When I pulled up the floor, I found these patched lines running across the floor. I cannot make rhyme or reason of them. Since pieces were falling off, I decided to use my wonder bar to scrap a whole section to see what was underneath. The answer: concrete. So, why would someone put some kind of tar and paper over it? The patch is scored down the middle all the way to the concrete. Why? If it over fresh concrete, why the patch? Is this concrete somehow porous?

Of course, the greater question is if this was evidence of the floor being dug up, for what purpose? The lines are all straight and meander at right angles. A crack would turn like that. The gas, water, and electricity are all above, so why the channel in the floor?

In any case, in order to lay a new floor, I have to scrape up that tar stuff. I worked on it for several hours late last night and just tried to get back to the job, but only lasted a mere hour. However, my hands ache something fierce, even wearing two sets of gloves. My biceps are sore, as are my hamstring muscles. It takes quite a bit of effort to scrape the stuff off, so I have to keep watching my oxygen sats since it drops with great exertion on my part. Still, I am about half-way through the job.

I am looking for some bootstraps to pull so that I can get back down to the basement...I cannot seem to find them.

Do I really need to get this part done by today?