. I pulled everything out of there as a stall bound a wood studs. And I went through SNAP lines on all the way across and redrill really screwed every part of that sub floor. Because I wasn't sure what was going to put in there. But I just want to go with carpet anyway. So yeah, that's a good that's a good one. Squeaky floors happen. Don't panic call Kev. Yeah, so tell me about those machines.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Right. So they're both a belt driven machine. The ones the German machine, the green one, the black ones and American one. They basically do a good portion of the of the floor, you know, I would say 90% of the floor. And they weighed probably about 200 to 225 in weight.

John Laforme:

Wow. They do look heavy. They do look at

Kevin Lehouillier:

verse versus in a homeowner might be able to rent one out of rental place that are probably about maybe 60 pounds and and they run up to 110 pounds. Okay, so you know, these actually run off at 220. Okay, so they can't rent them. But the big thing with these here is the weight is what's doing the work. The weight of it. The weight of the machine is doing the water. Yeah, you know, so whether with these rental ones, the homeowners get frustrated because it's like it's not you know, they can't wait it and if they can't get 20 they don't have the weight.

John Laforme:

Right. Put the kids on there, stick the kids on there. We've done that with

Kevin Lehouillier:

my kids when they were younger.

John Laforme:

That's cool. So once a gym and and one's American. Yep. So what's Is there a reason for that? One's German, I have to have

Kevin Lehouillier:

both our ice. I started out with the German one. I thought I'd try this American one because it looked like it and it is heavier. It looks like it might go through the job a little quicker than the German one. After buying it up to $7,300, I find out it doesn't do much more than the German one. So wow, it's just an

John Laforme:

extra machine where you should make yourself a YouTube video about that. People would like to know that. Yeah, that's good idea. Yeah, maybe next time I'm out there visiting. I'll come over and we'll we'll create some content. You know, I'll go. I'll go to work with you. I'm not going to help you know. I'm not sharing that. Thank

Kevin Lehouillier:

you hold the camera. Yeah, I'll

John Laforme:

hold the camera for you. So yeah, all right. That's cool. So you got quite an investment there. So each one of those is about seven grand. Yeah, yep. Yeah. But hey, isn't it isn't a great to have the best tools or are

Kevin Lehouillier:

the best tools and taking care of them?

John Laforme:

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of buying the best tool in any category. Because I just feel confident using it. I bought cheaper stuff, and found out Oh, it's giving me false readings. It's like, that's just makes you look like an idiot. You know, I mean, so I just felt like an idiot when that happened, like, hey, that's it, I'm only buying the best stuff. That was a long time ago. And I came across that. So yeah, I always tell people don't don't skimp on these other home inspectors and stuff or tradesmen don't don't skimp and just buy shitty tools just to have more tools, save you money and buy the right one, it'll last longer, give you better results. And that is a, a knowledgeable client will see that. And they're going to realize you are really into what you do, and you're trying to get the best results, which means they're gonna refer you to somebody else. I'm telling you, it's just part of the game, it's just a whole part of the bigger picture. You know, good service, good customer service, having the right tools, knowing how to use them, so forth. So that goes, that goes for any company owner out there that needs to use any kind of power tool or, you know, any kind of technical technology. You know, nowadays it's a lot of technology stuff like thermal imaging guns, and I use I use stuff like that. I love that thing. I love those tools

Kevin Lehouillier:

ever use those? No, I see him on TV though.

John Laforme:

You can get them on your phone now. I'm not sure how good they are on your phone. But I just bought one besides the actually the size of my phone. Because the original one was like a big handle with a big screen on it. And I kept believing it places because you can't put it in your pocket when you've done it's too big. You walk in room to room and oh shit. Hang on. I gotta do this. I put it down. I got a call on leaving the job. Hey, you forgot your thermal gun. It's only 2500 bucks. Yeah. So I got I got really annoyed with that. And then I noticed I had a small one. So I actually bought it I'm going to make a video on that soon. The comparison and show the difference in how they work and stuff like that for my other home inspectors out there who are thinking about it. So yeah, the cool so what are the machines? I think I have another picture here of a machine. So good. Go to tool number two. I would say that your is that your edger or is that the one that goes under radiators?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Alright, this is the black one.

John Laforme:

Yes. As Eazy E on it.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yes. So that's a that's the same company as the other black machine. It's a new new addition to the company this year. I mean, I'm just messing around with it a little bit right now. I liked how it felt when I tried it out. And I said boy, this does feel neat, but I'm not used to that kind of a front on it. You know, the disk being out front where the other edge or is the disk is underneath the machine.

John Laforme:

Oh, I see that. Yep. You know, so it's so it's

Kevin Lehouillier:

a little different. But I've been running it and it's kind of neat that one will go underneath the cabinets sav that extra step. radiators maybe it might be a little high on the radiators depending on how high they are up you know what I mean? The bass but he does but it's it's pretty neat machine

John Laforme:

you know if you ever given thought to like how much thought goes into making these machines because you know, like in any trade they will we all have specific tools for a specific application, right? And I look at some tools and I'm like, Man, somebody had to come up with that somebody had to really like think, how do we do this? And I'm sure if you unscrewed that thing and pulled it all apart is all kinds of parts in there. And I just think engineering is just amazing how people come up with this stuff. I really respect what they do. We see a big hole in the floor register

Kevin Lehouillier:

to make check it out. Yep. Yep.

John Laforme:

So that's that's where the HVAC register is obviously, right? Yep. And I think you mentioned to me that there was a wall here before, correct? Yeah, fill me in on this. Let's let's,

Kevin Lehouillier:

so what that is, is that vent was inside the wall, you know, for the wherever it had come out, but the heating, the heating. And the plywood side is where the kitchen is. It had no hardwood it had linoleum at one point. So they took the wall out, they took out the floor right down to the sub floor, like I was talking to you about what she would have to in this in this application anyway. And so what I'm in the process of right there is that same thing that we talked about with your while heater, patch. Yep. Furnace furnace. And so this is how I go about it. And by doing that, when everything's all patched in it basically it's going to look like it was like this from day one.

John Laforme:

Sure. Yeah, I

Kevin Lehouillier:

could see how there was a patch.

John Laforme:

Right, I could see now that you mentioned it in the earlier photo about how to deal with the floor furnace Patching Job I showed you. Now I can see it now we can show everybody what you really meant. And that is you got to pull back those boards so far to get the new one and and make it blend. That's a good. That's a good example of that right there in this photo. Yeah, okay. Totally makes sense to me. Just want to make sure the listeners and the viewers can understand it. Yep. Yeah, so I could see where the yield wall was. It says there's a stain there. So yes, yeah. So you said the kitchen was linoleum. Now was that linoleum right over the sub floor?

Kevin Lehouillier:

No, that would have been over. They call it a little one. So it's a quarter inch finished plywood. Got it? Which would which be nice and smooth for the linoleum to sit on top of so it doesn't have any defects coming up? From the I

John Laforme:

totally forgot that name. I haven't heard that name and so long lawan I've because I haven't had to install any and probably since I've lived there. You know? I've been out in Cali now for 30 something years. 3032 years. So I haven't done any of that. So yeah, I totally forgot about that word. Thanks. All right, so Okay, so they relocated the heating register that was in the wall into the floor. Which is a common thing on the

Kevin Lehouillier:

you know what, John? Sorry, I'm looking at that and it looks like it was in the dining room on the floor. Because you can see with a wall Oh, got it.

John Laforme:

Okay. Okay, my okay, no bad no problem. I'm gonna Okay, cyber slap coming your way. Okay. No problem. I get it. This photo here is showing that we you blended it all together so I can see that you're standing in the kitchen now. Yep. Whether where the linoleum was taking the photo, and now I can see the that that yellow is that a stapler?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Stapler yep, yep.

John Laforme:

And right next to it is the register hole that we were just looking at

Kevin Lehouillier:

That's right. That's right which is kind of interesting that they kept it in the middle of the room but might it yeah as much money to move move it in another Yes.

John Laforme:

It depends on what's underneath you know it can be a can of worms opening up that you know it's trying to actually yet

Kevin Lehouillier:

another type of slop I think the cabinets went on top of this. So what are the cabinets that's where the kitchen is going to come over there's going to be Peninsula that's going to come over to that hole and it will probably vent out from underneath the cabinet.

John Laforme:

Oh, got it.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Okay. So that's yeah,

John Laforme:

that's that's to slab or slab that's two sides of slab

Kevin Lehouillier:

you know you know I've been smelling polyurethane a long time Yeah, you know it's Give me a break no mind the thin is and all the little stuff.

John Laforme:

Yeah, here Yeah. So let's see. Yeah, this looks like I see. So now. Now after you fit in all the boards to mesh together. You then have to sand the existing floor. And the new floor right as well. Yep. To make them all blend. Okay, great. Yeah. So you just basically taken off that taken off that original finish on the on the already existing hardwood. Okay.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Now in this in this photo join you can see that Uh, you can see the black belt paper that gets put underneath the floor. Yep. You know, and what that does is it keeps the hardwood floor from touching the sub floor. Because when you have to bought two materials together wood materials together, it can be squeaky. I see. Okay, so that so that stops that.

John Laforme:

So that's a common practice to install a felt paper. Correct? Yep. Okay. Yeah, I can see how you do in the cross The cross sanding. I could see how you're going across the grain that you're not you're not going super across it. You just kind of cutting it off at an angle. I can see. Yes. See what you're doing there. That looks good, man. I mean, wow. That's step by step process showing all the steps. It's pretty cool. Nice. Yeah, that's really cool. That looks good. Good stuff, Kev. Yep. And then we go to the next photo. Which is number four. It looks like now you've stained it.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, that's just a polyurethane.

John Laforme:

Oh, so it's just the urethane that gives it that call

Kevin Lehouillier:

urethane Yeah, that's that's no color. Yeah, that's the wood. Got it.

John Laforme:

Oh, that's a big difference. Yeah, really darkens it up.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yep. Yep. I believe in California use all waterbase Correct.

John Laforme:

Oh, I don't know. I don't install floor. So I know. It's I didn't really talk to a floor guy about that. I wouldn't call cool. That looks good, man. It's coming along. Yeah. And then the next picture number five. That's it the other direction. Same thing. It looks good. Sweet.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Yep. Pretty wild. I love what I do.

John Laforme:

That's good. That's good, man. It shows it shows that you do. And you know what, just letting letting homeowners know about this stuff. It's I think it's a good. It's a good topic. I think it's a really good topic. Because it can be pricey and you want it done. Right? You know? Yep, you're gonna have hardwood floors installed. You need to make sure you don't call the plumber for that.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Hey, let me tell you one thing. All right. I, my cousin married to a plumber and he's like, Hey, let me go to work with you for a day. I just You don't have to pay me. I just want to see what you do. I'm like, okay, so bring them up to this big house up at the beach. Three spindles per step, grab, grab a scraper start shopping. He goes, You couldn't pay me enough money to do this he was like, yeah, so

John Laforme:

you know, a plumber. I would. The last job I would ever be is a plumber. And I see what it is on a daily basis what what they how much? How much difficulty there is in accessing plumbing. When you're when you are replacing plumbing or re plumbing a house or trying to get into a tight crawlspace to literally cut stuff and read through that is a nightmare. I can only imagine what that's like doing it and I'm like I would never want to have to do that. Because typically when you when you get called to do plumbing, it's not some Oh, that's changed my faucet. That's easy. It's the big stuff. I wouldn't want to touch that. You know I do I actually do. I actually perform sewer camera inspection is just about every day. I have sewer reels cameras, I have all that. And I typically do that the same time I do the home inspection on a house that but that's that's a pretty simple job. It does require some you know, some exhaustion on occasion when it's really hot out and that it's a really difficult line to get through. So it's a little bit of a workout sometimes. But overall it's it's it's pretty simple. It's not hard. Yep, yep. ever see that movie Tropic Thunder? You need to watch it. It's pretty funny. It's a great movie. It's got a Tom Cruise in it and he's dressed up as he's got this. He's all dressed up at this heavy heavy movie mogul. It's hilarious. It's a comedy right? And it's a lot a lot of Ben Stiller's in there it's a hilarious movie. Anyways, he makes a comment he makes a comment to his assistant who's always bashing as his assistant. And he goes you know a ball this monkey could do your job right that's that's how I look at doing sewer cameras at some people like are you qualified to do this? I'm like, ma'am, oh ball. This monkey could do this. Oh my god. So anyway, I I just love that movie that always I was correlate those together. But anyway, getting back to the serious stuff there. All right, sorry joke people, I had to tell a little funny joke there. And so yeah, that that just to me is like a tough job, then this looks like a lot of work have you know, moving those machines around? That's. So you're basically on one job per week. Is that safe to say? But yeah, for the most part, that's, like, you're not doing five of these a week. You just don't want to house?

Kevin Lehouillier:

No. Yeah, I mean, it depends on if it's two rooms, or if it's, you know, five rooms, five rooms a week out. But you know, if it's two rooms, it's two of them in a week, you know, I small jobs.

John Laforme:

So if you can do to like two small jobs in a week and then Joe, typically, it's okay, so yeah, I can understand how this kind of paces itself out depending on the size of the job. So, so like, it's like, once you set up your gear, it's already there. Like, you don't have to, do you have to unpack that stuff and pack it every day? Or do you just leave it on the job?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Nope. I leave it on the job. Yep. Okay. Yeah, that I could see.

John Laforme:

Okay. I'm just picturing like, Man every day showing up that big ass thing out of your van. Do you have a you have a van or a truck? What do you use?

Kevin Lehouillier:

I have a bin. I have a van. Yep.

John Laforme:

All right. So Kev. One thing my audience loves is a great horror story. So what I mean by that is like, a disaster as some kind of a major problem that you might have run into at a house. Maybe you've heard about from somebody else, or I don't know if this happened to you, but anything really crazy. So you get anything along those lines that would you know, fit into that

Kevin Lehouillier:

I've had a couple things happen with some stain rags, certain types of products have just ignited in a bucket, you know, we're actually staying in the floor, and we're piling up these rags because they get, you know, kind of wet. So we're piling them up in a bucket. And before you know what there's smoke coming from, you know, wow, you could see where that could actually burn someone's house down, you know, wow, I haven't had it happen. But I've heard of it happening in many situations from the floor guys are, you know, painters or someone leaving the stain rags somewhere? So what ignites it? Well, how do they igniting they just get hot on their own?

John Laforme:

So the chemical itself, just just from

Kevin Lehouillier:

them being smothered, in whatever way whether they're in a ball or whether they somehow said just pile on the rags up in a bucket. And they started smoking. So because the bottom ones are suffocating. It's that night. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah. So you got to be careful with some of these products that are out there. That can can do that. And like I said, I've heard of it. And I know one of the only companies that I don't think he's around anymore, but he will you even know, John at the gym. I don't want to name the company, but he was good friends with Jay.

John Laforme:

No, yeah.

Kevin Lehouillier:

Well, but anyway, he he, I guess he had an incident like that. And you know, after that he just he faded away. And I think he's, you know, from what I understood. The House did burn down, but his insurance was too much. And, and he didn't like to work anyways, you know, you see what I'm saying guys out. So you know, that's, but yeah, that's some scary stuff.

John Laforme:

It kind of reminds me of, I've heard stories, and I've seen actually, footage of this where people storing batteries for a long, long time. And the batteries are just really old and they start to corrode. And that corrosion causes a fire and just feels like so like keep like, I guess this guy was throwing just old batteries into a bucket for some reason. And, and over the years, they just got rusty and corroded. And the you know, the materials just caused an ignition and a man fog and fires from that. So

Kevin Lehouillier:

wow, that's interesting. I've never heard that.

John Laforme:

We got we need to call a we need to call some kind of scientists or physicists or somebody that talks about how that happens. Because that's, that's really interesting to me. Well, it's

Kevin Lehouillier:

something that can happen to anybody and you not realize it and all of a sudden, you know, your house is on fire and you know,

John Laforme:

just make sure you got some. Well, I would suggest if you don't have it already, make sure you have some portable fire extinguishers on your truck.

Kevin Lehouillier:

There you go. Yeah,

John Laforme:

I got two I got two fire extinguishers in my jeep. I got one inside. My van you never know when that might need. When do I publish? It? catches on fire?

Kevin Lehouillier:

No, I do have one actually. That's part of our thing I do have. I do have a fire extinguisher Mike. Yeah. So

John Laforme:

they're not. That's not a bad idea to have. Well, that's, that was a interesting story. I'm glad that didn't happen to you. That's yeah, that's alright. So once again, this is Kevin Lhuillier and from colonial Flora service, and purple, Massachusetts. All right, how do people get a hold? Do you want them to call you? What's your phone number?

Kevin Lehouillier:

978-433-6480. And my cell phone number is 978-771-5156.

John Laforme:

Okay, what about our email address?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Email is colonial flow. service@gmail.com.

John Laforme:

All right. Great. And your once again, your website is colonial floor. service.com. Correct. Correct. All right. So you can reach Kevin any one of those ways. And your service area is what?

Kevin Lehouillier:

Probably 30 miles outside of Pepperl. New Hampshire direction as well as mass.

John Laforme:

Okay. So you're from Pepperell Massachusetts. Right. Just to be clear, we're not talking about Pepperell, North Carolina or anything like that? No. My listeners are from all over the country to do so it's hard to write. It's got to be clear on those things.