All trimmed up

After quite a bit of chipping out and sawing we put the trimmer into place, together with the new joist it will be supporting. There was quite a lot of trial and error - despite all my careful measurements - in getting the short beam to fit across the opening and into the two mortices that I had cut.



It looks a little lower than the beam against the wall - and in fact it is - but that's because the beam is several centimetres higher than the rest of the floor. The next layer of floor supports will be cut away at the wall edge to give a floor that is level all the way across. For the first time in four or five centuries, I'd guess.

It all had to be done from a step-ladder, as seen in the picture below, and there were one or two wobbly moments. The new beams are oak, and they're pretty heavy, and they had to be put in and taken out repeatedly.



The other end of the new joist simply sits on top of the big old cross beam  - as do all the other square timbers holding up the floor. It's lucky it didn't have to be cut to fit as that end of the beam had a few splits in it.



You can see how the new beam is supported at the other end in the picture above. Now these are in place we'll be able to get on with the floor in the other half of the room. We'll not be able to finish it, though, until we're able to take the old rickety stairs down.

The curve on the underside of the trimmer in the picture above is where I took out a bit of slighly spongy sapwood. It means we'll have a nicely rounded edge to hit our heads on rather than a sharp one.....