Flooring

[Babnik]

The place we just bought has had renovations started on it, one of the things already done, is the first floor (or second floor for Americans), which is basically a load of beams with wood floorboards on top(must be a better technical term for that!). My questions are :

1) Is this strong enough for a bathroom?

2) Since I can't tile (doesn't seem stiff enough), what do you put in a bathroom? (don't say vinyl!!!)

3) Is their anyway of stiffening this floor (light weight concrete etc etc) without starting from scratch?

thanks

Steve

[Dick Smith]

1) Depends on how far apart the beams/joists are.

2) A bath? Rubber duck? Varnish/paint the boards?

3) See 1)

We have had to stiffen our bathroom floor - our builder is putting in a 20-inch oak beam (that won't go anywhere) at 90 degrees to the joists. We have a partition wall directly under the bath. Our problem wasn't so much the joists as the holes the electrician had drilled in them...

[Tresco]

If you want ceramic tiles (slippy and cold I think) the floor they are laid on has to be screwed down every 12 inches, I think, due to the movability of wood.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I have to add, whatever you decide on, make sure there is decent sound-proofing put in between what you have now, and what you finish up with. It's surprising how certain sounds can resonate through the entire house without it.

tresco

[Hegs]

I'm no builder and maybe it's best to speak to one, but I've been looking at this too.

In our place the floorboards rest on joists which lie parallel to the beams, resting on them. The joists are 8x11 cm lengthways up and are placed every 50cms, and "span" the gap between two beams which is 2.5 meters.

There are things called "span tables" which say how much weight this arrangement can handle, mine are in a thin book called "Charpente" I found at E.Leclerc.

If any of the joists are actually deformed or broken, you can do something called "sistering" - basically jutting another next to the weak one and bonding to strengthen. Use a search engine to find out more on this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Caterham7]

Hegs,I think your joists should be perpendicular to the supporting beams.A quick check on your joists spanning 2.5m for normal domestic loading(including bathrooms) gives a bending stress of 4.8 N/mm sq and a deflection of 6.5mm,this is well within the allowable limits for most constructional timber.Span tables are also in the Building Regs but are slightly conservative.

Babnik,if your joists are adequate for normal domestic loading they will be ok for a 'normal' bath.Jacuzzi's are a differant kettle of fish !.If you can measure the joist sizes/span/centres I can let you know if they are in the right ball park,the type of wood would be usefull but this can be difficult to determine to the untrained eye.

Regards Tony

 

[Hegs]

>Hegs,I think your joists should be perpendicular to the supporting beams

Duh, I had a failure of my Keyboard Operating System

[Babnik]

Joists and floorboards are quite new, but I'll have to check the spacing between joists. Joists are also painted, so a little difficult to tell what the wood is. All I can say is that it feels springy in some areas, and I definately want to do something about the noise insulation (or lack of it). I will definately be looking into it though!

 

Steve

[Linnorton]

We have exactly the same situation and my husband has fitted a supporting beam, dimensions worked out by brother-in-law who is a structural engineer.  We are either going to fit an insulated ceiling below or apparently there is a sound-proofing membrane which can be laid in what will be the bathroom with new flooring laid on top of that.  Will probably go for a good quality vinyl for ease of installation.  One thing to bear in mind is that the pipes for plumbing will be on view from the room below unless you fit a false ceiling.