![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Subfloor laid! Stairs finished!
Jul. 19th, 2022 08:06 pmI goofed off part of Saturday, so it took me longer to finish the steps than I anticipated. I did pick up pressure treated 2x8s then headed to the farmers market for cheese and plums and also stopped at the grocery store. After that, F and I stopped by an estate sale and an estate auction. The estate sale was some things cheap, used books, heavy bottom bowls, towels, a few other things. The estate auction was really cool. It was two days and on Saturday they were selling the contents of the barns. There was a lot of stuff. We got there at noon or so, all the really good stuff had sold already but there was plenty of interesting things left. We ended up buying clamps, a small table, lamps and a trunk full of linens. In total we spent a little over $100. Good deal.
After that, I did some stuff with the stairs, got the bottom step framed out, it's just a box step out of the 2x8s since I wanted the stair with no top to be 8 inches tall. Easy enough.
Sunday morning, I got the stairs done. I removed all the tongue and grooves from the boards that I pulled off the platform and cut them to size, then screwed them into the box step. It took me some thinking but eventually I fixed my goof with the platform stair. I had pulled the planks to the size I wanted the step, then cut the beams. But that left the beams too far out and I wouldn't be able to put a riser on without making it a hazard. After sitting and staring at it for a bit, I ripped one of the boards so the groove remained and it was 1 1/2 inches wide and screwed it in between the last two boards. So that way, the tongue of the board closer to the wall would be hidden and the last board would overhang the beam by an inch or so. This is difficult to describe in word format.
Anyway, stairs:
Afterwards, I laid out "joists" These were 1x4s that I laid where the joists were located but over the plywood subfloor that we left in place. The 1x4s were to raise the floor up to a reasonable level without making it irritating or expensive to match the height of the kitchen. If we didn't, it would be a 1 inch drop, probably fine but it's going to be fiddly to install a threshold because it's 8 feet wide and also there are two doors that overlap it. Turns out laying all the "joists" went super fast because I borrowed a nail gun from a friend and also it was very easy. I laid half of the room because there is a couch and cedar chest that are holding all the work supplies right now and also the OSB panels were in the way.
That afternoon, F and I laid the first set of OSB panels. We laid five, the half of the room in front of the stairs where I had laid the joists. We ended up having to cut the panels to size because as it turns out, surprise surprise, the closets were not built square to the joists. So in laying over the "joists" we had to cut the ends of each panel to deal with the angle of the closet and still hit the joists halfway. I still need to cut the bottom of the closet doors off since they no longer open properly with the higher floor.
We got pretty good at laying them, it took 20 minutes to do the last sheet, which was measure and cut sheet, angle in, mark out where the joists were, nail the board down. The OSB was tongue and groove and it was difficult to work with to be honest. Not sure if we were missing things but most of them refused to come together properly. idek, we made it work. We left the space around the stairs alone because it would be fiddly.
I was busy at work yesterday and basically did no work.
Then today, I did so much. Laid the other half of the joists before F got around, then we went and picked up the rest of the OSB we needed. We did it in two batches because I didn't want 12 sheets of OSB in the back of my little truck and also because we have to carry them up the front porch stairs which is a full flight with a break at the lower end where it wraps around. So I backed my truck to it, but it was a difficult carry up the stairs and into the living room. So we got the rest of the sheets very early this morning because it was about 90F today and very humid. After that, F had a work meeting and I did some fill in areas of smaller bits. Then F and I laid the rest of the floor which was 6 sheets. We found out that the 4x8s wouldn't reach the joists in the middle of the room, so we had to cut four of the sheets so we could straddle three joists with the part that we would fill in later for stability. The last two sheets did reach the joists because the room is not square in the least.
We finished all that by 1pm and took lunch break, F went back to work and I finished the floor up. There was the strip in the middle of the room I had to cut and fill in, the area around the stairs and I had to nail in the last three sheets. I had been nailing before lunch but the nail gun jammed and I was so hungry, I took it as a sign to take a break. I got everything finished up by 5pm! I had to cut and replace a 10" by 16" section of one panel, not sure if we crunched it or the glue came undone but it was very squishy. Yay reciprocating saw used carefully.
The sections around the stairs were fiddly but not bad because they aren't going to get very much weight, so they only have a joist on either side, rather than straddling joists.
Next step is the click lock planking! I pulled a case out to look at it and clicked a couple pieces together and read the manual. I think it's different than some other ones I've seen but should go together easy.
And floor!
After that, I did some stuff with the stairs, got the bottom step framed out, it's just a box step out of the 2x8s since I wanted the stair with no top to be 8 inches tall. Easy enough.
Sunday morning, I got the stairs done. I removed all the tongue and grooves from the boards that I pulled off the platform and cut them to size, then screwed them into the box step. It took me some thinking but eventually I fixed my goof with the platform stair. I had pulled the planks to the size I wanted the step, then cut the beams. But that left the beams too far out and I wouldn't be able to put a riser on without making it a hazard. After sitting and staring at it for a bit, I ripped one of the boards so the groove remained and it was 1 1/2 inches wide and screwed it in between the last two boards. So that way, the tongue of the board closer to the wall would be hidden and the last board would overhang the beam by an inch or so. This is difficult to describe in word format.
Anyway, stairs:
Afterwards, I laid out "joists" These were 1x4s that I laid where the joists were located but over the plywood subfloor that we left in place. The 1x4s were to raise the floor up to a reasonable level without making it irritating or expensive to match the height of the kitchen. If we didn't, it would be a 1 inch drop, probably fine but it's going to be fiddly to install a threshold because it's 8 feet wide and also there are two doors that overlap it. Turns out laying all the "joists" went super fast because I borrowed a nail gun from a friend and also it was very easy. I laid half of the room because there is a couch and cedar chest that are holding all the work supplies right now and also the OSB panels were in the way.
That afternoon, F and I laid the first set of OSB panels. We laid five, the half of the room in front of the stairs where I had laid the joists. We ended up having to cut the panels to size because as it turns out, surprise surprise, the closets were not built square to the joists. So in laying over the "joists" we had to cut the ends of each panel to deal with the angle of the closet and still hit the joists halfway. I still need to cut the bottom of the closet doors off since they no longer open properly with the higher floor.
We got pretty good at laying them, it took 20 minutes to do the last sheet, which was measure and cut sheet, angle in, mark out where the joists were, nail the board down. The OSB was tongue and groove and it was difficult to work with to be honest. Not sure if we were missing things but most of them refused to come together properly. idek, we made it work. We left the space around the stairs alone because it would be fiddly.
I was busy at work yesterday and basically did no work.
Then today, I did so much. Laid the other half of the joists before F got around, then we went and picked up the rest of the OSB we needed. We did it in two batches because I didn't want 12 sheets of OSB in the back of my little truck and also because we have to carry them up the front porch stairs which is a full flight with a break at the lower end where it wraps around. So I backed my truck to it, but it was a difficult carry up the stairs and into the living room. So we got the rest of the sheets very early this morning because it was about 90F today and very humid. After that, F had a work meeting and I did some fill in areas of smaller bits. Then F and I laid the rest of the floor which was 6 sheets. We found out that the 4x8s wouldn't reach the joists in the middle of the room, so we had to cut four of the sheets so we could straddle three joists with the part that we would fill in later for stability. The last two sheets did reach the joists because the room is not square in the least.
We finished all that by 1pm and took lunch break, F went back to work and I finished the floor up. There was the strip in the middle of the room I had to cut and fill in, the area around the stairs and I had to nail in the last three sheets. I had been nailing before lunch but the nail gun jammed and I was so hungry, I took it as a sign to take a break. I got everything finished up by 5pm! I had to cut and replace a 10" by 16" section of one panel, not sure if we crunched it or the glue came undone but it was very squishy. Yay reciprocating saw used carefully.
The sections around the stairs were fiddly but not bad because they aren't going to get very much weight, so they only have a joist on either side, rather than straddling joists.
Next step is the click lock planking! I pulled a case out to look at it and clicked a couple pieces together and read the manual. I think it's different than some other ones I've seen but should go together easy.
And floor!
