Fine Tuning the Plywood
Liz and I spent time tonight working Bob in the basement. We had him assess our work from Saturday, and he showed us how (and why) our measurements resulted in a board that didn’t quite sit right when we tried to dry fit it.
While our measurements were quite accurate… we made the assumption that the top of the wall we were mounting to was level/straight. Our measurements assumed a straight edge, and that’s not what we were fitting against.
The better way to go about things was to use a control line. Which we kind of hand (but had covered over with our prior boards). Doing so though, Bob told us, was probably too much work for too little effort.
He said that our approach is probably what most would do. And after measuring the difference we were off against the far left stud… plotted the small pie slice we needed to cut, to make things a little straighter.
Bob also showed us a trick, called “kerfing,” when dealing with a warped board. This approach apparently makes the wood easier to work with. He also said that, with the right calculations, one could kerf a board so that it would wrap perfectly around a column (something he’d done before, to boot).
A little liquid nails, and a lot of pushing/hammering… and the board is in place.
A fancy new level, helping to set a chalk line for the stairs.
Halfway through our work, we heard a knock at the front door. I went out and met Bernie, one of our neighbors. I had helped Bernie and Carol Jean over the weekend with some IT support… and he showed up with some fresh, homemade bread!
Looking at this thing – I think I got the better end of the deal. This is also not the first time we’ve gotten such home made goodies from them.
Bob, sketching and talking through the plans for the basement walls.
Related:
Saturday Basement Day
Basement Wall Work
First Home, First Day
This was a short work night but I feel like we learned a lot of good, useful info.
Liz (March 9, 2017 at 3:57 pm)