1st Floor Joist Phase - Complete

Finally. The first phase of laying the new floor joists is complete. We have laid the back half of the sanctuary from the mini support wall to the building wall. At some points it was very slow moving to the point we only got one of two joists done per day. Laying down these new joists within the old joists takes a well laid out game-plan. And just like any other game, even when you have a game-plan the other team (in this case the old joists) will throw you something you didn't expect and force you to rethink your plan. We've done quite a bit of rethinking over these last few days. Enjoy the pictures!

Labor Day

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than by... working!? Today we laid down a good amount of new floor joists. We were able the get the rear half of the middle section done. Looking at the pictures you may think that installing floor joists looks pretty easy. Well, believe me when I say that it's not! You have to be very watchful and do your best to make sure everything is level or you could end up with one sloped floor. Keeping everything level in a building built in the 1890's is a challenge all in itself.

Tomorrow we continue to lay more joists toward the side of the building. We'll get a late start though, because we have to go pick up some lumber.

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.

More New Floor Joists

Today we were able to lay down the rest of the front floor joists where the old baptistry used to be. We also installed the joist supports. Please note our fancy new shop vac! :) Check out the pictures!

Tomorrow we plan on laying some 16 foot floor joists starting in the center back of the sanctuary.