Reconstruction...

The above image is not a salmon filet. It is a piece of plywood.

I have learned that "plywood" is the reason for the the “un-building” of the Trickhart home.

Two weeks ago, Nobert noticed that several sheets of the plywood subfloor covering the basement were not running “with the grain” of the other sheets. The contractor felt Nobert's concern was silly but offered to reorient those pieces so they would run the same direction as the others. Nobert said that would not solve the problem. The misdirected grain orientation had only alerted Nobert to a much larger problem.

Nobert had wanted the wood grain of the entire plywood subfloor to run East-to-West, not North-to-South as installed by the construction crew. The contractor told Nobert that this was a drastic change and was very surprised Nobert had never mentioned his “orientation fetish” before. Nobert had just assumed plywood was always installed with an East-to-West wood grain orientation so never thought to mention it. The contractor said the only remedy would be to tear down the entire framed structure so the plywood subflooring could be safely removed and reinstalled.

No one is certain whether tearing down the house and starting over was really necessary or if the contractor had just told Nobert that - hoping to discourage him from insisting on the change. But Nobert, ever the perfectionist, demanded the subfloor be corrected at any cost. And the cost was considerable!

After spending the last two weeks removing the framing of the first and second floors, the construction crew has now completed the reinstallation of the plywood subflooring to Nobert’s "East-to-West specifications”, and begun reframing the house.

Last night I asked Nobert why the grain orientation of the plywood subfloor would matter since no one would see it after it was covered with tile or carpet anyway.

I was expecting some highly scientific answer when Nobert replied, “Really? They cover the plywood? Are you serious?”

As an interesting side note - Before the construction crew dismantled the first and second floor framing, Nobert had “numbered” each piece of lumber so the construction crew could easily rebuild the house with his “inserting fig A into fig B” instructions. You can imagine how that went over with the contractor.

Wait until I tell the contractor that Nobert didn’t realize the plywood subflooring was going to be covered with tile!

- C Smith