Protect him from Himself

John Lawrence

John Lawrence

Active member
If you fellows don't know I work as a paint pro for The Home Depot in addition to making decoys. And the store I work in is in between three upscale communities in the south suburbs of Pittsburgh. And as a result we sometimes get customers in the store who have never fixed anything on there own home.

So just as as I'm ready to leave yesterday our Lumber manager calls me to tell me that they have a guy over there looking for "Fire Rated 2x4s".

Now if it had been me I would have asked him how big a fire he wanted those rated for.
 
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No this guy was convinced he saw something on HGTV about a treatment for wood that makes it fireproof.
 
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John, do you have one of your dekes under the counter to shut up "DIY know it alls" about painting?

Gene R.
 
The flip side of this is the Home Depot staffer who doesn't know anything. We've had a mouse problem in our pantry since we bought a house last winter, and I finally got down in my crawl space to find the gap they are coming in through. I figured a 6" by 6" piece of hardware cloth would cover it, so I headed for Home Depot to get a piece.

Three separate clerks told me they'd never heard of hardware cloth, but directed me to the aisle with all the hardware to look for it. After being sent to the wrong place for the third time, I figured I'd describe what it was: "I need a small piece of 1/4 inch mesh screen made out of heavy gage wire." That clerk sent me to the part of the store with the window screens, where a fifth clerk informed me that 1/4 inch was too big to stop mosquitos, so Home Depot probably didn't sell it, but she wasn't sure.

I eventually found the hardware cloth--over in the lumber aisle, an entire rack of it in multiple dimensions. But the smallest piece I could buy was a yard wide and about 3 yards long, so I've got some extra if anyone needs it!
 
Jeff,

That unfortunately is all too accurate. There was a time where to get a job at HD you had to have some type of construction or building trades background. But that is not the case anymore.
 
I work in the telecom field installing systems for large corporations. Our termination fields are all 3/4" plywood that is fire rated ... We actually have to leave the fire rating stamp un-painted for inspections. Never heard of a fire rated 2X4 though ..... Should of just sold him a pressure treated one, he wouldnt of known the difference.
 
FWIW, I have gotten excellent advice and help in the paint section at my local Home Depot. Maybe that's the section that still has high standards?
 
John,
A boy that looks to be no older than 16 "mans" the paint counter at the HD by me. He informed me that it was impossible to have black oil based paint, the day before I bought it from a paint store.

I stopped asking for help and just wander the store looking for what I want.

Its still nto a bad way to kill some time. I may just have to visit your store teh next time I need some paint help.
 
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Jeff,

It's hard to say about every paint department. There are 2000 stores in the company and 300,000+ employees. But I can say that around here there seems to be at least one very knowledgeable person at every store I deal with. Because of the economy there are a lot of displaced highly experienced people working at HD, here in Pittsburgh there just aren't a lot of jobs.

Sam,

Where you live there are generally some good and knowledgeable people at that store. The problem we run into though is that some people rather than admitting that they don't have an answer for you will try and pretend something like black oil paint doesn't exist. In Pennsylvania its due to EPA laws, selling what we all think of as oil paint became illegal in 2005. And at that time HD stopped selling regular oil house paint. We were allowed to sell off our existing stock but it went very fast to contractors. Now there are ways to get around that. First there are DTM's or direct to metal paints, which still can be sold, something like Rustoleum. And PPG reformulated their oils to comply with the new law, and you can buy them at stores in Pittsburgh that sell PPG procucts. The old PPG stores here were bought out by Masterworks a few years back so that's where I would look. But unless you have one of the new contractors licenses that became law this year in PA the only quantity you can buy is a quart. There are several outlets around where a contractor can get larger quantities of oils such as Wheelers and the old Sternbergers on route 51, which is now the main store for Masterworks. Now recently the guys I know at Sherwin Williams have informed me that they have started selling oils again that meet the EPA standards. You may also find oils available at some local hardware stores but if it is in a gallon I'd be real careful that it isn't old stock. I've heard from several of the paint company reps that I deal with who call on hardware stores also that they have been running into old stock now and then. Frequently in my store the people I work with and myself, will send a customer somewhere else to get what they need. Happens every day, for example I get asked for "boat paint" all of the time. We don't sell marine grade paints but I know of several places that do so I send them there.


Al,

No I've never been asked for "skyhooks".
 
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My son works in millwork at a Lowes and I get to hear about clueless customers all time from him. The last one was someone that had been unable to use their main entrance because the screen door locked shut....for two months. I guess they didn't have a screw driver or didn't know how to use one.
Years ago I worked at an independent lumber yard with an old guy that had ran out of patience long before I started there. He hated it when people asked for straight 2x4s. His line went something like this, "since the first rule of carpentry is to always crown your lumber, and you can't crown a straight 2x4, that would make it worthless, why would you want a worthless 2x4?" Of course it was more involved than that but you can imagine it was good for a lot of blank looks.
.
Anyway I thought this was an interesting post and I started to wonder. I thought something like this might on the market. Anyhow, for what it's worth...
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http://frtw.com/products.php
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http://www.tulnoylumber.com/fire.html
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, I used to buy fire rated 2x4's from a local lumber yard for all the commercial work I did. They are coated with a flame retardant and were "pink" in color. During a fire, they char and prevent or slow the burning process. I also had to use fire rated plywood on some stuff as well.

Doesn't seem like a far fetched question to me. :)
Lou
 
Well yesterday was a rough day at work. A lady gave me a real hard time because we didn't have books of pictures of other people's Tudor homes that she could compare her's to. It progressed to the point where she started yelling because HD doesn't sell quarts of solid concrete stain.

The story was related to me at the end of a bad day and it made me laugh. I thought it might do the same for a few of you. I din't mean to offend.
 
In several old Cold War military facilities that I have torn down the 2x4 and 2x6 interior walls have been treated with a fire retardant. Each board had a paper tag stapled on the side with the name of the chemical and manufacturer. I have forgotten the name of the chemical, but it was not hazardous and we could dispose of the wood in the landfill rather than shipping it out at millions of dollars in additional cost.

Arch currently makes a fire retardant material for interior or exterior wood products called dricor and FRX.

http://www.archchemicals.com/Fed/WOLW/Products/FireRetardants/FRX/applications.htm

What a lot of consumers don't realize that large "home centers" do not stock specialty materials that they see on some DIY TV shows. They will actually have to go to an actual lumber yard to obtain some of the stuff they want. They may actually have to order something and then wait for it to show up in a few weeks.
 
Al,

I have skyhooks available but they are going to cost you big $
I don't supose this is what your takling about. he-he

Skyhook®, one of the exclusive features of Cummins MerCruiser Diesel’s Zeus® and Axius® propulsion systems.
SkyHook is a station-keeping function that is the first of its kind in the recreational marine industry. With the simple press of a button, the operator can engage Skyhook, and the vessel will maintain both the position and heading at the moment of engagement, even in the presence of wind and current. The feature allows a sportfish captain to stay directly on top of a preferred fishing spot, lets a pleasure boater easily wait for an opening at the fuel dock, and keeps cruisers from drifting while waiting in the current for a bridge to open – all without constantly working the wheel and throttles as has been the case since the advent of mechanized propulsion.
 
Al
John my have got you this time with the skyhook but it is not has bad as sending the guy for a long wait, HeHeHe.
Take care and god Bless
Eddie and Amber
Its all about Building that Bond.
 
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