I live in a single-story house built in the early 1990s and am bothered by a "wobbly" floor in the living room that's driving me crazy - when you walk, it vibrates/swings (all the glasses in the display cabinet rattle, including other furniture) and we've noted that it slopes towards the "midpoint" of the room (perhaps a 1 cm difference against the wall, so quite significant).
I guess this might be due to the joists being too far apart? I'm definitely no expert on this, so the drawing is below:
Other details about the house: The floor is above a crawl space.
My questions, which I hope someone wiser than me can help me with:
1. Does anyone know, according to the drawing, if the hypothesis "joists too far apart" is correct?
2. What can be done to straighten/stabilize the floor again?
3. Who should be contacted to carry this out (assuming we hire someone to fix this). How much might it cost, roughly speaking, to get this fixed?
Living in a single-story house built in the early 1990s and troubled by a "wobbly" floor in the living room that's driving me crazy - when you walk, it vibrates/swings (all the glasses in the display cabinet clink for dear life, including other furnishings), and we've determined that it slopes towards the "center point" of the room (perhaps a 1 cm difference compared to the wall, so quite significant).
I guess this could be due to the joists being too far apart? I'm really no expert on this, so here's a drawing:
[image]
Additional info about the house: The floor is above a crawl space.
My questions, which I hope someone wiser than me can help me with:
1. Does anyone know, according to the drawing, if the hypothesis of "joists being too far apart" is correct?
2. What can be done about this to make the floor straight again/stabilize it?
3. Who do you contact to carry this out (assuming we hire someone to fix this)? What could it approximately cost to get this fixed?
/Julia
1. If the beams are 220mm in height, a spacing of 400mm and glued and screwed floor chipboard is required. However, it doesn't specify the dimension of the floor joists currently.
2. If you complement the existing beams with one in the middle and also add cross bracing/blocking between, then glue and screw chipboard, it will be much better than it is today.
The span it can handle increases by a meter. There are even better materials that can further reduce the deflection.
3. A construction company can handle such a task. Quotes will give you a reasonable price picture.
Missed that you had a crawl space. In that case, you can place a joist across the floor beams from underneath and attach/support it appropriately. It will have a greater effect on reducing the deflection and be cheaper than what I wrote above.
Missed that you had a crawl space. Then you can put a beam across the floor joists from underneath and support it in a suitable way.
This will have a greater effect on reducing the sag and be cheaper than what I mentioned above.
Exactly. And just by temporarily supporting from underneath, you can get a pretty good idea of what the result might be with a properly executed job. I would crawl under the foundation right away to test what kind of result you can get with supports.
I live in a single-story house built in the early 1990s and am bothered by a "shaky" floor in the living room that's driving me crazy - when you walk, it vibrates/rocks (all the glasses in the display cabinet rattle like crazy, including other furniture), and we've noted that it slopes towards the "center" of the room (perhaps 1 cm difference towards the wall, so quite significant).
I guess this might be due to the joists being too far apart? I'm really no expert on this, so the plan is below:
[image]
Other details of the house: The floor is above a crawlspace.
My questions, which I hope someone wiser than me can help me with:
1. Does anyone know, according to the plan, if the hypothesis "joists too far apart" holds true?
2. What can be done to straighten/stabilize the floor?
3. Who do you contact to carry this out (if we assume the hypothesis that we hire someone to fix this)? What could it roughly cost to get this fixed?
/Julia
If you have a crawlspace you can work in, this is quite simple. The C/C in the joists is perfectly fine. Join 2 pieces of 45x145 so you get a bearer of 90x145 running along the entire length. Place it right under the floor as support. Then lay ordinary paving slabs 40x40 as support against the ground, so it doesn’t sink in the future. Carefully lift with a jack so you can insert solid support (such as horizontal studs/boards) between the bearer and the slabs. The support should be firm so there is no sway.
I live in a single-story house built in the early 1990s and am troubled by "wobbly" floors in the living room that are driving me crazy - when you walk, it vibrates / sways (all the glasses in the display cabinet rattle for dear life, including other furniture) and we have noted that it slopes towards the "center point" of the room (maybe a 1 cm difference from the wall, so quite substantial)
I guess this might be due to spacing that is too wide between the joists? Really not an expert on this, so the blueprint is below:
[image]
Other about the house: The floor is above a crawl space.
My questions, which I hope someone wiser than me can help me with:
1. Does anyone know, according to the blueprint, if the hypothesis "too wide spacing between the joists" is correct?
2. What can be done about this to make the floor straight again/stabilize it?
3. Who do you contact to carry this out (assuming we hire someone to fix this). What might it cost, roughly speaking, to get this fixed?
/Julia
Question 3: If the crawl space is accessible and not too difficult to access, I would estimate that it takes 2 guys between 1-2 days, that is, 16 - 32 hours. So roughly and quickly, 10-15k is probably not unreasonable.
If it is a crawl space you can work in, this is quite simple. C/C in the joist is perfectly fine. Combine two 45x145 so you get a support beam of 90x145 along the entire length. Place it in the middle under the floor for support. Then place regular paving slabs 40x40 as support against the ground so it doesn't sink in the future. Carefully lift up with a jack so you can get solid support (such as lying studs/boards) between the support beam and the slabs. The support should be tight so it doesn't sway.
Don't forget to moisture-proof the construction. Roofing felt between the supports and the floor, as well as between the supports and the paving stones.
