Questions tagged [joists]
Horizontal support structures beneath the floor running between load bearing walls.
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How to install 2x10 joists of slightly different sizes?
We are trying to install the joist hangers and the joists, but the 2x10s are slightly different sizes. The problem is that some of the boards are 9.25" and some are 9.5" and some in between. So if all ...
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Suspending a Mini Zip Wire from a Garage Beams - Structural and Clearance Questions
I am planning to build a mini zip wire for my son in our garage. The use case for this for him to safely practice grinds and jumps without falling and injuring himself.
A similar approach has been ...
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What is the best approach to repair outside cantilevered wood deck joists with dry rot?
I have a cantilevered deck that was needing new decking boards. As it turns out it also has some dry rot on the joists that are cantilevered from the house (14ft high, extending 6ft from the house - a ...
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Can I drill vertically through this from the main floor to the upstairs?
I made a large hole in my wall with hopes of fishing a wires from the main floor to the upstairs. I'm wondering if I can drill vertically through this. I'm asking because it looks integral to the ...
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Should I worry about sagging joists?
I have a two story house and some of the joists between the floors are sagging about an inch or two. When I walk around upstairs I can feel the level difference and downstairs you can slightly see the ...
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Could I cut out the affected area in a termite damaged joist or would I need to replace the whole joist if it's rotted at the end
So I have a 2x10 floor joist that's only about 5 feet long (short because it only spans a rounded part of my house) which has termite damage at one end for about 1.5 feet. The damage is on the ...
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Can I place ventilation ducting on top of joists if there is space?
I'm installing a ceiling-mounted extractor fan above a kitchen island. The problem is with the placement of ventilation ducting in the ceiling: the joists are running in the opposite direction to the ...
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Joist re-enforcement instead of sister
So I've got a scenario where I'd like to re-enforce my joists, and I don't currently have the ability or time to sister the entire length of the 12' joists. Now I could remove blocking, insulation, ...
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What should I do about a hardwood floor that's sagging between the joists?
I recent bought an older (1890) house. On the original floors, the wood flooring is sagging between the joists--you can feel the height difference as you walk, up and down, up and down. It's firm, it'...
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Securing a twisted beam
I discovered this twisted underpurlin. Due to the twisting, the beam is sitting on the edge of the strut. I don't want the purlin to deform further, thereby falling down from the strut.
Question: Does ...
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What should be done about this twisted floor joist?
I am doing some substantial refurbishment in my loft conversion, which basically involves moving a stud wall to make a bathroom smaller and a bedroom bigger.
I am in the process of lifting and ...
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What should I do about this load bearing wall that is only supported by a joist floor?
My floors pitch in the same spots as they do on the 1st and 2nd floors.
My home was built in the 1890's. I have some soft spots in the basement joists and added 4x4" posts to each side of the main ...
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Can my floor hold 2100 lbs of dead load?
I'll admit I don't get how to compute how much my floor can hold, and probably wouldn't trust my own math, even if I came up with the right answer.
I'm looking to purchase a recording booth. I do ...
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Free-standing deck joist layout
I'm trying to plan out a free-standing deck in an irregular-shaped garden. It currently has railway sleepers marking a garden bed around the west, north and east edges and the missus would like to ...
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Contact surface between subfloor and joists
I had to remove portions of the existing subfloor chipboard panels (18mm depth), which now I need to replace (I already bought a new P5 panel).
The problem is that one edge of the hole is irregular, ...
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How can I support a subfloor patch between joists?
I'd opened up the subfloor in my second-floor bathroom to relocate the plumbing from the floor to the wall. Before I patched the plywood subfloor, I found out that these flat 2x4 joists are ...
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Is there a simple way to make these rough sawn, exposed joists level and flat?
I am renovating the kitchen in my 100+ year old American Four Square home. I was unfortunately not able to salvage the original longleaf pine flooring, so it has all been pulled up. I'm left with ...
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How can I tell how my hardwood floor is attached to my joists below, if there is no subfloor and no visible nails?
I need to replace a small non-load bearing joist under my hardwood floor (accessed via my basement ceiling) and I wanted to know before I try to remove it if it's glued or nailed on to my hardwood ...
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Running wire to ceiling with double joist parallel to wall
I'm finishing my basement, done the framing and starting wiring for lights. One wall runs parallel to the joists, and has a double joist (two 2x8) above the top plate (the wall is right next to the ...
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Can we fish non-metallic cables between steel furring (aka strapping) and joists in finished ceiling?
I want to wire up a recessed light in a finished closet ceiling, and link it up to a switch on one of the walls of the closet.
To reach the wall from the fixture, I need to cross two joists. There’s a ...
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How to cut hole larger than 1/3 of joist?
I need to run a toilet drain (3”) through three joists (9 1/4”). Code states holes in joists can not exceed 1/3 the size of the joists. Catch is for 3” pipe I need a 3 5/8” hole — which is larger than ...
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Why does the maximum deck overhang sometimes decrease with joist spacing?
The deck construction guide for my area contains this table:
Look at the "Allowable Overhang" columns. It's odd that a wider joint spacing (24") permits a longer overhang.
For example, look at the ...
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Where in the span of a floor joist can I drill holes to run wiring?
How far from the end of a 2x12 or 2x10 floor joist can I drill a hole?
NEC 502.8 does not give this answer, only that you have to be 2" above or below the edges, not in what part of the span it has ...
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How to repair this split ceiling joist?
While installing some new recessed lighting in my attic today, I noticed this split in one of the ceiling joists. The split is about 4 ft 6 in long starting from the end of the joist. The joist is a ...
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How many joist bores can I fit into with a single piece of Sch40 PVC?
I'm about to start the DWV plumbing in my bathroom addition. Unfortunately, some runs will have to cross joists instead of nicely running along them.
I have 2x12" and 2x8" floor joists (...
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Should I use lag screws or expansion bolts for an aerial mount point on a joist?
I would like to install a mount point on the ceiling for my wife so that she can continue doing aerial work. This is the mount point I want to install:
Aerials USA Stainless Steel Mount Point
As you ...
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What's the best way to insulate an attic with 2x4 joists?
My 1938 home currently has zero insulation (aside from a few fiberglass batts haphazardly tossed about). The ceiling joists are 2x4 (spaced 16 inch OC), rather than the more modern standard of 2x6 or ...
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How to approach insulating my rim joist
I'm working on finishing my 1924 home's basement in Minnesota and am currently working on insulation. My rim-joists look like this:
2x8 Joists with a board between each joist. Behind that board is a ...
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How do I reinforce the ends of 2x8s that are sistered to 2"x5" (actual size) joists?
I want to strengthen the floor of my office.
Currently the joists are 2"x5" (actual size).
I want to put a 2"x8" (1.5"x7.5" actual size) which will double the existing joists.
I will have to reduce ...
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How Do I Frame an Opening in My Bathroom Floor
I am fixing termite eaten and improperly spaced joists in my home. I need to create space for the bathtub drain fixtures, which are currently riding right up on a joist that runs under the bathtub, ...
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Do I need blocking between 2x8 joists with an 8-foot span in a kid's fort?
About to embark on a DIY project to build my kids a fort.
It will be a deck using 4x4's for legs, holding up a box of 2x8's. Three interior joists for a total of 7 2x8's will make up the frame for the ...
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How do I deal with a joist in the way of where I need to run a pipe?
I'm in the process of installing central vac lines (2" OD) in a finished house, and I am trying to run a line into the upstairs hallway. I have removed drywall in the garage below and drilled a hole ...
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Mounting a ceiling fan with 28” joist spacing and no attic access
Is there a decent way to mount a ceiling fan between joists that are 28” apart without tearing apart the ceiling? I don’t have access from above.
I looked into the expanding bar hangers that I can ...
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What to be done about cut I-joists? Cut is in lower flange above load bearing point
I am a first time homebuyer in the due diligence phase with this house. We identified in the crawlspace that a few of the I-joists had been cut, looks like with a reciprocating saw, for unknown ...
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How can I permanently fix a sagging floor?
I have a home I purchased roughly 18 months ago. The house is a traditional 2 story cape code (3BR 1BA) and is structurally very sound and extremely stable.
However, on the primary floor of the house,...
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Is it OK to drill one or two 2 inch holes into a load bearing header in my basement?
tl;dr: Is it OK to drill one or two 2 inch holes into a load bearing header in my basement made of doubled-up 2x10s on top of 2x6s? This area is in the center of my two-story house, and bridges over ...
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Can I overlay lumber perpendicular to floor joists to raise the floor height?
We have put our 2x6s joists down in our bathroom that is 2.45m by 1.45m.
We realized that we are short by about 8cm, so we were thinking, is it a bad idea to put 2 by 6s flat I.e the 6 going ...
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Can I drill 3-1/2" holes through five joists? [closed]
I need to move a toilet to the other side of room approx. 6 ft. I will have to drill a 3.5 in hole for the waste line in five floor joists on the second floor. Can I double them and still drill the 3....
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Small cracks in I-Joist bottom flange [closed]
I have noticed 3 small cracks over a a span of maybe 6 inches in one of my I-joists' bottom flange. It's ironically only on one side.
I suspect this is triggered by the top flange which has a ...
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Removing Load-Bearing Wall in Timber-Framed House
I live in a house that was built in 1976 using timber frame construction (prefabricated house / Fertighaus). In the ground floor, we want to remove a load-bearing wall. This was the initial state:
We ...
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Suggestion on deck frame joinery
I am planning to build a deck to my backyard, and I'm using a soft wood - I guess it's spruce not sure / not a very high quality wood.
I am having hard time to decide on choosing the construction ...
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45 degree beveled deck board ends butt joint at same joist
I have a large deck with runs 45' and longer where I'm replacing all the deck boards using premium SYP (infrastructure of deck is in great shape, so just replacing deck boards). The project is going ...
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What are the actual dimensions of a 4x8' subfloor plywood panel
If the joists are 16"oc and our plywood is exactly 4x8' and we have to allow 1/8" gap between our plywood panels wouldn't it shift the next panel by 1/8" and then the next by 2/8" ...
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Are the joist repairs in my home safe and correct?
As the title says, I recently bought a home and am in the early stages of finishing the basement. However, after tearing down the old ceiling tile, I found that my floor had experienced water damage ...
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Hurricane ties installed using joist hanger nails top AND bottom. Should I yank them out?
I'm using double sided hurricane ties to secure my joists to my beams for a deck I am building. The tie looks like below:
I had been using 1.5" joist hanger nails for the 6 holes at the top that ...
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Joist hangers to use for rough cut 2x8 (2 3/4" x 8 3/4")?
I'm looking for the right size joist hangers for my project. I have an old house with rough cut oversized joists and can't seem to find a joist hangers that will work. I'm nailing into a 2x10 ledger.
...
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How can I remove just one tongue-and-groove subfloor board?
I am not talking about laminate planks, but actual subfloor sections. My entire room consists of tongue-and-groove boards. I was under the impression that the point of this was so you didn't have to ...
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Getting plumbing on the other side of support beams
Had some 2nd-story plumbing start to fail in my 1950's home, so I had the brilliant idea to re-do a "mud-job" bathroom. It included removing a non-load bearing wall from the adjacent ...
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Joists have different height
I'm first time homeowner and bought a house (built in 1999) in fall of 2015 (Philadelphia suburb). During inspection of the house I noticed squeaky floors and inspector said its due to nails rubbing ...
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How can I hang a heavy bag from this beam in my garage?
I'm renting a house that was built about 10 years ago. The attached, finished garage is under the master bedroom. It has two large beams running across it, see picture.
The larger one is 6.5" ...
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