Joists been replaced - are they ok?

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scottfw
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Joists been replaced - are they ok?

Post by scottfw »

Hi. I had slightly bouncy upstairs floors in a house I recently purchased (it was built in 1920s and lots of oak beams). The room is approx 20ft x 12ft and has a stud partition built in about 9ft across the 20ft to split the room into two. Supporting the floor of the room previously were 2 oak beams which are approx 13 inches x 6 inches which ran the width of the room with 3inch x 3inch joists running perpendicular to the oak beams (2 sets ran from the beam to the wall and 1 set ran between the 2 large oak beams). I employed a builder to firm up the floor and he calculated adding 8inch joists across the width of the room at 60cm centres underneath the existing smaller joists (they run perpendicular to each other) running into the brick at either end of the width of the room (with a double joist underneath the stud partition bit which the previous owners did not have done). All well and good.

However, I am a little bit worried as one end of the new joist runs are in a single brick wall that does not have piers built in (this wall is only built to the ceiling downstairs). Is this wall strong enough to take the load? The large existing oak beams have been built into it anyway so I guess it has taken the load for 90ish years but it still worries me slightly that a single brick wall is taking this load at a height of around 2 metres. Do I need to strengthen the single brick wall somehow? Didn't realise this until after the builder finished the job and left.

Any help much appreciated!! :thumbright:
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Tryanything
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Post by Tryanything »

That all sounds good to me :thumbright:
There would be less trouble in the world
if l had not had six daughters
scottfw
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Post by scottfw »

Phew :thumbright: I got worried as the single brick wall just doesn't seem enough to support joists for a room floor above. You have put my mind at rest now - cheers!! Do you think piers would need to built in the future or not needed at all?

Really appreciate the help Ta!!
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Tryanything
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Post by Tryanything »

IMHO the wall is fine, as you say it has supported the Oak beams for the
last 90 years so l think if there was a problem it would have shown up by now

But if your that worried about it ask your builder to come back and do
some extra work at extra cost, tell him your concerns and what it is you
want done

If the builder is of any worth he'd tell you it's fine or at the worst suggest
a stud wall under the joists just for some extra work and to make you
happy
IMHO the wall is fine :thumbright:
There would be less trouble in the world
if l had not had six daughters
scottfw
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Post by scottfw »

Cheers - it's fine then :thumbright:

Thanks for your help
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