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OT: OMG! People used to work really hard at things we take for granted.

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by markjenks, Mar 14, 2010.

  1. markjenks
    Joined: Aug 31, 2009
    Posts: 384

    markjenks
    Member

    Okay, I have a new appreciation for the older folk on here and everywhere else.

    I have a 1920 farmhouse that I added addition to, and wanted to continue the same look throughout the new section. So, I just got done laying 120 sqft of 2 1/4 maple flooring and I cheated by using a power-nailer. Took 10 hours to do just that one room with the help of the wife helping to fit the next row to keep things moving along. Granted, I didn't use 8ft long pieces of maple, some where only 14" at most, but still, they worked their a**es off doing these things. Now I know why no one does 2 1/4 flooring anymore!

    Not to mention things like cedar shake roofing on the house and the HUGE barn that we have on the property.

    Damn, we got it easy how a days..

    -Mark
     
  2. markjenks
    Joined: Aug 31, 2009
    Posts: 384

    markjenks
    Member

    Heck, think what it took to lat and plaster and entire house back in the 20's. Or use all steel piping for water and THREADED everything by hand.
     
  3. Yep, hand cut everything too.
     
  4. stude_trucks
    Joined: Sep 13, 2007
    Posts: 4,755

    stude_trucks
    Member

    And just think, all without computers or cell phones either! Back then, if you were a lazy ass, pretty good chance you wouldn't survive very long. Now, you can get paid millions to be a lazy ass.
     

  5. hotrodladycrusr
    Joined: Sep 20, 2002
    Posts: 20,765

    hotrodladycrusr
    Member

    :D We just took out over 120 feet of oak flooring yesterday getting ready to install over 400 SF of new Brazilian Ebony. The amount of nails used on the old flooring was shocking.:eek: Hard, backing breaking work.
    [​IMG]

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    Hundreds of nails in the boards and yet there were still ones in the floor that had to be taken out
    [​IMG]

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    Good luck with your remodeling, I'm in the mist of one myself.
     
  6. Boyd Who
    Joined: Nov 9, 2001
    Posts: 2,196

    Boyd Who
    Member

    2 1/4" boards? Damn, those are wide!! :p
    Our house has the original 1 1/2" maple floors that were put in back in 1910.
     
  7. jcmarz
    Joined: Jan 10, 2010
    Posts: 4,631

    jcmarz
    Member
    from Chino, Ca

    In the past, people were more creative and used more common sense. Take for example Mickey Thompson or Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. They worked with their hands and used their heads to built works of art. They didn't have ready made parts or tons of money. If they had an idea they would get it to work by trail and error in their home garage, not some fancy million dollar shop with fancy million dollar tools.
    Today, the thinking is done for us. Run a program thru the computer and bingo, you have all the answers. We are not using our brains so we walk around like zombies. Sure, we know the "ABC'S" and the "1,2,3's but no common sense because everything is thought out for us by the way of machines and/or leaders. We need to get back to the basics.
     
  8. I beat two hunderd pounds of nails in this house and hand cut all the interior wood. My hat is off to guys that do it for a living.
     
  9. you should have bought the self installing flooring

    they have that at Lowe's, don't they?
     
  10. markjenks
    Joined: Aug 31, 2009
    Posts: 384

    markjenks
    Member

    OMG! I did 80 rows just to cover 14.5 ft. What you got is INSANE!

    I'm guessing your not going to match the flooring to any new additions.. lol
     
  11. markjenks
    Joined: Aug 31, 2009
    Posts: 384

    markjenks
    Member

    But it wouldn't match!

    :D
     
  12. The other day at the junkyard I cut a patch panel out of a van for my newest beater, a piece you can't buy repop (and for the $3 they charged me, not worth buying new anyways). I don't have a cordless set and I don't see them letting me come in with my generator and sawzall, so I used a hammer and chisel to open it up and a hacksaw to complete the cuts where it would fit. Took me about 45 minutes for an 8"x12" piece, that I cut extra big knowing the chisel would distort it some and I can cut it smaller when I put it on there.

    After that I understand why you'll find '50s and '60s cars with pieces of tin, screen, newspaper and whatever other crap used to fill rot holes. It's much easier when you don't have the ability or the budget to go get new filler panels, or no one makes one and you're not a tinsmith.
     
  13. Kirk Hanning
    Joined: Feb 27, 2005
    Posts: 1,605

    Kirk Hanning
    Member

    I did hard surface floor covering for close to 15 yrs. I'm sure am glad that I shut the lid on that tool box for the last time 2 yrs. ago. I never had any knee trouble but I imagine that if I was still at it it'd be a different story. Try installing 500 sq. ft. of 2 1/4" wide plank every day for 5 days straight every week. I still don't know how I did it. I used to jump for joy when the plank was 3 1/4" wide as you'd be amazed on how much faster it goes down.
     
  14. RichG
    Joined: Dec 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,919

    RichG
    Member

    I split shingles with a froe and a wooden knot when I was a kid... and yeah, that's work!

    I still have the old homesteading tools from my wife's Grandpas farm, I made a split rail cedar fence with them a couple years ago, used the wagon wheel spoke drill to bore the posts, and my homemade drawknife to spindle the ends of the rails. Sure, you can buy the fence down at Home-Spend-Bucks-Here, but mine don't look like the cookie cutter crap they sell!

    I still use a brace when putting wood together, and a lot of times will grab the handsaw before the power one. Doing things with your own muscle power is way more fulfilling:D
     
  15. lanny haas
    Joined: Nov 1, 2008
    Posts: 560

    lanny haas
    Member
    from Phoenix AZ

    Man this rings so true. I have heard of chopping tops with hacksaws, back in the day, I bought a top to clean up my chop from when I knew a little less than I do now, from the local pull a part, I found a 67 chevy pickup with nothing left to sell but body parts, so I asked the guy if he would sell me the top, he said for 100.00 so I went an bought a hack saw at the auto zone and went back, remembering that back in the day they had no sawalls, Peice of cake....OMG.....middle of June, over 100* took almost an hour.and good thing it came with 3 blades.
    And I also remember that houses used to have plaster instead of drywall for the interior walls.....
     
  16. duste01
    Joined: Nov 5, 2006
    Posts: 1,213

    duste01
    Member

    Once upon a REALLLyyyyyyyy long time ago, people used to burn they're own houses down to recover the nails when they moved so they could build again. Did you save any nails today? I learned from my Dad how to take nails and straighten them out so they could be used again, and did.
     
  17. J Man
    Joined: Dec 11, 2003
    Posts: 4,131

    J Man
    Member
    from Angola, IN

    Thats why if you take care of old stuff, it will last. My barn was built in 1889. one of the few still around.
     
  18. markjenks
    Joined: Aug 31, 2009
    Posts: 384

    markjenks
    Member


    You did 500sq a day? I'm thinking it was a crew of about 3 or 4 to do that.
    120sq in one day in time consuming, especially when the room is 8ft wide. Lots of ends to cut. Also, we didn't waste anything, ordered almost exactly what we needed so I didn't have to buy that next bundle for a few extra pieces.
     
  19. markjenks
    Joined: Aug 31, 2009
    Posts: 384

    markjenks
    Member

    When I built the pens for the animals, I spent many a day hand peeling cedar posts, I think I did 100 of them. Though, most of the holes in the ground were drilled with a bobcat, I did quite a few of them by hand. Worked my ass off, but after 6 years now, I haven't done a thing to it.
     
  20. FANTASY FACTORY
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 256

    FANTASY FACTORY
    Member

    I once killed a bear with a harpoon made from a chrysler torsion bar.
     
  21. cowboy.3d
    Joined: Mar 8, 2009
    Posts: 109

    cowboy.3d
    Member
    from Austin TX

    I live in a 1870's brownstone in Brooklyn, there is a new repair to be done daily.
     
  22. Petejoe
    Joined: Nov 27, 2002
    Posts: 12,263

    Petejoe
    Member
    from Zoar, Ohio

    Mine was built in 1877. Some of the sandstone foundation is 7-8 ft long with three..yes three courses of brick on the exterior walls. It just amazes me to see and imagine the amount of work it took back in the 1800's to build something like this. Not only did they build it by hand but all the wood, hardware, brick, slate, plaster and woodwork was made by hand by the same group of people before they even got started.They say the only things that works when owning an old home is the owner. Good luck.
     

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  23. johnnie
    Joined: Jan 7, 2009
    Posts: 493

    johnnie
    Member
    from indiana

    LOL! Yup, those days made a person tough! My gramps was strong as a bull from drilling wells and farming. Used lots of hard work instead of machines.
    Build, make or grow what they needed. Had 16 kids and a lot of fun!
     
  24. My grandfather used to tell me that back in the old days in the winter they had to drain their motor oil every night, then heat it on the stove in the morning and put it back in warm if they ever wanted to get the car started!!!!!!!!!!!
     
  25. Mazooma1
    Joined: Jun 5, 2007
    Posts: 13,598

    Mazooma1
    Member

    In the late 40's, my grandparents moved to a lot with one house on it, but the lot was big enough to split into two lots. So, my grandad would go to work each day and then he started building a house next door on the newly created vacant lot. He built this house all by himself except for the big upper beams that he and is friends put up. He poured the foundation a little each day, did the framing, the plumbing, the electrical and put the roof on. Then did the trim and the staining and painting....then they used the other house as a rental.
    He would have been in his early 60's at the time. This concret driveway was added years later...he had a gravel driveway, but other than that...it was all his from design to completion.

    [​IMG]
     
  26. 1941ihkb5
    Joined: Feb 19, 2009
    Posts: 338

    1941ihkb5
    Member

    Thats why you dont see many fat people in old pictures!
     
  27. 2002p51
    Joined: Oct 27, 2004
    Posts: 1,362

    2002p51
    Member

    Back in the fifties my dad built houses for a living. He drove every nail and cut every board by hand, every day, all day. No power nailers or saws. If he ever grabbed you with his right hand, you stayed grabbed! :)

    And those guys did the whole job in those days, from framing to roofing to inside finishing. One crew built the entire house.
     
  28. Little Wing
    Joined: Nov 25, 2005
    Posts: 7,505

    Little Wing
    Member
    from Northeast

    I helped with maple flooring ,,hitting the nailer with that heavy rubber mallet,,my arm was so sore that night,,lol
     
  29. scrap metal 48
    Joined: Sep 6, 2009
    Posts: 6,079

    scrap metal 48
    Member

    What's all this have to do with hot rods?????????
     
  30. Little Wing
    Joined: Nov 25, 2005
    Posts: 7,505

    Little Wing
    Member
    from Northeast

    well back then people made alot of the things in cars ,,Speed parts,,door poppers from other parts,etc..instead of dialing a toll free # and ordering out of a catalog..Granted there were catalogs and such,,but far much more DIY ,,then exists today

    so in a way reflects change in teh culture itself
     

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