2 Story House Floor Joists

The floor joist spacing is the distance between the centers of any two installed joists.

2 story house floor joists. Dead load weight of structure and fixed loads 10 lbs ft 2. Additional support for the floor joists is achieved by nailing the ends of the joists into headers. Framing for floor openings a staircase is essential for commuting between floors but it creates an opening in the second floor so you can t run the joists from one side of the house to the other without interruption. The extra two inches of vertical distance when a floor is framed with 2 x 10 joists rather than 2 x 12s can be quite important for example.

This size is no longer acceptable when framing a structure. The widest span in the floor joist span table in part 2 of this tutorial module showed that floor joists can span 17 2 if they are 2 x 12s spaced 12 o c. When building a house or even a deck it is important to confirm you have the correct joist sizes spans and spacing before you get started. 1 psf lb f ft 2 47 88 n m 2.

Section r502 10 of the international residential code states that header joists can be the same size as the floor joists when the header joist span isn t greater than 4 feet but if the header joist span is more than 4 feet you ll need to double the header joist and ensure that it s capable of. So the house dimensions will now be 24 x 13. 2 grade of douglas fir are indicated below. Common sense tells you that large floor joists can carry more load and spacing joists closer together also increases the load bearing capacity of a floor.

Floor joists align with the wall studs which align with the first story floor joists. Joist span and spacing is set by your local building code. See the image below for an example of joists spaced 16 on center 16 o c. The joists are so straight that i can t hardly find the crown in the lumber.

1 ft 0 3048 m. While first floor supports are needed to account for the additional weight of a second floor the walls are pretty much the same as those of a single story home. But larger is not always better when builders are constructing a home or adding a room addition. Live load is weight of furniture wind snow and more.

Maximum floor joist span for no. In the past 2x4s or 2x6s were sometimes used as floor joists. The 2x12 lumber that i picked up a few weeks ago is perfect. In buildings with basements the first level of floor joists serves the same purpose.

Floor joists installed on second or third or higher levels double as ceiling joists for the level below. Since the example house we are designing for is 12 feet wide we need to find in the floor joist span table a joist size and centering that can span 12 or wider.