The upstairs kitchen and living room floors in my 24 year old bilevel home are very “bouncy”. I’ve been wondering how I could stiffen the floor up. I weigh 190 pounds. When I walk within a few feet of my china cabinet or end tables everything rattles quite a bit.
The floor joists are 1.5 inches by 7 inches ( I thought 2×8’s were ususally 1.5 by 7.5) spaced 16 inches on center. The floor joists span 30 feet. The subfloor is one half inch plywood. There is a wall downstairs , in the middle of the span, running perpendicular to the floor joists. The wall is 9 feet tall and made of 2×4’s spaced irregularily (12 to 20 inches).
I don’t know if the wall is structural or not, but suspect that it’s not, even if it was supposed to be. I suspect the bottom plate of the wall may not be in good shape. I put new trim on it a couple of years ago and had some difficulty finding good nailing spots.
I was thinking of putting a steel support every ten feet or so inside the downstairs wall. Any thoughts? Any other ideas on how to stiffen up the upstairs floors?
Roger H – Columbus OH
Replies
Steel posts every 10 feet won't do a thing for you.
You seem to have more than one problem. First, 2X8 joists shouldn't span 15'. That's probably the reason for most of your problems. The only solution that's likely to help is add beams or bearing walls.
The second is the apparent deterioration of the bottom plate on your bearing wall. Since that wall holds up half your floor, it needs checked out.
You really need someone that can come and look at the thing. Not much else we can tell you from this end.
What has four legs and an arm? A happy pit bull.
I agree with Boss that the numbers don't sound real good. My first hire would be a structural engineer, or a contractor who brings a structural engineer along. I wouldn't just hire someone to fix it, nor attempt it myself, without the analysis of an engineer. This isn't a case for rules of thumb or guesses.
Edited 6/19/2002 2:07:17 PM ET by Cloud Hidden