A Qualified Success
This weekend was a success, I think. The front bedroom floor is solid and level for the first time in God knows how long. The gaping hole for the fireplace-that-never-was is sealed. Well, 95% sealed.
When I started this project, I thought it would be a relatively quick job. Frame in the 4 ft. x 6 ft. hole, lay a sheet of ¾ inch plywood, and voila! Easy, right? Nope. Nothing is ever easy. I think I spent more time fixing the sagging floor than I did framing in the hole.
The Devil Queen has huge, true 2x10 joists for her floors. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any 2x10’s, old or modern, in my salvage piles. Instead, I reluctantly used 2x6’s. I spaced them on 12” centers to make up for their smaller size. I probably over-built the framing, but I prefer that to the alternative: under-built floor caves in sending the wood burning stove, full of red-hot embers, crashing through the floor in the middle of the night. What can I say? I’m an optimist.
Once I finished framing in everything, I figured laying the plywood would be a cake-walk. The problem was I couldn’t find a single 4’ x 8’ sheet of ¾ inch plywood. Apparently, Tony Anderson used them all up when he was working on the hall floor. Fortunately, there were a lot of scraps available, but they were all the wrong size. The smallest span of plywood I am willing to use is 24 inches. Most of the scraps are 23 to 23 ¼ inches long. This leaves me with a hell of a puzzle. So far I’ve manage to lay about 75% of the plywood without having to double up any of the 2x6’s to make-up the difference.
I probably could have puzzled out that last 29 x 36 inch section, but it was getting late. I was tired and starting to make stupid mistakes. I have one board that could conceivably fill this gap in one go. I did not want to mess it up because I was too tired to make a good measurement or cut.
Besides, the Devil Queen is creepy as hell when the sun goes down. My wife’s best friend grew up less than a quarter of a mile from the Queen. She still maintains to this day that the woods around the Queen are haunted. According to her no one in their right mind would be out in the woods at night. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but maybe she’s right.
When I started this project, I thought it would be a relatively quick job. Frame in the 4 ft. x 6 ft. hole, lay a sheet of ¾ inch plywood, and voila! Easy, right? Nope. Nothing is ever easy. I think I spent more time fixing the sagging floor than I did framing in the hole.
The Devil Queen has huge, true 2x10 joists for her floors. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any 2x10’s, old or modern, in my salvage piles. Instead, I reluctantly used 2x6’s. I spaced them on 12” centers to make up for their smaller size. I probably over-built the framing, but I prefer that to the alternative: under-built floor caves in sending the wood burning stove, full of red-hot embers, crashing through the floor in the middle of the night. What can I say? I’m an optimist.
Once I finished framing in everything, I figured laying the plywood would be a cake-walk. The problem was I couldn’t find a single 4’ x 8’ sheet of ¾ inch plywood. Apparently, Tony Anderson used them all up when he was working on the hall floor. Fortunately, there were a lot of scraps available, but they were all the wrong size. The smallest span of plywood I am willing to use is 24 inches. Most of the scraps are 23 to 23 ¼ inches long. This leaves me with a hell of a puzzle. So far I’ve manage to lay about 75% of the plywood without having to double up any of the 2x6’s to make-up the difference.
I probably could have puzzled out that last 29 x 36 inch section, but it was getting late. I was tired and starting to make stupid mistakes. I have one board that could conceivably fill this gap in one go. I did not want to mess it up because I was too tired to make a good measurement or cut.
Besides, the Devil Queen is creepy as hell when the sun goes down. My wife’s best friend grew up less than a quarter of a mile from the Queen. She still maintains to this day that the woods around the Queen are haunted. According to her no one in their right mind would be out in the woods at night. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but maybe she’s right.
posted by John | 4:15 AM
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