Getting In On the Ground Floor

This is the front parlor floor, the object of my current efforts at the Tower House. All the original floorboards were covered decades ago with the thin strip oak flooring you see a few remaining sections of in this photo - then termites moved in. Now that I am removing the damaged oak boards we can see the original floors for the first time in a couple of generations. Next we will try to restore the original surface. Surprisingly, the termites did more damage to the oak than to the older underlying boards. But they also did damage to the joists below, so I have placed a header on jackposts below to resupport them and will reinforce the weakened joists as the project unfolds.