Old World Craftsmanship

The floor in our chow hall is being redone with new vinyl. The old vinyl was pretty worn in spots, and was peeling up in places. They can only do so much in a day, and it’s taking a week or so to do the entire, pretty large, floor.

The floor is being installed by a gang of Iraqis, diligently watched over by an armed soldier. I guess the Iraqis know what they’re doing, but, Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. Every vinyl installation I’ve seen has made at least an effort to match the seams and pattern, until now. They glue the floor, lay down a sheet about 12 feet wide and 20 or 30 feet long, roll it flat, and then lay the next strip, overlapping about 6 inches.

They leave the unglued flap for a couple of days, during which time we haveto reoccupy that part of the floor because there isn’t enough room otherwise. So, under the flap it gets real dirty. They go back and trim off the flap, but dirt is glued onto the vinyl near the seam, where glue leaks through.

The pattern is 6 inch blue squares, and again, no effort the match the pattern. I was looking at a spot today that was finished, but for about 20 feet a half inch of wood showed where the seam gapped apart. Still, job over. Sign the paycheck. More on Old World Craftsmanship later.

The workers do a section at a time. They have to move everything off the target area: tables, chairs, drink coolers, table and trays of food, salad, desserts, salads, ice machine, ice cream machine, whatever is on that part of the floor. For the last week, each time I went to get a bottle of water or a box of milk, I had to look around for the right cooler. Then I tried to find the salad bar, and get a cup of ice, and whatever, as is everyone else.

Every day it is different, and sometimes it changes between meals. The whole week all these soldiers and airmen have been stumbling around holding trays, searching for the bread or butter or something to drink, criss-crossing back and forth like a bunch of overheated molecules. I’ve come close to spilling my tray – which is slick as Teflon to begin with – several times.