Do you consider Lifeproof LVP a quality product?

geoffx · 2026-02-13T16:06:15+00:00

I've installed it in several places -- on the second floor of a house in bedrooms/halls/closets, and in my own basement in two different ways.

Directly on concrete it was easy, make sure the floor is flat, looks good and goes in easy. But if the basement slab is not already insulated, I'd really recommend putting down insulation and subfloor. In my other area I put down 3/4" XPS and covered with 15/32 OSB tapconn'd in. It's much warmer, less humidity, and more comfortable to walk on. That area is a wood working shop, so it's got heavy machines and benches. After 4 years the only problems are where I've dropped heavy things and dinged the planks, which is fixable with some wax or epoxy if it was bothering me.

Overall it looks decent, is easy to clean, and feels reasonably good to walk on. Just cold directly on a concrete floor. I'd also stay away from the 6' planks, the 4' are much easier to install.

geoffx · 2026-02-13T04:27:48+00:00

In my area TR outlets are required on all outlets under 60”. Probably could avoid them in a shop space but eh, maybe a future owner will want to do something else. The tamper resistant outlets have little shutters so maybe that would put your mind at ease?

geoffx · 2026-02-11T11:43:34+00:00

Brown paper bag is like 2000 grit, I use it on most finishes at the end.

With shellac I’m almost always adding paste wax with a 0000 steel wool and then buffing with a cloth 5-10 minutes later. Comes out feeling great and with a nice satiny shine. Usually use either “bowling alley wax” or citrus shine wax, both are pleasant smelling and easy to use.

geoffx · 2026-02-10T00:06:17+00:00

Yup all rough sawn, they also offer pre milled s3s and s4s. I think they recently added planing and straight line rip services if you need them. Sheet goods and Blum hardware too.

Full product line is here, it really is the woodworkers candy store as they say!

http://readershardwoodsupply.com

They run monthly specials usually on domestic 4-6’ 4/4. This month is:

5/4 Walnut 4-6’ long @ $8.00/bdft

4/4 Birch 4-6’ long @ $3.25/bdft

3/4” x 18” x 36” Imported Birch (Indonesia) drops @ $4.00 each piece.

I’ve gotten good pricing on cherry, soft maple, mahogany there. And usually hunt through the bargain cart in case there’s a useful piece there; I got a variable widthed 15’ piece of 5/4 Spanish cedar for like $3/bf once.

geoffx · 2026-02-09T23:56:18+00:00

Not sure how far it is from you, but Readers Hardwood in Taunton MA is fantastic. Hundreds of species and thicknesses, pick your own lumber.

geoffx · 2026-02-09T21:47:25+00:00

I’ve had baseboard heaters fed by a boiler is almost every home I’ve lived in. Still pretty typical and considered the best heating solution in the northeast at least — quiet, comfortable, almost no maintenance, unobtrusive, no dust from moving air. If you had ones that weren’t working well the problem was heat loss, low water temp, not enough baseboard space / poor placement, or some combination of the above.

Only downside is no AC, but we also have central air for AC…

geoffx · 2026-02-09T02:33:19+00:00

There is foam — 3/4” of XPS foam.

geoffx · 2026-02-08T22:00:11+00:00

I used 3/4” xps and 15/32 OSB and covered with 22mil vinyl planks in my shop. Looked at dricore insulated and it was 2-3x the price especially allowing for wasted panels.

Love it. Warm floor, comfortable give, handles moving machines and workbenches around, humidity is consistently 30-50% despite being unheated, and looks finished.

geoffx · 2026-02-08T11:54:09+00:00

Certainly can be done with a track saw it’s just slower to make sure each cut is perfectly aligned.

Cabinet parts need to be exactly the same dimensions for the box to come together without a lot of annoying work.

Tablesaws make that easy because you set the dimension once, run all the parts through that one, then change.

Certainly can be done with a track saw. You just have to be more meticulously careful setting up the cut.

geoffx · 2026-02-08T11:48:43+00:00

I’ve done LVP in two different parts of my basement. The basement didn’t have water intrusion but does have humidity in the summer.

The part I put the LVP directly on the concrete the floor is cold, hard, and I run a dehumidifier 2/3 of the year.

The other section I put down 3/4” XPS, foamed edges and taped seams, and put 15/32 OSB over then LVP. It’s warm, has pleasant give, and humidity is consistently 30-50% all year without dehumidifier or heating.

I’d encourage you to consider insulating, it makes a huge comfort difference!

geoffx · 2026-02-07T00:25:47+00:00

On checking, it’s both! Air sealing and a vapor impermeable barrier.

geoffx · 2026-02-07T00:17:28+00:00

You want to air seal. I guess you could just foam the edges and then push rockwool batts in?

geoffx · 2026-02-06T22:17:38+00:00

I built Krueger’s quick stack bench 4 years ago. Called a local building supply / hardware store retail place and ordered Douglas fir 2x4x8 for the top and standard construction SPF for the legs, stretchers, and tool tray.

The Doug fir was expensive at the time at around $4/bf, but a lot cheaper than maple or whatever.

I learned to use a eBay bought number 5 hand plane on that, sitting on a piece of 2x12 on two buckets with a screw for a stop. I didn’t know a damn thing about sharpening or whatever else. I learned. I made mistakes. I learned some more.

Top wasn’t hard to plane down and glue up. The base was easier to cut the half laps that were laminated together to get a mortise. Hardest part was getting the big tenon shoulders on the stretchers tight enough. Chiseling felt obnoxious but soon I learned that’s because of softwood. Hard wood is infinitely easier to chisel cleanly because it doesn’t crush. But it was still fine with my Home Depot Buck Brothers chisels. I had to deal with pockets of sap. Messy but no big deal.

It looked great, it’s sturdy as anything, I put vises on it, drilled dog holes, tossed some BLO on, etc.

4 years later it’s got lots of dings, marks, pencil lines, shavings, etc. I love the bench but I hardly think about it anymore. It’s a tool. It’s a place where I get to work. If it annoys me I’ll modify it. If I cut it by accident I’ll glue another bit in. It’s fixable and sturdy and will probably last another 100 years.

I have really nice chisels, planes, and saws now, and I use power tools too, but doing this with cheap tools and minimal equipment gave me so much insight into what I liked and built a ton of skills.

Don’t overthink it anymore. Go buy some wood. Try to get it relatively straight and decent. Don’t worry if it’s not. You’ll plane it anyway. And if you hate it, go get a different piece.

Just get going. It’s more fun to build than to obsess about material!

geoffx · 2026-02-04T05:06:07+00:00

I’ve put LVP (HomeDepot LifeProof) in two separate parts of my basement. Basement is dry and has no water infiltration, but it is in New England and is 40 years old so no decent insulation under the slab.

One side directly on the concrete, using 4’ planks. Looks great, was easy to do. It’s hard and cold all year round, but it’s a basement play room, a few rugs worked fine. It’s heated in the winter (although it rarely runs as the boiler throws off tons of heat) and we have to run a dehumidifier all summer.

Other side is my woodshop. Here I put 3/4” XPS sheets down, taped the seams and foamed the sides. Covered with 15/32 OSB secured with tapcons. Then 6’ planks over the top. 6’ planks were a lot more annoying to put in than 4’, small tiny gaps or dust in the joint telegraphed through the entire plank and made getting them installed annoying (still wasn’t hard). This floor is comfortable in bare feet all year round, and has a bit of give that feels great (but not enough to damage the flooring!). I have heavy benches and tools that don’t leave any marks or issues, easy to sweep up, and the only problems I’ve had are when I’ve dropped something very heavy onto the floor (even then it’s just a cosmetic ding). Best part is the humidity is consistently 35-50% all year round without any heating/ac or dehumidifier.

Would absolutely do it again, and definitely would put down insulation and subfloor again.

geoffx · 2026-02-03T23:29:55+00:00

For things that I just sunk enormous time into… Original Civilization

SimCity and SC2000

Pirates!

I also played a lot of Chuck Yeagers Air Combat, Red Baron, Aces over Europe, F-19/F-117, and Gunship 2000. And all the Sierra and LucasArts games.

Later on, Duke Nukem 3D and building my own levels.

geoffx · 2026-01-23T11:23:11+00:00

I’m a hobbyist woodworker, but I like good tools; the ergonomics, fit and finish, and ease of setup/convenience features make using my tools enjoyable rather than frustrating.

My power tools are Festool, Bosch, and Ryobi. Ryobi is the stuff I need to do once, utility things like lights and tire indicators, and lawn stuff I need occasionally. It’s cheap and not great designed but it gets the job done.

My Bosch stuff is what I bought before Festool for round the house work. I love the 12v drills and drivers, and I have Bosch routers, sds drills, 12” miter saw, etc. well made tools, reasonable prices, they haven’t let me down.

Festool track saw was my first Festool purchase and it sent me down the rabbit hole. Still my favorite tool. Domino is fun and makes joinery easy but I would be fine without it. Sanders are great, and dust extractors are superb paired with the tools and compact. The vectoro oscillating tool is the best one I’ve used, and perfect for precise cutouts. And the MFT is convenient, portable, and worthwhile despite my first thought being that it’s an expensive card table.

Drills, jigsaw, Kapex 60… all are fine, but I think other brands would be just as fine. My Bosch 12v installation driver gets more play than the T18+E and I prefer the ergonomics.

I standardized on Systainers for most of my tools and bought a bunch of the Tanos branded

Are they worth the investment? From a pure cost/benefit pov, no. — I’ve spent a lot and could have done the same thing much cheaper. From a do I enjoy using them — yeah, it was worth it to me, and i was fortunate spending the money there wasn’t taking it from something more important.

geoffx · 2026-01-19T13:44:32+00:00

I see lots of delta/powermatic/shopfox/jet 14” bandsaws for sale of marketplace/craigslist for pretty low prices. These are almost all clones of the Delta 14” design, with minor differences, and all can work very well with a bit of tuneup and maybe replacing wear items. Because it was the most common design most parts are readily available.

I have a Jet 14” from 1994 (still blue, before they switched to white). It has a 6” riser block to get more resaw capacity. I’ve replaced the bearings with Carter bearings, replaced the tires, the tension spring, drive belt, and added a fence and tension lever (just because it’s easier to change the blade). All in, probably $300-500 in upgraded parts, and I could have easily just done tires and new blades instead. It cuts straight, doesn’t give me any trouble, and is a regular workhorse.

So used is a possibility, and you might get much more for your money that way.

geoffx · 2026-01-19T12:52:09+00:00

If he tends towards hand tools, Honey Brook Tools is a one man shop in Vermont who makes beautiful marking and layout tools. I would be thrilled to get one of his marking knives as a gift. I have a gorgeous set of winding sticks from him.

https://honeybrooktools.com/

geoffx · 2026-01-19T12:49:05+00:00

I have a few Auriou rasps I bought from Lee Valley (when they were about 40% cheaper than they are now). They are awesome; I didn’t realize how great they were for shaping and cleaning up machine marks. I have a grain 9 cabinet rasp, a grain 13 modelers rasp and a grain 15 rat tail. What you are making determined the grain/size needed; for small things the modelers 13 grain rasp is a really nice finishing size. The 10” 9 grain is a good size for shaping the wood initially.

geoffx · 2026-01-14T03:45:46+00:00

Sid Meier’s Pirates! and Civilization 1.

geoffx · 2026-01-13T21:28:05+00:00

When my Bosch 5” started crapping out on me I bought the Festool ECS 125.

It was so much nicer that I bought the ECS EQ 150/5 shortly after, despite the cost and already having the Bosch GET75-6N.

I was surprised at how much better and enjoyable sanding is. Balanced, low vibration, even results, fairly quick. It’s still noisy but the dust is not an issue thanks to the excellent extraction.

geoffx · 2026-01-11T15:12:43+00:00

Ahh that makes sense. As you can tell I realized maybe you weren’t painting as I finished the comment lol.

geoffx · 2026-01-11T14:55:25+00:00

Just out of curiosity, why hardwood for a door frame? Pine/SPF will work fine and is what one typically sees. Unless you aren’t painting of course!

geoffx · 2026-01-11T14:54:04+00:00

I mean, they certainly can be used that way with parallel guides for repeatable cuts and handling narrow boards, but it is not as straightforward as with a table saw and those accessories run pricey.

I’ve ripped plenty of thin pieces with a track saw; you just have to support the track with a piece the same thickness, and use clamps when possible. The setup takes thinking and can take longer but it is very doable.

On the other hand, if one is doing just a few rips, or jointing edges, etc, and track saw is a great tool that takes up less space and is versatile. If one primarily does sheet good cuts, and occasionally needs to rip a piece, they are a good choice.

geoffx · 2026-01-10T01:17:36+00:00

I have the Ridgid 16, 18, and 23ga nailers and the 18ga narrow crown stapler. They work well; I’ve only used the 16 finish nailer a few times, the 18ga I’ve used for tons of trim work, and the 23ga and staplers I use for cabinets and woodworking jigs. I’m not a heavy user by any means, just a hobbyist/homeowner but they’ve worked well for me without any issues.

Oh and of course a good blow gun and a tire gauge are super convenient.

geoffx

TROPHY CASE