After the Seventh Day

Construction Began Today!  It was a full-day effort, and there isn't a lot that is visible for the result of all the labor, but the main section of the floor that was removed for being in the worst shape was rebuilt in its entirety today.  Tomorrow they will continue levelling the floor by installing additional joists next to the existing ones.

The first picture shows some new joists installed, with joist hangers (unlike the last time, where there were just a few nails) and into a new joist (the one going left-to right) attached to one of the original ones.

The new joist that you see here running from top left to bottom right is laminated wood.  It is about three inches thick and built up from 1/8" pieces of wood glued together.  The size is 3"x8"x18' and it is a strong as iron.  There are actually two of them, one on either side of the original wood studs.  This was the main area of the floor that was not structurally sound.  The laminated boards are strong enough to support the floor even with the long span; if we chose a standard wooden joist, we would have needed a lolly column (i.e. a metal pole) in the basement to support the joist, losing the utility of that room.

Note that the bottom of this joist is not aligned with the wood joists it was attached to.   It took that much of a difference to level the floor, that is, in spots, the original floor was off by as much as two inches.

Stay Tuned for More!