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[Mike Sokol]

And standby in case you fall of the ladder onto the marble floor.

Hey, I don't work on live electric boxes alone, and I don't climb ladders without someone else in the room who can call 911. That was the first thing I made sure my kids knew how to do... call 911 and perform basic CPR. 

[Steve M Smith]

That was the first thing I made sure my kids knew how to do... call 911 and perform basic CPR. 

I'm covered there.  My son is training to be a paramedic.


Steve.

[Mike Sokol]

Well, we got the tamper-proof bolts out today, filled in the holes, and repainted. As promised, here's some pictures. The first thing we found out was the bolts were hardened and a carbide drill bit wouldn't even scratch the surface. So my fabricator Karl got out his diamond cutoff saw and sliced off the heads. Only took about 30 seconds per bolt to cut off the heads, and there was relatively little mess. We punched in the bolts below surface, used epoxy filler on the holes, sanded the wall with a drywall plane, then repainted the entire area. Looks perfect and only took two hours including setting up the ladders with pads over the marble alters, and a thorough cleanup. Well worth it to hire a contractor who does marble and drywall everyday, and who has all the right tools for the job.

[Keith Broughton]

It's clear now what your concerns were about surrounding "stuff"!
Nice job.
The ladder looks like it's got it's hand up in defense 

[frank kayser]

I love the gloves up on the ladder...
Looks like they're reaching up in prayer (as in Thank God this project is DONE!) 

[Mike Sokol]

I love the gloves up on the ladder...
Looks like they're reaching up in prayer (as in Thank God this project is DONE!) 

Exactly...

Karl said that gloves on the ladder is an old painters trick so you don't scuff up the wall.  Both the ladder and the statue were praying for us. You can see the antique marble alter right below, so we put down rubber padding and covered it all with drop cloths. I also had my wife do a faux finish on the new Entasys speakers which you can see mounted on the face of the columns. She's an artist who specializes in murals and faux paining, so she was able to match the grain and stain of the existing 100 year old wood. I love working with professionals, even when they're not really doing "sound".

A fabricator is a great guy to know. Tomorrow we're at another church cutting a hole in the side of the platform for a digital stage box, and Karl's framing it out and putting in rack rails while he's on site. He'll match the style of the molding and paint it the same color as the rest of the room so this will look like it's been there forever. I normally don't worry about things like this for my portable gigs, but church installs demand this sort of attention to detail. So it not only sounds great, it looks great too. The pastor is really thrilled with the install which we were able to finish in time for his birthday celebration.   

[Mark Cadwallader]

Looks good, Mike. If you don't need a specialty skill (or specialty tools) it often is much cheaper/faster/better to hire somebody who does. (Isn't that just what we tell our clients?). Mark C.

[Mike Sokol]

Looks good, Mike. If you don't need a specialty skill (or specialty tools) it often is much cheaper/faster/better to hire somebody who does. (Isn't that just what we tell our clients?). Mark C.

Yeah.... Trying to save a few bucks doing something you're not an expert at can cost more in the long run. I'm trying to do high-end install jobs, so we need high-end finishes. I'm confident in my ability to tune a room, but not so much when it comes to drilling a hole in marble or painting a wall. 

I've been asked to design a bunch of sound systems in churches with a lot of marble and fancy carvings. And, of course, all wiring needs to be invisible. I plan to sub out the drilling and fabrication to someone who does a lot better job than I could in way less time.

[Stephen Swaffer]

I agree with subbing out for sure.  Have to wonder what they were worried about that made them use tamper proof bolts in that location? 

[Mike Sokol]

I agree with subbing out for sure.  Have to wonder what they were worried about that made them use tamper proof bolts in that location?

I have NO CLUE as to why they would do something like that. For my new speaker brackets we put threaded rod all the way through the block wall with large fender washers on the back side. I'm pretty sure the new brackets would hold up a truck if they needed to. I just don't trust expansion anchors in cinder block to hold up speakers hanging in the air. I'm not a rigging guy but I do have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, so I'm always aware of the stresses on this sort of installation. I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough? 

[ProSoundWeb Community]