Joist support adequate?

[Bob]

Hi,

I have a small one level ranch new construction being built now. The other day I got down to the crawlspace to check it out. I am a bit concerned with the way the floor joists are supported. Being a layman I don't know if this is the right way to suppor the joist. Not sure if the joists are supported adequately.

The lot slopes slightly from back to front. When the foundation walls were poured the builder said it was necessary to make a "step" in the wall so the back is about 12" higher than the front (this way driveway wouldn't too steep). The joists run in back/front direction so now the back ends do not sit on the concrete. There are 2x4 studs 16" OC just inside the concrete wall supporting two pieces of 2x4 as beam. The TJI joists sit on the beam. The total span from back to front is 32'. Two addtional footings with same type of posts/beam are in the middle to reduce the spans to about 11'. Concrete wall is about 3' tall.

Is this the right/standard/acceptable way to support the joists in such a one-level house on a gently sloped lot? This is quite close to a "spec house" - nearly everything is "standard" grade. But I am a little nervous, knowing the back end is not sitting on concrete.

There is an illustration below, just copy and paste the URL to browser. It is very small gif file (9KB) but quite descriptive.

http://64.126.161.28/joists.gif Thanks in advance for any input.

Bob

[Dave in Lake Villa]

Why not call your local Village Building Inspector at this point in the construction stage , before it gets much further along ? He will know for sure if it is acceptable to code and safe.

[willshak]

On 1/2/2005 2:54 AM US(ET), Bob took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

It's fine. I assume that the house was built using engineered plans, designed by a architect. As long as the 2x4s are positioned directly under the joists and not between, they provide the same level of support as the other 2x4 framed support walls in the house. Nice drawing, by the way.

[Terry]

FWIW this style of construction would be (or at least was) OK here. It appears that there are 12 inch (nominal) floor joists (the poster doesn't mention the spacing but it's probably 16" or 24"?) Supported at each end and at intervening points by standard 16" oc stud walls with double 2 x 4 headers. So the maximum span of any section is likely 12'. The scantlings in our 34 year old house are slightly lighter than that and have withstood the years fine. If there's no problem I wouldn't even mention it!

[Greg O]

Looks fine to me too. I am assuming the wall above is sitting on the foundation on the one end, so the wall is just supporting the floor on the area in question. Greg

[Bob]

Thanks for the comments. The joist spacing is 16" oc.

Bob