Look at all those stacks of boxes. Who would undertake a floor-laying project without clearing the floor first?
What's the implication here? That they did their cutting in that corner, hence the sawdust? With what? Nobody would operate a saw in that small space, and there's no saw there. And how could you cut a 4 x 8 foot piece of plywood in that corner? There's no room. And on the other side there's no sawdust, but there are a couple scraps. Wouldn't they have at least cleared out the books from that area so that they could have room to work? You mean they just worked around the boxes of books? And remember that we have other pictures of the 6th floor which show no such activity.
So, where were all the 4x8 plywood boards piled up on the 6th floor? How could you cut plywood boards without saw horses? How were they securing the boards to the existing floor? Just nailing them down? Then where are the hammers? Where are the boxes of nails? Where are the saws? And don't you need straight-edges and tape measures and pencils and chalk?
The whole idea seems awfully harebrained to me. If you had an oily floor that was damaging the books, would you just nail a piece of plywood on top of it? If the oil is seeping into the books, wouldn't it seep into the plywood? Plywood is known for being porous, and it warps, twists, and delaminates very easily. And if it gets wet, forget about it. Were they going to finish it in any way? Were they going to apply sealant? Because if they weren't, how long was it was going to last? Before long, they'd be walking on sponge. The idea that this below can pass as a floor-building project is a ridiculous.
Read this testimony by Charles Givens. They were talking about the area in which they were laying the new floor, and they were arguing about whether it was 10 feet or 20 feet from the window. But, each piece of plywood was 4 feet by 8 feet. How long would it take to nail one down? If they had a large crew up there working all morning, and if they were just nailing on top of the existing flooring, how many would they have installed? So, how could you talk about whether the area you were working all morning was 10 feet or 20 feet from the window?
Mr. BELIN. Where were you laying the new floor that morning? What portion of the sixth floor would it
Mr. GIVENS. West side.
Mr. BELIN. How much of the west side?
Mr. GIVENS. Well, we were working, I would say, about 10 feet from Elm Street.
Mr. BELIN. Well, you were pointing to right over this point here?
Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Well, looking at the scale, it would be about 10 feet from the--it would be more than 10 feet. Here is the scale.
This would be 20 feet, so it would be more than 20 feet from Elm Street?
Mr. GIVENS. About 20 feet, maybe so.
Mr. BELIN. Do you think it was closer to 10 feet than 20 feet from the Elm Street side of the west part of the sixth floor?
Mr. GIVENS. I believe it was somewhere in that vicinity.
Mr. BELIN. How close was it to the west wall on the sixth floor?
Mr. GIVENS. Well, we were, oh, I would say about 20 feet out from the wall, we had laid.
Looks how Givens changed his story for Belin. "You want it to be 20 feet from the wall? OK, sure. Let's make it 20. Whatever you say."
But, why would they describe a floor-laying project as being 10 or 20 feet from the wall?
I'm reminded of that scene from The Graduate when Mr. Cleery barges into Ben's room because Elaine screamed. He threatens to call the cops. But Ben says, "No, don't. There's no need for that. Look. Here she is. Sitting down. Enjoying some water. Smiling. Everything's fine. We don't need any cops."
Likewise, "Look. Here we have a few boards. And there's some sawdust in the corner, and a scrap or two. So, they were building a floor."
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