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| Now that the messy heart job is done I can finish the main oak floor. Approaching the hearth from the south, the last row of flooring is pushed tight against the previous with oak wedges jammed against the hearth backer. On the north side of the hearth, small pieces of cement board are used to fill the space between the planks the hearth backer so the floor doesn't move when stapled down. Around the trap door, the planks are trim-head-screwed down at an angle through the sides via a landing made with a small Forstner. To keep the small strip on the north-side trap door from moving, scrap planks were cut to bridge the blank trap door space to transfer the thrust to the finished side. |
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| Layout to Hearth | Butt to Kitchen | Working Around Hearth | South Hearth Butt |
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| Progress View | Working Around Trap Door | Trap Door Surrounded | Past Trap Door |
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| North Hearth Butt | Past Hearth | General View | Last Section Cleared |
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| North Kitchen Butt | Past Kitchen | Final Test Layout | 2nd to Last Row |
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| Last Row! | One Piece Left! | Done! |
| Now that the floor's down, I can finish the trap door. It's very heavy, so I'm using four 6" SS strap hinges which are fastened through the floor, subfloor and bearing plate with machine screws. Made a router template out of Masonite so the hinges would set flush, and held it down with gravity clamps (cinder blocks). If this went wrong, the floor would be ruined, so I did several test routes first on other material to test the template fit and router depth. |
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| Router Template | Routed Out! | Side View | Hinges & Last Row |
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| Chain Stop & Stiffener | Cross Section |