DeMesa-Sanchez House - Field Inspection October 19, 1978 (7 pages)

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FIELD INSPECTION DEMESA SANCHEZ HOUSE

OCTOBER 19, 1978

WEST WING, FIRST FLOOR, FLOOR JOISTS SIZES AND SPACES

Starting at south wall of Room 101 and working north, all floor joists vary
between 5-7/8" to 6-1/8" in depth approximately. Not all joists were inspec-
ted for depth but it is visually apparent they are within this range. Widths
vary approximately from 2-3/4" to 3-1/2" by spot checking. Again, not all
joists were checked but it is visually apparent that they are within this
range.
The first floor joist is hard against the south wall although-eaeh edge is
approximately 1-1/2" off the face of the wall. The west end is hard against
the wall. The north face of this joist is hand-hewn as is the bottom. Its
center line, therefore, is approximately 1-1/2" off of the wall.

The second joist is hand-hewn, both sides and bottom. Centerline at + 2'-7"

Third joist hand-hewn, both sides and bottom. Centerline + 5 feet.

Fourth joist hand-hewn, both sides and bottom. Centerline + 7 feet, 6 inches.
face
Fifth joist, sawn south/ ; hand-hewn bottom and north face; centerline + 10 feet,
flanked on north side of west end by outleader, rafters or balcony.

Sixth joist; sawn south face, hewn bottom, sawn north face, centerline + 12'-1".
another balcony outreader joist against north face of this joist. Note that
the north jamb of an earlier opening in this wall may lie approximately beneath
the centerline of this joist. Correction: This line in plaster is probably
caused by north face intersection of earlier DeMesa wall.


The following dimensions start with the approximate centerline of the sixth
joist.

Both faces of the seventh joist appear to be sawn and the bottom is hewn.
Sjoist is located approximately 2'-4" north of centerline of sixth joist.
The south edge of this joist is approximately 5 or 6 inches north of the north
face of the partition between Room 101 and Room 102.

The eighth joist is sawn both sides and has a hewn bottom; centerline is
approximately 5 feet from sixth joist centerline; and outrigger rafter for the
balcony is against the south face.








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The ninth joist is apparently sawn both sides and hewn on the bottom; center-
line is approximately 7'-5" north of sixth joist centerline. The north face
of this joist and the south face of the partition between Rooms 102 and 103
approximately align.

The ceiling above Room 102 consists of wood planks with lapped joints. Planks
measure 9-3/8" face x 5/8" thickness; the rabbttted lapped edges measure 5/16"
measured vertical to the thicknessof the plank and 5/8" measured parallel with
the width of the plank. The exposed face of the plank is whitewashed, and the
planks are fastened with cut nails. The concealed face of the planks exhibit
saw marks and also marks of being chiseled or finished with a hatchet or broad
hatchet in order to fit properly on the bottom of the ceiling joists. The face
of these planks appears to have been handplaned. The fact that the floor joists
above these planks and the bottom of the flooring of the second floor is supported
by the floor joists did not receive a finish but are completely unfinished in-
dicates that the floor joists, the floor planks of the second floor and these
ceiling planks may have been installed at the same time. There are not indica-
tions in the area of the plank that was removed that lath or other materials
were nailed to the bottom of the second floor joists at any other period. These
planks extend over the interior partition apparently installed by Stout and
are a clear indication that Stout's interior partition had been removed by the
time these planks were installed. A typical second-floor floor plank has a
10" face; thickness undetermined. The planks are of 4a-d pine and exhibit
the characteristic strip down both edges which was created when the molding
plane or ra-v-4g plane forming the tongues and grooves (assuming these are
tongue-and-grooved) was run down either edge. The exposed bottom face of the
planks is left unfinished and exhibits hand-sawn markings. Note that these
planks do vary in width.

The following floor joist dimensions begin at the north wall of Room 103 and
extend to the south.

The first joist is hard against the north wall of Room 103 at the west end
but due to the irregularity of the wall, the joist is approximately 2" off the
wall at the center and 1" off the wall at the east end. The north face of
this joist is not visible; the bottom is hand-hewn, the south face is sawn;
the balcony outrigger joist is affixed to the south face of this joist. The
centerline of this joist is approximately 3" off the inside face of the north

wall.







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The second joist has a sawn north face and hewn bottom at south face. ?
balcony outrigger is affixed to the south face of this joist. This joist
is approximately 2'-9" off of the north wall.

The third joist has a sawn north face and hewn bottom and south face.
The center of this joist is approximately 5'-6" off the north wall.
fourth
The fifth joist has a hewn north face, a hewn south face and a hewn bottom.
It is approximately 7'-11" off the north wall. It has a joist outrigger
for the balcony affix ed to its north face.

The fifth joist has a hewn north face, hewn bottom and sawn south face.
It is approximately 10'-7" off the north wall. A joist outrigger for
the balcony is affixed to its south face.

The sixth joist exhibits a sawn north face and a hewn bottom and south
face. It is approximately 13 feet off the north wall. Note that outriggers
for balconies are made of recent timbers. They do not exhibit nail holes
from lath or from a plank ceiling. However, at least one outrigger has lath
marks below it and a few holes but this does not seem to be the usual case.

There is clear evidence on the bottom of the second joist, at least in Room 103,
that the plank ceiling continued above this room. Evidence is also visible
in the center joist, the fourth joist, the fifth joist and sixth joist.
There is also evidence of the plank ceiling on the sixth joist in Room 101.
However, there is no indication of a plank ceiling on the first through fifth
joists of Room 101 although there is ample evidence of several plastered ceilings
in the form of lath nails and e-t marks.

Note that the floor planks are carefully chiseled flat above the location of
the original south wall of the Stout House, indicating that this wall remained
in place when this floor was applied. Both the north and south partitions
of Room 102 run up to the bottom of the planks of the second floor. The south
partition of Room 102 has recent plaster over a paper back approximate 2-inch
square mesh on both sides of the wall. However, the framing members in the
wall were either vertical saw or band saw cut and exhibit cut nails. The plank
ceiling was painted or whitewashed, and this whitewash extends over the top
of this partition. Studs in the partition forming the north enclosure of Room
102 are also vertical stroke saw cut or band saw cut and are spaced at 16"
o.c. Fasteners are cut nails, including lath nails which are small cut nails.









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Lath was circular saw cut. Lath occurs on both sides of this partition.
The door casing in this partition is early although the applied stop is of
recent origin. The door casing in the south partition of this room also
appears early although the stop is of recent origin. The applied molding
on the north side of the south partition abutting the plaster is a Greek
Revival molding and appears relatively early. Molding on the south side of
the south partition is of recent origin although the Greek Revival motif is
copied.
Going to the second floor, all of the flooring over the second floor was
apparently installed at one time. This flooring measures 3-1/2" face dimen-
sion, is tongue-and-grooved, 3/4" thickness, circular saw-cut on the con-
cealed face and affixed with cut nails. Since the same flooring was used
in the second floor of the addition east of the west wing, it may be assumed
Eo have been added at the time of the installation of the second floor of
this wing. -Nete-that- the second- r that-l-S-eof (the room above Room 104)

The studs at the south wall of Room 104 are circular-saw cut, 16" o.c. and
support circular-saw cut resawn wood lath fastened with wire nails. Ceiling
framing is apparently of ? 2" x 4" joists spaced 16" o.c. supporting
wide planks approximately 10" in width, circular-saw cut spaced apart approxi-
mately 1" to support the metal roof above. Plaster on circular-saw cut wood
lath was applied to the bottom of these rafters.

The floor in Room 201 was examined. The later 3-1/2" flooring nailed with
cut nails was pulled, and evidence of hand-wrought nails, face nailed in
the wide floor planks beneath the later floor are clearly in evidence.

The present exposed wood flooring above Rooms 106 and 108 is very similar to
the early flooring above the west wing of the house. It was hand-sawn; the
edges were hand-rabbitted and the flooring apparently continued in one run
above both rooms. The easternmost joist on Room 108 is hard against the
inside face of the exterior wall. The second joist is approximately 2'-10"
off the east wall. The third joist is approximately 5'-8"; the fourth
joist approximately 8'-5"; the fifth joist approximately 11'; the sixth joist
is hard up against the west wall of this room. The joists in Room 108 vary








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greatly in width but appear to be of approximately the same depth, although
the depth does seem to vary a little. The joists vary from 5-1/2" to 6" in
depth and from 2-1/2" to 4-1/2" in width. Note that a later joist was installed
approximately 1'-2" west of the centerline of the fifth joist. This joist is
a full 2" x 4" in dimension and appears to be circular-saw cut. The other joists
in this room exhibit hand-sawn sides and hewn bottoms. The bottoms of these
joists apparently exhibit nail holes from a plank ceiling similar to that below
the second floor of the west wing. There is also evidence of wood lath on the
bottom of the exposed joists.

The joists and floor in Room 106 are in all particulars similar to those in
Room 108, including evidence of a plank ceiling. The floor joists are spaced,
starting from the face of the west wall, as follows:
The first joist is not visible as it occurs above a recent V-joint soffit
placed from the face of the wall to the bottom of the second joist. The
rough-sawn 2 x 4 planted against the wall appears to be hand-hewn on one face
but circular saw cut on the bottom. The first joist supporting the floor above
is approximately V'-5" off the face of the west wall. However, this floor
joist appears to be of recent origin and supports patched flooring, some of
which is circular saw cut between its own centerline and the next joist to
the east. x9h EsKxim xJixsX

The second joist is approximately 3'-9"'from the west wall.

The third joist is 6'-6".

The fourth joist is 9'-3".

The fifth joist is 11'-8".

The sixth joist is 12'J 'The sixth joist seems to be a new replacement at 1'-6"
east of the fifth joist. The original sixth joist is located 2'-4" east of
the fifth joist. However, the middle portion of this joist is missing and it
has been supplemented with a scab applied to the east face. In addition, a
2 x 6 member has been affixed to the west face of the east wall of this room.









The following measurements are of joists above Room 107, starting at the
east wall, center-to-center dimensions.

First joist hard against the wall.

Second joist 2'-8".
Third joist 5'-10".
Fourth joist 9'- 5".
Fifth joist 12'-4".
Sixth joist 15'-9".
Seventh joist is hard against the partition at the west end of the room.
The joist that is visible is not an original joist; the original joist is
actually encased within the thickness of the partition.

Joists in ceiling of Room 105:
The first joist is within the partition as noted above.
The second joist is at 2'-8" west of the east partition.
The next joist is at 6'-6" east of the partition and is a narrow joist
approximately 1-1/2" to 1-3/4" wide which spans from the south wall to the
centerline of the newel post at the turn in the stair. PTxwmnsX

The west face of the last joist is hard up against the east wall of Room 102.

All joists in Rooms 105 and 107 exhibit whitewash, that is, all original joists,
as does the bottom of the flooring above. The flooring supported by the joists
above these rooms varies slightly in width but apparently has a 10" face.
These members are tongue-and-grooved and exhibit the marks either of a vertical
stroke saw or bandsaw or an early milling machine. The floor planks do appear
to be approximately 7/8" inch thick. The floor joists are between 7-1/4" and
7-1/2" in depth and are between approximately 2-1/4" and 2-1/2" in thickness.


Finishes of the floor joists in Room 107 are as follows:

First joist against east wall: hand-hewn west face and bottom.
Second joist: sawn, east face; hewn, west face and bottom.
Third joist: sawn, east face; hewn, bottom; sawn, west face.
Fourth joist: sawn, east face; hewn, bottom; hewn, west face.
Fifth joist: sawn, east face; hewn, bottom; sawn, west face.
Sixth joist: sawn, east face; hewn, bottom; hewn, west face.










The joist above the partition separating Rooms 105 and 107 cannot be

seen clearly.
In Room 105, the first joist west of the east partition appears to be
sawn both sides; the bottom is not visible.
The next joist which runs from the south wall and is supported by the
newel post was apparently hand-planed and a bead is visible on the bottom
west face. This joist is approximately 9" deep x 1-1/2" wide, as previously
noted, and to its east face a 1-1/2 x 8 is scabbed. It is possible that
plaster butted into the east bottom face of the original member or, if not
plastered, the floor may have simply been left exposed. The scab member
next to this finished member exhibits vertical-stroke saw marks and appears
to be of later date. gThv- -jaLeLjL "-c i n g
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The exists g structure app ars to hav been bui t/in accordance with the
plans prepare d by Augus Geiger and date DeceTr 1915.(Foo ote 7, from
reprints of th origin al drawings furnished y e ith, orach, Hayet,
Haynie Partnershi Architects, Engineers, lanner i, Florida)

The building is apparently 34' x 75' in overall dimensions