On Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 7:34:41 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sat, 29 Sep 2018 09:06:52 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

My daughter saw these benches at a flea market and she wants me to build
one for her:

https://i.imgur.com/5n5kB3K.jpg

The bench she wants will be 5' long. The problem I foresee is that she
rents the first floor of an older home (1940) and the wide plank floors
aren't level/flat.

Am I nuts to be wondering if there is a way to build the bench so the
overall look is maintained and the bench is sturdy enough to hold 2-3
adults, but has just enough flex to not rock if the floor has a dip or
sag?

Maybe with 2-3 adults it will flex on it's own even if fully glued and
bolted, but what if only one person is sitting on it?

Am I, as usual, overthinking a simple project?

How about making it a 3-point base. Simply cut one side panel so it
has one point in the center, rather than two at the corners. You
could even hide the point behind a faux-panel, identical to the
opposite end (just shave it down by 1/8", or whatever.

Interesting idea, although I don't know if that would work, even on a level
floor. If a single person sat near the "pointed end" I imagine that it rock
forward/backward until it rested on the front/back of the faux panel.

I'll be buying the wood in the next day or two and I'm not really going
to worry about this. Heck, if it ends up rocking, I'll just buy her a nice
thick rug to absorb any issues caused by the uneven floor. ;-)