IMPACT RESOURCES Furniture Assembly Ripping Off Workers!!!

I am definetley a biased party because Impact is a competitor in which I hope to take as much business from them as possible. I know they lie to customers, damage goods, incorrectly assemble displays for the retailers that are contracted with, as well not only paying their technicians poorly, now they are just plain ripping them off! That's why here at EZ Furniture Assembly & Interior Innovations we offer dozens of services, but our #1 service will always be customer service. We don't hire our technicians over the phone like Impact. We have them meet the President, a lead technician and then a project manager. Then if they pass that phase they will be called back for a second interview to see if what they said in their resume is true in regard to installation, assembly, working with tools and the like. If hired, they will work under the supervision of a project manager or lead technician in which they will be grades on everything from arrival time, knowledge of services, attitude, and how they interact with our customers.

If you need a a professional assembly service visit EZ Furniture Assmbly & Interior Innovations today for a FREE quote.



I have been with Impact for 10 months now as a District Trainer and never have I been treated the way I have been getting treated with this company until this year.

I normally make good money with Impact which my hire in was $17.50/hr and was changed to $13.50 in July. My drive time and mileage reimbursements went from 60 miles and 60 minutes to 90 and 90 after July and I haven't been paid mileage in 4 months now. I have lost 20 great technicians due to Impacts new GM and payroll department changes in early July '06.

All my ex-employees are willing to file a class action lawsuit against the company for fraudulant charges such as not paying there employees for their drive time and mileage for weeks even months at a time. When they do finally pay you it's always much later when you lose everything you owned like myself. I lost my apartment, I can't work obviously because when you put $400 in gas every week to get to work and are only paid a commission? Instead of my $17.50 or $13.50/hr,then it's hard to pay bills if you only make a $200-$350 check for the work when the company is making about $30/hour or more off you.The company quit paying me my overtime pay back in July '06.

I have been watching my company since I started in as a technician(11-14-2003) and was rushed into a trainer position within 6 months due to my hard work ethic and dedication to produce mass quantities of assembled products for them and then another 6 months passed and I moved up again to Area Trainer and then a year and 2 months passed and I am in a District position but have no say so over anything within the company. In the past 4 years my company has been changing their names left and right to avoid being tracked by the government for employee unemployment fraud. They keep employees on their payroll to keep them from being able to draw unemployment and to make it look like they still have a huge roster of technicians so their retailers get deceived by thinking they are going to get great service from my company from 20 or more techs. when there is only 6 working techs. statewide in Alabama.

The names my company have went under in the past almost 4 years are as follows: Huffy Service First,(the name changed in 2 months to)Retail Service Pro,(the name changed in Feb.2004 to)Nasco Services,(changed in 2 months to)NVS{national vendor services},(then it changed again in 2 months to)NPS{national product services},(then it became)IRG{Impact Resource Group}, (now they call it IMPACT or We're Ready To Assemble).

They are affiliated with assembling products in over 15 major retailers and over thousands of different customers homes nationwide. They assemble for Lowe's, Home Depot, Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Sears, Best Buy, Academy, AAFES, Meyers, Toys R Us, Kay B Toys, Circuit City, and they do all the In Home or In Office assemblies for the major furniture companies listed in the above too. The company has been known to go by other names such as Creative Retail Services and NASCO.

If you decide to go to work for this company then please give this a good overlook because I have lost everything doing this job but when I first started out doing it in 2003 the company was a great company until July of 2006 when a new GM took over along with a new payroll division. I went from making $1000 a week to $250 or as low as $60. The company still owes me back pay for mileage and they haven't paid me going on my third week now. I have all the information to file a class action lawsuit on the company if a lawyer is interested in picking up this case. I can count a total of 10 technicians offhand that I could get to back me up on the matter and another 5-10 I'm sure that I can recall from my documents.

I have been living in my car with my wife of 7 years marriage and daughter of 6 years. I lost my apartment due to Impact and I have had nothing but heartache and hardship ever since the transition from July 2006. My car that they refuse to reimburse you ons mileage and drive time like they promise has been ran ragged due to all the travel. I have no one to turn to but you Rip-Off Report and I hope you can truly help me shed a lawsuit on this very deceitful company. If they treat their District Trainers like they don't care and the District Manager is in control of how you get paid because he enters the information for you to the corporate office but yet his checks are never messed up then what makes you think they care about their customers or employees seeing how my postion is equivalent to the DM of the company because I go around dealing with all the store retailers we service while he sits behind a desk and grins a grinchy grin knowing he never has to leave his desk to get his money but you have to travel around and get mis used and abused to only be taken advantage of in the long run.

Brian
Huntsville, Alabama
U.S.A.

Banned IKEA Commercial of kid with Dildo! FUNNY!!!!

This is without a doubt a must see from the IKEA Banned Commercials. If you need a good laugh this is it! If you have any cool videos or clips please feel free to share them. This video is compliments of Youtube!!



EZ FURNITURE ASSEMBLY & INTERIOR INNOVATIONS

Tips, Tricks, & Helpful Hints when Installing Crown Molding

I would like to give special thanks to "woodweb" for this article.

Installing crown moulding

Calculations and tools for cutting crown angles. May 06, 2008 Question Any tips on installing/cutting crown molding? Right now it seems to be a huge bottleneck in my installs, especially coping inside corners. Forum Responses (Cabinet and Millwork Installation Forum) Here's one take from a maker/installer's point of view. If you are installing crown into a wall to ceiling situation with bumps, out of squareness, etc., then coping is very useful when coming into an inside corner. My approach when setting crown to my own blocking set on top of the cases (I build frameless) is to cut all miters in the shop and deal with only square cuts at the site. I try and deal with anything possible in the shop because it always seems to get more difficult once you are on site. I like a glued miter joint when I'm dealing with a flat and square background of my own making. Not sure if this addresses your problem areas but thought it worth a try. From contributor P: One of the most difficult things for a millwork installer to deal with. All shops have to figure in an extra 4 or 5 bucks per inside joint on the estimate. No magic drugs solve this bottleneck. I use a crown molding software program to calculate the bevel and miter cuts. So no trial and error in the field. And I put up the long pieces first with straight cuts so the shorter pieces have the cope. I use a tablesaw on an installer's workbench (foldup unit) to hog out most of the material for the cope. I use a sanding block or belt sander to finish. The bigger the crown, the harder it is to do. I tried the coping foot with a jig saw, but it seemed to solve one problem and create another. Crown over 4" is really difficult, no getting around it. Small bandsaw, jigsaw, coping saw, they all have their drawbacks. Even the best craftsman will work hard to make a good crown install. Charge your customer for it. The best improvement I had with installing crown was the software. I use a program by "Easy shop series" but I don't see it marketed anymore. There are some other programs. Also find a miter chart and give everyone a copy. Not quite as good as software, but you can get fairly close. From contributor W: I have been considering two alternative answers to coping mouldings, and wonder what installers acceptance would be to: a) Getting all mouldings supplied with pre-machined cope on both ends or b) a small template guided machine that will machine the cope on site. Would either of these ideas be of interest to installers? From contributor P: On small jobs I plan out pieces and cope all but the last piece. If crown is long enough to do a room in 4 pieces, I cope 1 end on 3 pieces in the shop and the last one is a cut to fit double cope in the field. Professional installers still need to be good at crown install - it's their job to learn it. I've never seen or heard about any kind of template or machine to cut a cope. If you know of one, share with the world its existence. A real good math freeware program will calculate compound miters. You just need to be a little math savvy. From contributor W: Contributor P, I have figured out the design of such a machine. I don't think one exists already. I am trying to decide if it should be built heavy-duty for the moulding manufacturer to use, or lighter and portable for the carpenter to use on-site. From contributor T: I always install the shorter pieces of crown first. I cut the longer pieces 1/8 -1/4 inch longer to get a good crush fit on the copes. I always use a coping saw on the coped ends. From contributor P: I suppose if I were to design a coping machine it would be the size of a jigsaw and operate like a band saw. It would use a spiral-rasp type of blade. This thing would be able to cut and grind at any angle and have a small enough blade to get into little corners. And to have a router type collar that rides on a custom made template would speed things up a lot. But you would have to have a 3D sort of template to work well. Triangular, increasing depth kind of thing. Maybe a good business for someone that has a metal CNC machine. Just fax in a drawing of your crown molding and a week or so later get your template. Kind of like how my custom shaper knives get done. I don't know if Art Betterly is still around, but I remember seeing him about 20 years ago working with Porter cable on designing odd router applications. From contributor W: Customers I spoke with last week said that the coping machine should be portable and inexpensive for use on site. They thought that shipping pre-coped mouldings would be too easy to damage in transit. My machine would use a small router bit or rasp blade, working from the same 1:1 plastic template Weinig uses in our grinders (cheap to duplicate, can be readily supplied with moulding). All I have to do now is make it! What determines if cope should be cut onto LH or RH piece of moulding? How important is that choice? A machine gets more expensive if it must do both. From contributor T: It depends on which way ( right or left) you go around the room when starting. The last piece is usually double coped ( both ends). It usually doesn't make much difference to me which way I go around the room. From contributor W: I had not considered double copes, but now I will - glad I asked. I just hog out the waste to within a sixteenth of the finished line with a jig saw held with its base plate a bit above the clamped work piece. Then I finish up with a Foredom rotary tool with variable-speed foot control. Total time per cut= maybe 2-3 minutes? As a part time cabinet/furniture maker, I do get roped into crown installs on occasion. Since most of my crown are custom profiles, many of which are large, full coves which extend to full horizontal at the ceiling. These cannot be coped due to the razor thin piece that remains. Thus mitering is the only way. I plan for the time and charge for it. As far as pre-coped, here is my bit for the small shop/installer. I did a crown job for an enormous library coffered ceiling. The openings were between two and four feet square. Some were trapezoidal, thus adding to the grief. Several hundred cuts. Now the fun part. It had to be pre-finished cherry with conversion varnish. The original shop/installer failed to install the crown and left the state. Home library was occupied. With no cap on price, I pondered it for some time, knowing good measurements and pre-copes were the only hope. Since my shop work revolves around my SCM T50 shaper, I had a coping profile cutter made. I ran all the crown, then cut the lengths to exact for butt. I then made several fixtures to hold the crown at the required angles, right and left. These were also designed to eliminate tearout. The ends of the fixture were cast out of Bondo to give a perfect fit to the crown. This was the trick for a smooth cut. In a nutshell, my shaper was turned into a coping machine. It worked great. All pieces were fit, filed if required, identified, brought back and finished. All were then pin nailed upon installation. In the end I had an amazing respect for the installers coping and fitting on site. They earn every penny. Contributor W, if you have a machine that copes to a template, would you still be able to mount the crown at various angles to the wall? When installing crown in a room with a cathedral ceiling, one piece may be tilted 10 or 15 degrees toward the wall to keep things lined up. Another thought is a machine that uses a sample of the crown itself as a template. This would make it useful to guys that don't make their own mouldings and wouldn't have templates from their knives (that they don't have). I make mouldings but use a coping saw to cope them! From contributor J: I've installed a fair amount of crown for friends and relatives on a freebie basis. Now I have several paying clients who want crown installed and I'd like some suggestions on how to price my work. From contributor P: Contributor J, several ways to look at it. About 3 bucks per foot, in an average situation. Plus add about 5 bucks per joint when the frequency of the joints exceeds 1 per 12 feet. Another way is to figure what you are going to pay yourself per hour. For me, it's 35 per hour. And I figure about 10 to 12 feet of crown installed per hour. So a square room, 12 x 12 is a half day's work to set up, fasten blocking, install, putty holes and move on to the next room. If there is high ceiling and you need scaffold, or furniture is in the way, add the costs to the per foot method. And to speed things up, figure out what the angle of the crown is to the wall, and do some of the cope joints before packing to the job site. The compound angle formula from my spreadsheet will figure the angles in a jiff. Enter this in your favorite spreadsheet. compound miter formula - entered in row 15 cell 1 - slope a in degrees cell 2 - A15*PI()/180 cell 3 - slope b in degrees (note: slopes a and b will be the same when figuring crown molding) cell 4 - C15*PI()/180 cell 5 - wall angle in degrees cell 6 - E15*PI()/180 cell 7 - ATAN((COS(B15)*TAN(D15)+SIN(B15)*COS(F15))/SIN(F15)) cell 8 - G15*180/(PI()) miter cut in degrees cell 9 - ATAN((COS(D15)*TAN(B15)+SIN(D15)*COS(G15)/SIN(G15))) cell 10- 90-(I15*180/(PI())) bevel cut in degrees Why can't you either notch the butt end or drill a hole that will allow the wires to pass through? Just a thought. From contributor T: Cut your crown in a miter box. Turn it upside down to cut your 45 degree cut on the ends. Roll the crown in the miter box so the wall and ceiling surfaces fit to the back fence and base of the box. Swing the saw to the left to 45 degrees to cut the left end and right to cut the right. Remember to watch for your fingers. I once coped 8" solid cherry pre-finished crown on a table saw. It worked perfectly. It didn't show light when a lamp was held behind the joint (it was flying crown, for a light bar above it). When I install crown I use a half miter joint (that is a piece cut square and then miter just the bottom portion to about the main curve) then I fully miter the other and cope out the top half with slight undercut leaving the mitered portion on the bottom). Installed looks like mitered on both and you can cut full for a frog hair tight joint. Works equally well on any moulding-base/chair rail/crown/wood top edges. With 2 men we can install really fast and as I said very tight joints (will almost install itself as it self-aligns the joint). I've got an old hat working with me and he swore he could install faster by just mitering both pieces - result=less than adequate/takes a few more seconds to half cope, since only coping half the mould width - and usually the less ornate part - but installation goes much faster. He got on my page after a short demo. Try it. You'll like it. Faster and better. Contributor W, the gizmo you're considering. Are you sure it would work on sprung crown? From contributor W: That depends on what a 'sprung crown' is. Does this mean a crown that is adjusted for a different wall angle - as an angled attic wall? Sprung crown would be applied at a 45-degree angle to the wall (as opposed to “solid crown” which is applied flat, like a base or chair rail). From contributor W: I think it will work fine with sprung crown, at any wall angle. For the record I don't plan to develop my own cope machine until I see the system already developed by Bill Shaw (the trim cope machine is called the Copemaster, Shaw Millwork, CT). I need to be sure that my concept does not conflict with his. I am installing crown moulding (#LCM96?) over some kitchen cabinets. I have a corner wall unit with 2 inside 45 degree angles to the other cabinets, and am getting my butt kicked trying to cut the moulding properly. I'm not sure how to position the piece on the miter saw to make the cut. Any suggestions? Lay your crown on the miter box up-side down (cove up against the fence). Now any measurements you take from your cabs will be on top of the piece on the miter box. Set up some crown stops or something set to hold the crown from slipping down. This way when you make multiple cuts, they will be the same. The comments below were added after this Forum discussion was archived as a Knowledge Base article (add your comment). Comment from contributor A: First get a Bosch DWM 40L electronic miter gauge and use it for all corner measurements as it figures compound cuts/miters on crown based on the spring angle. Only drawback is that spring-angle has to be inputed for each measurement. For crown under 5" a regular miter saw with 3" tall fence has been modifed by drilling holes through it to allow a strip of wood (2x) ripped to spring angle to be attached to fence at a height that allows for wall surface of crown to rest against fence. Then set angles by cutting a left and right miter angle, and you're left with exact index where the blade meets crown, enabling incredibly fast and accurate cuts. For crown larger than 5" we use an old saw-buck with an auxillary wood (3/4" ply) cutting surface (to index kerf). I measure all sides at once, cut and install the shortest side first (cut to exact length) then spring the longer pieces in place (depending on surface - drywall or wood - cut 1/32 to 1/16 longer). Haven't coped a joint in years. From contributor B: I have been a carpenter for more than 25 years. I have installed miles of crown molding (more than tens of thousands of feet). I have had many a mechanic frown and shake his head at me with a look of disapproving malice. I miter inside corners. If I can fit it, I put a brisket or two in the joint. I always take the time to jig up the chop saw to hold the stock (broom handles in the holes of a 15" Hitachi with a rip of plywood on the back fence and across the front will handle crown up to about 8"). Building a reverse fence and bending back some of the blade shroud will take you to a little better than 9". When it gets bigger than that and I have to resort to a compound miter saw, then I use at least two saws and a jigged chop saw with smaller stock to set the angles on the compound saw. I will admit that I "dance" a little with the reveals, and at times, I only tack the build-up parts to open up the dance floor and find a compromise. Carpentry is a controlled series of screw-ups. If floors and ceilings where perfect (and stable) there would be no need for molding. My priority is tight lasting joints. I feel I can achieve that faster with miters. I get the angle right with flat stock, cut the crown from the bottom dimension and tap with a wood block and hammer until airtight. I do cope simple trims like Ogee and quarter round, primarily because it saves the effort of finding the angles (it seems that most inside corners in drywall construction are less than square). Strangely, it does not matter to me whether the teeth of the coping saw face up or down. Here is another can of worms. When it comes to splices in the field, I butt cut the joints. I can see the heads moving left to right in disapproval. Long lengths of crown molding are sprung into place and under an ever-changing amount of pressure. I have seen even 22.5 degree scarfs walk out of flush after five years. Sometimes simple is better. Comment from contributor C: I'm with Mr. A. I cut my first cut at exactly 45 degrees and at a 45 degree angle, upside down. Then I check the fit with a scrap piece and gauge a slight tip, either positive or negative for the next piece to eliminate the gap. After a few tries you'll get it by eye. Result... no plugging in numbers and calculating, and no coping. Most rooms are close enough to 90 degree corners for this to work. Works on 90 degree inside or outside corners. Comment from contributor D: I just finished installing crown in four rooms in a 20's English Tudor home with very uneven walls. Initially I used the Collins Coping Foot mounted on my jigsaw which was working okay, but I had various imperfections and it bothered me. Plus, holding a jigsaw upside down is unnerving for me. I think it's dangerous, and when I get off line, I can't easily back up and cut in another line because I'm in a cut line. After giving a lot of thought to what tool would be able to eliminate the backside of a mitered corner to produce the perfect cope, it dawned on me that a Dremel with the right bit might work. After trying all my bits, I was surprised at how affective a drum sander bit was. Because of its large round drum side, I was able to shape and grind away the material and follow the profile of the crown with a lot of control. In areas where the profile came to a point, the drum sander was also effective by turning the head of the bit sideways and cutting in with the top edge. Excited by the idea, I researched a more sturdy bit and found that Dremel makes a carbine sanding belt which I found online for $6 each. I just finished the job and my coped corners are virtually flawless. The carbide sanding belt with Dremel allowed me to shape away the perfect profile and create great fitting coped corners. Using the dremel tool I have to remove all the "white meat" of the cope by grinding it away, but with the carbide bit, it's pretty fast and the control and finished results of this tool blow away doing it by hand or with the Collins foot. I learned two more things about working with crown moulding. On outside corners, I have found it best to make the corners on the ground and install a finished corner that is perfect. It's just too tough for me to joint boards on the wall for outside corners and get good results. With MDF especially, a hot glue gun forms tight strong outside corner joints and is the perfect tool instead of trying to nail it together. Also, when I do crown moulding, I do all horizontal turns of the saw with the crown upside down and leaning against the fence of my compound miter saw. Personally, I built a taller fence for my miter saw so that I can lean crown upside down in the saw and easily hold it at the correct angle leaning against the fence. It really speeds things up. Also, its true that most corners are 90 degrees, but when you get one that isn't that is an outside corner, you can't keep the joint tightly together if you don't adjust your miter to the actual angle of the corner. The most important thing about doing corners other than 90 degrees is to check that your saw is square before trying to cut anything other than 90 or 45 degrees. I adjust the fence and the tilt of the saw to make sure I get 90 degree readings against the saw before starting. I have found that saws out of the box aren't in good enough alignment to ensure tight joints. Comment from contributor E: Here is how I take the guess work out of finding the exact length to cut crown, no matter if I am putting up my first or last piece, or cutting miters or copes at the corners. I get a scrap pice of crown around 16" long, and cut the right and left corners on each end to fit the existing corners. I place a 6" mark at each end on my test piece, from what will be the longest point, and place it into position and transfer each 6" mark to the wall, one at each end. I measure from wall mark to wall mark and add the two 6" lengths (12")to get an accurate (to the 1/64") total length. Comment from contributor F: Okay, you want to be quick? Do you have a deadly eye? I install 40 miters a day in and out. I charge 20 bucks per corner. Screw the per foot charge - anyone who has done a column or returned to a a/c difuser will tell you why. Buy a Hitachi 10" with laser and the Hitachi work station. Read the Hitachi manual and learn to cut crown flat. I don't care if it's 5 1/4, 7 1/4, blah, blah. First, cut your long runs square. Use the drop off a piece over 3 feet, preferably as a tell stick. You will need several per job for ins and outs. Cut a perfect (Hitachi makes this easy) inside 45 / 22 1/2 and cope same with outsides, just no cope (duh). On your copes use your great grandfather's coping saw. In the absence of that, buy 3 of those cheap ones - I go through about 10 a year. Never can have enough blades. Hold the coping saw right (the end of the handle should rest inside your palm) - this isn't a rip saw. Okay, so you can cope now. Take a mini grinder with 60 grit (this takes practice, but it's not too hard) and wham - you're done. Measure wall to wall, not your long runs details to detail. Oh, the tell sticks help you make micro adjustments from true 45/ 22 1/2... I love doing 8 sided trays and double trays - that's money, honey. 16 corners times 20 and you can bake them in 3 hours or less. Who says lawyers have all the fun? Comment from contributor G: I make a pretty good living installing crown, base and case. Crown molding is my best money maker at $4.00 minimum per foot, no charge per corner, extra for vaulted ceilings. There is no trick to installing crown, once you know the basics. Measure the length of the wall and add 1/16. Always check the angle of the corner with an angle finder. I use the DeWalt 708 CMS for all my jobs and have found it great. There is no such thing as a perfect corner, especially in tract-homes. 92/88 degree corners are common, and if you know the formula for the compound cut, your job is simple. Comment from contributor H: I have found the best and fastest way of coping, not just crown but any trim, is to use a Bosch hand grinder with 60 grit sanding disk. Just make your inside corner cut the same as you would for a normal cope, highlight the edge of the miter, then use the grinder. It will make your cope cut in seconds. Comment from contributor X: Regarding drywall corners that are built up out-of-square, I always cut a scrap piece of the moulding square on both ends as a banger block. Whack it in both directions to flatten the texture or built-up mud and establish good corners to measure and install to. Another useful technique is to nail together inside corners on the ground and lift up as a unit. The cuts coming off the ends of these premade corners are more easily adjusted than fighting one corner or the other. I have done this in many areas - in large spaces you can set all four corners and then fill the middle with the appropriate cuts (works best on paint grade, and uses up a lot of scraps). Comment from contributor V: One mechanical method of installing angled, wall to ceiling, paint-grade material with a miter saw is first to: - Measure and rip a beveled back rest that will lay against the fence, holding work secure and hopefully safe (in the position it will be mounted). This will vary with width of mould. ALL mould cuts will be made with the top edge down. - For an inside left-hand corner, the blade is at 45 degrees and swung to the right-hand side. - The mould is also on the right side, top edge down. - Left inside corner: Blade left, mould left, top down. Outside corners: - Right hand - blade right, mould left, top edge down. - Left hand - mould right, blade left, top down. If rooms are longer than material length, add 45 degree miters for overlap joint. Always do left or right ends the same and add paintable caulk/putty to all joints prior to assembly. Wipe excess with damp rag. Comment from contributor L: One of the most important aspects of installing crown molding properly is knowing the correct profile/angle the molding sits in relation to the wall and ceiling. In other words, how far down from the ceiling on the wall the crown should sit and how far out from the wall the crown projects on the ceiling. Once you have these projections, a good pair of crown stops added to a professional compound miter saw make a huge difference. With the crown stops, you can position your molding on your saw exactly as it should sit on the wall. The only trick is, when you make your cuts, you have to cut the crown upside down and reverse the cut. As far as coping goes, with some practice, you can remove most of the wood on a table saw and finish off the more intricate cuts with a coping saw. Following these simple steps will produce excellent results on a consistent basis. Adjustments to deal with out-of-square, -level and -plumb walls, corners and ceilings are all part of the installation process. Comment from contributor M: I have installed hundreds of feet of crown. I usually start with a coulple of 24" pieces cut opposite angles for a template. I then find the correct angle for every corner in the room before I make the first cut. This helps the saw man and or anyone else setting my saw. I use a Dewalt sliding compound mitre. One job and the thing is paid for. Use your own judgement about making copes. I once had to cope 12" cherry on an 18' ceiling. Coping is much tougher than mitre. If you get your angles right with templates the first time, you will not spend your day adjusting your cuts. I usually add some blocking at all corners, and use a glue like Gorilla to secure mitre joints. I think the other guy was close with his $4.00 per foot price. I usually charge at least $10.00 per foot for installed and painted crown. Comment from contributor I: I am shocked at how difficult everyone is making crown install. I have been installing cabinets for 27 years in Los Angeles. Dry fit as you go and adjust degrees to fit. I adjust somtimes in one 1/4 of one degree to make a closed fit, so dry fit and adjust first and get three or four pieces ready ahead of the nail-up. You do not have to cope, miter, and try to nail inside pieces together, then put them up. Comment from contributor Y: There is a new tool out that helps cope crown molding. It's called the EasyCoper. It is a jig that allows you to cope the crown molding with an electric jigsaw. You slide your molding that has been mitered in the miter saw in the EasyCoper and then take an electric jigsaw and follow the contour. There is still some skill in following the contour, but the jigsaw is positioned in such a way that it gives you an undercut or back cut that is always consistent and you never have to take any more off the backside with a grinder, rasp, or whatever method is used. It's simple and easy. Comment from contributor U: I too am surprised at how difficult this is being made. Coping crown moulding is just another part of the job that first rate carpenters should be able to do quickly. Most cabinet crown installations should not even need the cope if all is installed square, level and plumb. As for crown installations on wall to ceiling applications put the cope where you will not be looking directly at it when you enter the room. Also a right handed carpenter will prefer a left handed cope and vice versa. This is due to the angle of the back cut and how the coping saw is held. I am aware of a coping machine but you would have to install thousands of feet of crown for a machine of that nature to be financially feasible. A grinder will also do the trick but it is loud and dusty. Large crown might call for the hogging method and a grinder, but for most of us 4 1/4" crown can be done efficiently with a medium toothed coping saw. Make sure to set the saw blade so it cuts on the push stroke. This is a method that will make things quicker and cleaner. Comment from contributor R: I find that coping corners gives the best result on most crown jobs. After setting up my saw for inside corners I don't change it. I always start from the left and work around the room. I put up a scrap piece in the corner I start from and cope the adjacent piece and extend to the other end of the wall adding 1/16 for snap. When I get back to my starting point I remove my scrap piece and fit my square end under my coped piece. By doing this I only have to cope one side of the crow on each piece. There are a few new tools or should I say aids that make coping much easier. There is even a power coper available if you want to spend the money. Many of the new aids are inexpensive and believe me make your job much easier. One is a guide system called EasyCoper. You can master this set up in about 5 minutes. Comment from contributor F: I have read all the posts and am a little confused. I have been trimming homes for 15 years. This is not rocket science. I measure my room and cut all my pieces: 1 square to square, 1 piece with right hand cope, 1 piece with a left hand cope and the last piece coped on each end. I cope all of my cope cuts with a Bosch jig saw using a 24TPI blade free hand and get perfect copes. I take all of the pieces to the room and hang them. I hang the square end first, then left cope piece, and then the right cope piece next, always leaving the ends of each piece of crown hung and not nailed 3 to 4 feet from the end to allow flexibility when tying in a coped end to it. Lastly I put in the piece of crown that is coped on both ends and nail it off. The time it takes to measure a room, cut the crown, cope the crown and hang the crown is 1 hour. I charged $10.00 per corner inside and outside and $10.00 per splice if the room is over 16 ft. So a square room not over 16 ft. would have 4 corners at $10.00 per corner = $40.00 – that’s $40.00 per hour. This $20.00 per corner + $3 to $4 per foot is high, and taking a half a day to do one room is way too long. Installing Crown Molding is one of the hardest thing as a contractor does because you are dealing with the trueness of the wall, and the miter cuts must be an exact match. THIS IS NOT FOR A NOVICE!!!!!!!! If you prefer to you the prefab MDF molding that is available at home depot and it had the corning all ready to be installed and will require minimum cuts in the middle to connect the molding. Please note: Once purchase place the molding in the room where it will be installed and allow it to sit for at least 1 week to adjust to the temperature which will cause it to expand or decrease in size. If you would prefer to have it installed profession ally please contact EZ Furniture Assembly & Interior Innovstions, and one of our project managers will discuss the entire project and provide you with a quote FREE of charge.

Sneak Peek at Brooklyn Hot, Chic Furniture Store

Brooklyn has really been making the right moves by bringing in IKEA among many other great stores that sell modern, flatpack furniture that us city dwellers want at affordable prices. If you buy your furniture in Manhattan you are forced to pay more. It's always quick to blame the store, but in reality the cost to operate a store in Manhattan vs. Brooklyn is astronomical. We rent a closet office in the financial district and pay a thousand a month so you can only imagine what a big box retailer would have to pay for the required space, never mind the cost of fuel that has driven the cost of everything through the roof.

After you find the furniture you want and/or need that requires assembly please feel free to contact EZ Furniture Assembly & Interior Innovations. We are fully licensed,insured, and have over 15 years direct experience in professional assembly & installation services. And as always, if you have any questions regarding flatpack furniture, the retailer, maker, or help assembling it please post it here and one of our technicians will provide you with an answer within a few hours

BKLYN SNEAK PEEK: Bamboo Furniture from Ecosystems

by Evelyn Lee

New sustainable furniture company EcoSystems creates cute, family-friendly furniture that is as thoughtful of the environment as it is to the owner. Starting with renewable materials, EcoSystems follows an earth-minded agenda from start to finish, including taking responsibility for their designs at end of its (first) lifecycle, by taking back and recycling their furniture when you are done with it. Did we mention this stuff is super cute and durable - coming in a variety of primary colors and innovation seating/table configurations? Ecosystems will be showing at BKLYN Designs this weekend, and you can be sure that Abigail and Jill will be stopping at this booth during Sunday’s Mother’s Day Green Design Walking Tour >

EcoSystems uses automated manufacturing and a near-zero waste strategy to optimize efficiency and material use. One sheet of bamboo plywood contains the pattern for two complete chairs, with little waste. Assembly is streamlined as the flat-packed chair components snap together without the use of additional tools. Best of all, when you’re ready to move on or upgrade, EcoSystems will pick-up their furniture to recycle or reuse the materials.

The Bamba chair, pictured above, comes in two different types of bamboo depending on whether you prefer light or dark wood. The hardware is made of 100% aluminum and the cushion and upholstery are made of natural talalay latex and natural COM fabrics that are biodegradable. If you’re interested in more communal seating that offers a variety of different combinations, EcoSystems has created the Tandem 1 that can be customized to suit the needs of your home or office.

+ EcoSystems
+ BKLYN Designs

+ BKLYN Designs Starts Friday!
+ BKLYN Designs 2007
+ BKLYN Designs 2006

Tags: bamboo, furniture, ecosystems, BKLYN, Designs, Brooklyn, green, eco-friendly, zero-waste, design

Brooklyn, New York Finally Gets The First IKEA in The CITY!!!!

Locals who feared the arrival of a branch of the Swedish furniture chain have found IKEA to be a largely tolerant neighbor. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

Seven weeks before their grand opening, employees in Red Hook, Brooklyn’s IKEA are busy reading directions and assembling furniture.

While the store’s layout is pretty much the same as any other IKEA, the location makes it stand out - it's the first IKEA in New York City and the first on a waterfront – with views of Downtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.

"It's just the right size. Two, it has that proximity to the population of New York - not just Brooklyn itself but surrounding Brooklyn,” said store manager Mike Baker. “So we think we're dead center in the population that we need to be."

The store sits on 22 acres along the Erie Basin, and more than six of those acres have been turned into a public waterfront esplanade which IKEA included in its designs to help win over the community.

Opponents said the big-box store would ruin the character of the neighborhood and attract more traffic than could be handled.

But Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Community Board 6, said that IKEA has been a good neighbor, listening and addressing concerns.

"There were certain conditions that the community board had imposed on its land use review and IKEA has lived up to all of the conditions," said Hammerman.

IKEA helped pay for turning lanes on Hamilton Avenue to ease the traffic flow in and out of Red Hook. Shuttle buses will pick up customers at nearby subway stations, water taxi service will run to and from Manhattan's Pier 11, two city bus lines are extending their routes to the store and rental Zipcars will be on-site.

IKEA widened and paved the street in front of the store, upsetting some residents who wanted to keep the old stone road that was here. So, designers included the stones in the park landscape. The store also incorporated cranes to preserve the site's maritime history.

And the Swedish company's outreach also extended to its hiring practices - giving local residents first shot at jobs which include full benefits for even part-time employees.

"You watch it come from an empty warehouse into a showcase," said an employee.

"Overall it's a good experience. I'm very excited to see the opening," said another.

IKEA is still hiring – and opponents of the store may learn to embrace it, once it opens June 18.

- Jeanine Ramirez

EZ Furniture Assembly & Interior Innovations, LLC welcomes this move forward and will be happy to continue to be New York's #1 Furniture Assembly Service. Visit us www.ezfurnitureassembly.com

EZ FURNITURE ASSEMBLY IS HIRING ALL POSITIONS!! DON'T GET RIPPED OFF FROM COMPANIES LIKE THIS...

I have been employed by Impact Resource Group for & months. The company also goes by the names of National Product Services and We're Ready to Assemble. My Service Coordinator is in Ohio, and my District Manager is in North Carolina. My Service Coordinator I've never seen, and my District Manager I've seen approximately 3 times since I was hired.

When I started, I had bicycle assembly work every day, then there were a couple of days when there was no work available. Then came the Christmas Season and the work load increased dramatically, Now that February is almost over I am getting very little work at all.

Working one day a week at less than minimum wage does not bring in enough to pay bills. I have sent repeated emails to my District Manager to which he either ignores or refuse to respond. I have been told that some of the managers in the serviced stores do not want me in their stores due to alleged improper assembly or taking too much time to do the assemblies. None of the managers at the serviced stores have addressed me directly on the alleged issues. A couple of weeks ago I traveled 150 miles round trip to an assembly job. Rather than reimbursing me for mileage, they actually deducted money from my pay check!

There are other jobs to do such as assemble furniture and grills, but my District Manager seems to think either I can't do it, or refuses to let me do it. This is despite my asking to do something else rather than bicylces. When ever I talk to my Service Coordinator, which is rarely, the response I get when questioning my lack of work is 'stores are not selling very many bicycles at this time.' If you wan't to do something else you have to talk to the District Manager. It does not do any good to call him, because he almost never bothers to answer his phone and youre automatically transfered to his voice mail.

The last time I did actually talk to him, he stated that this may not be the job for me because I cannot turn out 35-40 bikes in a days time. When i was trained, my trainer told me that he can easily do 25 bikes a day. This seems to be acceptable to the District Manager.
When he hired me he never told me that there would be times when there would be no work available.

My advice is, if you see an advertisement From Impact,NPS,NASCO, or We're ready to Assemble that says you will be paid at least $14.00 an hour, don't believe it and do not answer the add. If you do, you will regret it.
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We here at EZ Furniture Assembly & Interior Innovations is a fast growing company that currently serves all of New York City, Long Island, Staten Island, And Eastern N.J.. We have plans to move into other states in the near future and we will need people to oversee and operate these operations. We offer GREAT PAY in which work is steady and the more you know the more you will make. Why should YOU pay for the gas and wear & tear on your vehichle? Wait weeks to get paid? We recently launched a subsidiary, NYC HANDYMAN that is also seeking experienced handymen and women who can do everything from paint to tile, and everything in between. You can more or less set your schedule and how much you want to make. If you are interested in furniture,bicycle,closet,storage, and all other types of flatpack assembly visit us at www.ezfurnitureassembly.com. If you are more experienced as a handyman visit us at www.nychandyman.biz. On both websites you can fill out a contact form where you can request a phone interview. If you are out of the NY area no problem because we are looking for the right people to grow with.

New York City Furniture Assembly Service Adds Handyman Service to Better Serve Clients

EZ Furniture Assembly & Interior Innovations is Proud to announce that we have recentley launched a subsidirary, which is NYC HANDYMAN. When I started this company I had almost nothing but my knowledge and a few hand tools and today we have over 20 employeees between the two companies. The best part is that they share the same goal, keeping customer service #1!

It took a while for the furniture assembly service to take off because many people never knew such a service even existed, but with our 5 Star Rating on Ikea Fans and recent "Superior Service Award" by Angie's list our business have grown greatly. However, many of the technicians I hired were from competiting companies that were paying them peanuts and all they were taught and knew was furniture assembly & kitchen cabinet installation. I had so many customers asking if we could do such things as: paint, install shelves, build closets, install a/c units etc that for a long time I sub contracted the work out. Now I made the decision to form and launch NYC HANDYMAN which does all of the above plus masonry work, tiling, bathtub refinishing, power washing, siding repairs, entire kitchen & bathroom renovations. The list is endless!!!!!!!

I truely believe no matter how many services we offer that customer service must ALWAYS be our #1 service, but if the customer requires these services it's our duty to get them done.'

Please visit us at www.nychandyman.biz or www.ezfurnitureassembly.com