My uncle Bob swore by using construction adhesive on cabinet joints...

He's been doing cabinets since before I was born, so I figured he knew what he was talking about. Tried it on a set of upper cabinets last spring, and three of the doors started sagging within a month. Ended up having to pull everything apart and redo it with proper pocket screws and glue. I'm still mad about the $80 in hardwood I wasted. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from an old timer that backfired?

5 comments

5 Comments

logan2711mo ago

My uncle told me to use roofing nails for a fence once, and I've got a leaning mess in my backyard that proves old timers are stubborn, not always right. It's like they think tougher equals better without actually testing anything first.

sullivan.quinn1mo ago

Old timers treat every project like it's 1955 and lumber was free. They think a nail is a nail and wood is wood, but modern pressure treated stuff is completely different than what they grew up with. It's kind of like how they swear by lead paint for lasting forever too, ignoring that it's poison. That whole "tougher is better" mindset usually skips over basic stuff like how the materials actually work together. Your fence is just another example of that stubborn attitude causing more work later.

danielowens5d ago

Yeah that whole "tougher is better" thing is such a joke when they don't even look at how the stuff actually works together. Roofing nails in a fence is just asking for trouble, plain and simple. I've seen that same mistake a dozen times where guys think if a nail is strong enough for a roof it must be good for anything. Never mind that the coating isn't meant to sit wet against treated wood for years. It's like they just guess and call it experience.

samreed1mo ago

Did the uncle happen to mention anything about what kind of wood he used with those roofing nails? I bet he didn't account for how the coating on roofing nails reacts with pressure treated lumber - they're designed for thin shingles, not thick fence boards. The chemical treatment in the wood actually eats away at the cheap coating fast, leaving you with rusty, loose nails. Would that explain why it leaned, or was the whole design just bad from the start?

val9745d ago

Doesn't it drive you nuts when someone's "advice" ends up costing you more time and money than doing it right the first time? Sorry you're dealing with that mess, man. Sounds like a classic case of "well it worked for me" without any real thought behind it.