False floor

At the back of one of my racks, I have an alleyway with a lot of wires. That's because the power cables have to cross that alley to get to the UPSes, and then more power cables go from the UPSes to the computers. I like to pad around in bare feet, but treading on wires isn't nice, and treading on plugs can be painful. And I have to visit that alley quite often, because that's where the computers present their ports. So I was looking at laying a carpet down on top of the wires to make it nicer to walk on. I had a look on Ebay, and there was a perfect rug, 2 feet by 8 feet, with a lovely green pattern, for only £5. But I'd have to go to Ipswich to collect it.

So  I asked Jason about carpet offcuts. When this house was carpeted, there must have been a lot of offcuts; maybe I could use those. But no - he'd thrown them away, because we stored them in the shed, and they'd gone manky. He said he'd have a lookout in carpet shops.

But then he came up with a brilliant idea. I have a length of chipboard. It's about 8 feet by 2. It came from a long time ago, in a previous house; we decided to redecorate my office, and I got that to use as a temporary desk in another room while this was happening. And I didn't throw it out afterwards, because you never know when a 2x8 feet length of white melamine covered chipboard might be useful.

Jason's idea was to put bricks down in the alley, and lay the chipboard on that. In other words, he invented the false floor!

Every good computer room has a false floor, and usually a false ceiling too.  And now mine does too!