My buddy did the same thing in his laundry room and he's been bragging about how good it still looks every time I'm over there.

Yeah, I’ve run into that exact problem. What worked for me was scraping the cap clean with a stiff wire brush first, then hitting it with a shop vac to get all the loose stuff off before any spray touches it. After that, I use a thin coat of vegetable oil on a rag to wipe down the cap, let it sit for a few minutes, then scrub again with the brush. That breaks down the sticky layer without pushing goo down the pipe.

Tbh you need Lineco neutral pH PVA, that's the go-to for bookcloth. The regular school glue or cheap PVA has too much water and soaks right into the fabric. I switched after ruining a whole yard of Japanese bookcloth and never looked back. Also check if your buckram has a paper backing or coating cause that changes everything. Paste mix is safer for coated cloth but it takes longer to dry and can warp thin boards. Just stick with Lineco and test on a scrap first, that would've saved you the $60 mistake.

Been there. Frozen ground is a nightmare, that's when you find out if your equipment is actually built for it or just looks tough in the catalog. Three hours late and the driver shrugs it off? Sounds like the concrete company's dispatch was picking up their kid from school that day. Customer changing the height after 60 feet of work is just the cherry on top of the disaster sundae.

Oh man, @the_vera you're speaking my language lol! I once saw a dude try to cut in line at a concert and the whole crowd just formed a human wall around him, it was beautiful.