A Day of Figuring

Today was more of a mental workday than a physical one. We had to figure out how and where we were going to start laying our new floor joists. Since we are laying the new floor joists within the old joists, things got challenging. The original builders of the building did not follow any sort of standard when laying the floor joists. Usually floor joists are set "16 on center" which means they are 16 inches apart from each other. Well, the original joists are no where near that. Some are 16, some are 17, and some are even 18 inches apart. This makes it difficult for us to keep a system going because if we place our joists in the center of the old joists and we keep ours "16 on center"... well eventually our "16 on center" lands directly on an old joist. We are pretty sure we have a plan and hopefully we will get a couple set tomorrow and than really kick in on Monday (Labor Day). Here are some pictures of the first joist we are laying (it's 16 feet). It's not quite complete yet, but it gives you an idea.