Ola

I'm trying to figure out how to build the floor in my tower project and I came up with this:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a320/dsc2/mockup.jpg

The blue vertical rectangles are supporting logs going under the floor, two of them are partialy fixed in the walls, and the other two are just sitting in the middle of the tower. I want to place horizontal wooden planks on those supporting logs and use small nails (already discribed here in the forums) to attach the planks (well actually glue them on, but I will also use scale nails to add realism). I will also add a trapdoor in the middle of the floor. Here's how the floor looks now (still not cut yet):



and how it will look like:



The red color is for planks, the bright greens are nails, the blue rectangles showed by the arrows are supporting logs.

Do you think it's ok constructionwise? I mean would it be possible to build something like that? I guess it looks ok and should work even in reality, but I have no idea how normal ceilings/floors were build

Thanks a lot for any help on this subject:)

Cheers,
dsc.

Looks good. I don't know that it would be necessary to put 4 nails in the planks where the seams don't fall (over the support logs) I would put 4 nails where the planks are seamed and two nails in the unseamed planks. Depending on the time frame of your tower, iron nails may have been a scarce, expensive commidity

Cheers,
Charles

It looks like a regular floor, one that is structurally sound and within normal construction limits.

Tom, what you have there will work fine. I have to agree with Charles though about the nails. Have you considered using wood pegs ? You could get round toothpicks or something similar [ wood dowel wise ] and peg the boards.
Also plenty of weather on the exposed wood planking, it will be exposed to the elements ?
Show us pics soon
.
Cheyenne

Tom,

If i understand your construction correctly, the support of the floor will not be seen , so why bother with supporting logs at all. A thin piece of wood or cardboard glued between the walls can serve as excellent base for gluing the planks.
If that is not he case, i can only agree with the previous posters regarding construction and nails.


Have fun

Claude

Tom, Claude has a very good point. Dont make the extra work for yourself if no one is ever going to see it. spend that time on other aspects that the veiwer will see. If it is open underneath you might also add a few cross braces between the beams, especially arounf the trap door. Cheers Kevin

I am only guessing but that looks like the floor to the battlements at the top of a tower. I would assume that the joists under the floor would be included because we will be able to see the room below the floor (where the trap door leads) so he is wanting to include that detail

Ola

Sorry for the late reply, I was working on the floor and wanted to update at the same time as I post a response. First of all the answers:

Charles: yes you are right, nails were quite rare in the early medieval times. I did a small search on the web and find out that wooden logs (mentioned by cheyenne) were used to join wood together. I also used your idea on using only two "nails" in the unseamed planks:)

Scott: glad to hear everything is ok construction wise, you guys know so much more about ceilings/floors than me:) mostly because of all the "cut-right-through" dioramas, where you can see the crosssection of the buildings.

Cheyenne: well my friend you have put the wooden pegs idea in my head and frankly... I cursed the day that I've decided to make the nails wooden, here's why:



Lost a lot of time and nerves while creating those wooden pegs (and made a hell of a mess on my desk:) ), but I hope you will like them:)

There will be a roof on this tower, so the wood wouldn't be so damaged, but I will include some moss and stuff like that.

Claude, Kevin, Alan: there's no inner part on this tower, so I don't need any supporting logs:) I just drew them on the pictures to show you where they would be and where the nails would go:)

So here's the floor created by using small balsa strips as wooden "nails":



Everythings except the trapdoor is done, so here's the idea I have for the last element:



The vertical light gray rectangles shown by the arrows are not visible in reality, they are just two wooden planks used to support the trapdoor and make it more sturdy. I've included them just to show were the wooden pegs on the trapdoor will go. The black dots are wooden "nails" the white ones are normal iron nails used to attach the iron pieces (hindges and the handle). Here's a fast mockup model:



So do you think it looks good?? Anything to improve?

Thanks a lot and
Cheers,
dsc.

Ola

Sorry to be posting two times in a row, but I finished the trap door and wanted to update. If you think something is wrong and that I should change it than you are too late as I have already glued everything down, ha!:) I really hope it looks ok and is correct constructionwise, otherwise I will kill myself

So here you can see the whole floor finished:



A different angle here:



and here another different angle if you really want to:) :

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a320/dsc2/floor/P1010069.jpg

Here you can see how the handle looks like in a closeup:



and the whole piece, with a ruler to show scale:



Must say I used a rather large collection of tools on this small piece:



Thanks for looking and take care:)
dsc.