Upstairs Downstairs

Remember that stairway that went down to the basement - the one you saw as soon as you stepped inside the parish hall door? It's been transformed into a floor. An entire cart full of sheet rock is sitting on it right this minute. Floor joists were constructed in the gap in the floor where the stairway had been and they have been covered by the plywood underlayment for the new oak floor in the parish hall. We considered cleaning and refinishing the original floor. It's made of douglas fir and has lots of "character" meaning gaps, divots and uneven spots. There were serious questions about whether it could ever be cleaned well enough to refinish properly.

Initially, our building work group had hoped that the original flooring would be removed and stored for another possible use. A new oak floor will be installed in the parish hall. The problem with that idea was that the floorboards are nailed directly on top of the joists - with nothing underneath. Once the flooring was removed, the construction workers would have had to cross joists like tightrope walkers to get the new flooring installed. It simply wasn't practical, so plywood is being laid over the old flooring. It will continue on among the things seen and unseen that make up the fabric of the building. The plywood that is being laid over the old floor will give the new floor extra stability and help to level some of the uneven spots.

Getting the plywood installed is a noisy business. From the basement, the crashes and thumps sound ominous. They are frequently followed by little sluices of dust and grit that fall through the floorboards above. It's all part of getting the job done.

Meanwhile, the plumber works quietly downstairs fitting together all the small segments of pipe required for the restrooms. The guys working on the floor above did him the favor of installing the plywood directly over the area where he is working before he arrived.