It Simply Floors Me

 "My God, man!  You've struck sub-floor!"

While I'm not sure Hawkeye said those exact words to Frank Burns, the sentiment fits my work today.  Bucky and I spent five hours on a clear, warm March day, working on my sub-floor.

The 3/4" T&G was supplied by Terry Garrison of Homepro(tm).  Mucho appreciado.  Now I'm channeling Col. Potter for some reason. Anywho.

12'x10' means four sheets of plywood to cover the floor joists, right?  3 whole sheets at 8'x4' plus 3/4ths of another sheet for the 2'x12' section.  Yes, that's what it would be if the entire structure were A.) square and 2.) Level.

Which, to my dismay, I found it was decidedly not so.  Neither square nor level.

Joe Gregory--he of years of framing experience--said, Yoda-like, "Square you must be; level would be nice."    You wouldn't believe how far OUT of square I was.  I say, 'was' because I am not now out of square (Neither is the house! See what I did there?  See...it's...never mind.).

So what's a dirt-cheap builder to do?  After a phone consultation with my brother Sid and with input from our neighbor Ralph, I simply squared the outer 2"x6" floor joists to the square created by the tongue and groove plywood.  This was accomplished by removing the outer joists on three sides and then reattaching them to the front 12' joist and lining the reattached joists up to the edge of the plywood.  The first picture shows the front 2"x6"x12' joist with said plywood nailed to the front edge of the joist.  On the left in the background, one can spy the temporarily removed 2"x6"x10' side joist that was eventually reattached along the outside edge of the plywood to make it all squarsies.

And that worked.  With one small issue--my house is not exactly 12'x10'; no, rather, it's 12'x10'4".  The 12' front and back joists are actual 2"x's since they were from Compton's Sawmill.  I hadn't taken the extra 4" into account (2" for each joist).  That meant that the fourth plywood sheet was slightly too small to cover the remaining open joist area.  What you see here is deceptive; I have, yes, 5/6ths of the floor attached and square.  The back right corner (as the next photo shows) is actually not attached and leaves a small gap of--you guessed it--two feet, four inches wide and four feet long.

So, I must get my gleaning hands on about a 1/2 sheet of 3/4" plywood to finish the job.

All in all, a great day of problem solving and learning.

Next up:  Wall Raisin' (and that doesn't mean dried grapes attached to walls, it means--well, you know).

P.S.  Poor Buckmeister!  Sunburned, filthy, tick-infested and tired.  Bucky was, too.  But he was happy having chased turkeys and rocks all day in the woods (he caught the rocks--they're more his speed).  He did a dance on the part of the floor that is finished as the picture suggests.

P.P.S. Some of the intrepid readers of this blog have asked for pix of my sister's house.  Here's one (left) showing the front porch waiting for stairs to be built up to it.