What is the significance of 16 inches

The diamond marks on tape rule blades are for spacing these engineered floor joists in new construction. Because these beams can support more weight than their dimensional lumber counterpart, they often have different spacing requirements.

Those diamond marks are there for builders who want to take advantage of the great strength of engineered I-beams by using fewer floor joists, with no loss of floor support. Did you ever notice that the bottom of the end hook of your measuring tape has a serrated edge?

The metal tip at the end of your tape measure is a little bit loose for a reason. And if you need to measure the inside of a surface — like in a window frame, you want to count the thickness of the metal piece in your calculations. Thus, the metal piece will shift back to fill the gap. Here are a few hidden features you will find within in your tape measure. Simply stated, there are 2 techniques to manually gauge the level of liquids in a large storage tank using a tank gauging tape measure-Innage or Outage.

Innage is the more prevalent technique used. In our on-going informational series on gauging tapes, we. Finally when you get to 8 feet it is dead on. In fact if you divide 96 inches by 5 you will get These marks are for laying out 5 engineered flooring trusses per 8 feet, like those wooden I beams. Studs and traditional floor joists are usually either 16 or 24 inches on centre, and every 16 inches on the tape is marked with a triangle.

Three times 16 is 48 -- so you get an even three spans every 4 feet. Those little diamonds are there so you can remember quickly what one-fifth of 96 is. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. The Straight Dope homepage.

Filed under:. By Straight Dope Staff Sep 24, Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Stephen Treadway Veg replies: Well, Stephen, as a rule, hand tools are pretty self-explanatory.