I live in Ottawa and have a brand new home 1 year old. I noticed that was was taking out some 2x4's in my basement and noticed a floor joist move ! I found 3 floor joists in the basement that do not have hangers underneath them. Are all floor beams not suppose to have hangers under them ? Why is it that I have a 1 2.x4 wall holding up
3 floor joists ? Should I contact the builder to check this out asap ?
The tip of the joists should be resting on the foundation wall and ends banded with another 2x10 (or 2x12 if you have 2x12's). The joists should not need hangars if they nailed them from the outside band going in, hangars are only needed if you have no other way to nail from the outside, older and many new homes have no joist hangars at all. If the tips are not resting on the foundation wall, then you probably moved a bearing wall. Have the builder send their "detail man" out, the guy that they send out to fix after-sale complaints, nail pops, etc.
What do you mean by "taking out some 2x4's"? Of course a 2x4 wall in a basement could be serving as a bearing point for floor joists. No, every joist does not necessarily have a hangar. A photo would be very helpful here.
This is not an exterior wall it's an interior wall near a staircase. The floor joists on one end are held into a microland board by hangers. The other end are simply resting on the top plate of 2x4's with no nails or nothing in them ! Every joist in my basement has hangers on them except for these three.
Yes the basement staircase wall often bears a few joists at least, because there is basically a "hole" for the staircase as the joists traverse the house. They should have toe nailed those, but just resting is ok because the floor plywood holds the joists in place horizontally. Yes it sounds like you affected a bearing wall, I'd put it back until you figure it out. It may be possible to shorten stair walls a little with a header and some hangars, but it sounds like you will need a vertical there somewhere even if you truncate the wall width.
I've also noticed that on the adjoining wall is a 12 inch high lvl beam that at one end is sitting on a jack post and the other end is being supported by a 2x4 ??? How is that possible ? Is 1 2x4 enough to hold a lvl beam ?
Hmmm, Sounds like El Cheapo built house.
It all depends on the load on the LVL. A lot of times, a certain depth LVL is used because it matches the depth of the floor joists.
You are not very good at following advice
Oops, the link didn't work. Check out the thread "Load Bearing Wall" posted on Dec. 26.
Seek professional help!!!!
Please explain the 2x4 wall. Exactly where is it? Is it at the end of a beam? The beam should have been longer. It is, however, perfectly acceptable to use a 2x4 wall to hold up any number of floor joists PROVIDING there is a concrete footer beneath it (under the concrete floor). If there is no footer then the floor will likely crack and buckle. Without seeing a picture of the three joists or a better description of the 3 joists we cannot give any explanation about why it has a 2x4 wall holding them up.
Sounds like creaping floors and broken tiles El Cheapo too!
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