Day 66 Saturday

Saturday is a big work day at The Training House. Not only Beloved and me but there are about 15 of the staff here today as well. Most of them will be working on a room at the end of the hall--they are repairing some cracks in the walls and repainting the room.


Beloved and I jump into the restroom remodel, the first order of business is removing the fixtures and the so-called wall in the middle of the room. The sink and toilet come out easy enough, and the conglomeration of sticks and lightweight panels nailed together as a dividing wall is soon gone as well.

Then we start looking at the floor. About 80 percent of the floor is covered with a small terra cotta-colored tile, about three inches square. They are laid tightly together with no grout at all. After prying the first couple out of a line the tension is released and they almost be picked out by hand. Since they are coming easy we clear the whole floor of these little tiles. They match what is in the stairwells, and there are numerous ones there that are broken or missing, so we will be able to replace them some day in the future.

The floor is strangely uneven in a couple areas, almost as if it is wrinkled. The concrete below the tile has failed, so what is holding up the floor? A little “exploratory” poking around with a chisel reveals the method of construction for this floor; Apparently the builders of this--and I have to imagine all other--buildings of this era constructed the building with a sub-floor of concrete. Even the second floor, where we are. This sub-floor is not the finished-grade floor, so when that is ready to be installed the grade is raised with sand and then an inch or so of concrete is poured over that. There is no wire or screen in that concrete, so our wrinkles turn out to be where the concrete of the finish-grade floor has failed and traffic has caused the sand to shift around. We dig out the sand in about 30 percent of the total area, mix it with cement and put it back in, leveling it with the existing floor. 


At the end of Saturday we have a firm foundation upon which to start. Unfortunately it is almost two inches out of level. Tomorrow we will correct for level and then start laying tile after that.