I have a 24ft X 24ft room with a basement. The floor joists are 2 x 6 on 24 in. centers. There are 4 cross beams in this room to make the floor sturdier. Approxiamately every 5ft is a post. I was wondering if it was possible to replace these 4 cross supports with 2 – 5.25in X 5.25in Parallam(trusjoist) X 24ft long with one post in the center?
Thank you for any input as this room is not very useable with all these posts. Kemp
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Replies
You might want to post your question on Breaktime too. Maybe phrase the title a little differntly because it seems like someone asks about every other day how to strengthen joists or stop a floor from bouncing. Maybe something like "Replace several beams and posts with two?" or something to get to the thrust of your question. Hard to do with limited word count! Good luck--don't let them scare you over there--they can be a bit gruff.
don't let them scare you over there--they can be a bit gruff.
Nah, we're all powderpuffs. It's the nutty clients that make us evil.
2x6 floor joists are a joke. Spaced at 24", they are only rated to span 7'-9" with L/360 and 40/20 psf loads. You probably can't eliminate the 4 cross beams, but you could probably reduce the number of supporting posts with a deeper beam ... 5" deep isn't going to work.
Your safest bet is to hire an architect or engineer to calculate a solution. Alternately, you might, maybe, get a correct answer from a true lumber yard that sells glulams.
If you were to replace the floor joists with deeper members, you could possibly eliminate one or more of the cross beams. 2x10 @ 16" will span 14'-11" under the same load conditions.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt