Ok, so the umpteenth question on this subject!
Can you have multiple layers of floor joists?
Conditions:
classic 6-part plan in a house from 1903.
brick on the ground floor, upper floor under the rafters (hipped, broken roof). Wooden floor structure between the ground and upper floors.
Rafters run across the direction of the house's length. Completely normal. There is a wall under the ridge of the roof that could be the core wall and relieve the floor joists, according to standard.
BUT. When we open up a hole in the floor on the upper floor, there are fine floor joists 800cc but in the wrong direction! They lie in the house's lengthwise direction, across from the rafters.
My question; what on earth is holding the house together? Are the floor joists just nailed/lapped to other floor joists, which are in the right direction? Because there is no space for an additional layer of floor joists under these. Can the floor joists holding the house together be ON TOP of these so that it becomes a transfer?
What does this mean for which walls are load-bearing on the ground floor? I would have liked the core wall to be the one running parallel with the roof ridge. If the loads are transferred, then it is the walls running across the roof ridge that bear... hmmm!
So, guessing game, what might be an old Swedish solution to this, are the tensile forces absorbed by floor joists lying along or above this floor structure?
And what could be the reason for doing it this way probably throughout the house, this room is far from the chimney and stairs...
