I want to raise the height of the joists in a bedroom floor so that it comes level with the landing, at the moment you have to step down onto it. I intend to just add an 80mm depth baton on to each joist and reattach the planks on top of that. Is there any problem with doing this, for example will it contravene any building regs etc?
I can't think of any reason why it would be notifiable building work. Are you planning to pull up the original boards? Less work to use new. Unless the old are particularly characterful, I wouldn't bother pulling them up. Usual caveats, beware of cables and pipes (which is one downside to not pulling up original boards - less accessibility), and you could put down sound deadening between the joists as well.
I don't see a problem. You'll be increasing the floor loading by the weight of the battens - but that is likely to be relatively trivial, unless the joists are right on the limit. [You won't increase the load-carrying capacity of the joists by nailing battens on the top, whereas you would be replacing them with taller joists - but that's not likely to be mecessary].
You'll end up with a *lot* more weight if you double up on the floorboards - and the existing joists may or may not be able to support this comfortably, depending on how much they have in hand.
About 9Kg/m^2 for 19mm T&G
Very roughly that's about an extra 20 pounds per 10 square feet? Or 2 pounds per square foot. Doesn't sound like a very significant increase in floor load? If the room is 10 by 12 feet, 120 sq. feet, that's some 240 pounds. A reasonably heavy person may weigh that much????? Unless it's very inadequately joisted floor now the addition of the weight of one person should not make any noticeable difference?
Sounds good. If you glue & screw you'll get a much stiffer floor structure too, eliminating creaks and cracks and reducing sound transmission. Add rockwool in there if you want more noise reduction.
NT
why not just add a floating floor polystyrene slab and 22mm chipboard,no joists required.
Wow, that's a coincidence I just done this !!
Only difference is - on the wall at 90 degrees to the run of the joists I screwed a batten, then put battens from wall-to-wall accross the existing line of joists (i.e. 90 degrees to joists), these were notched & screwed into the battens on the walls & also screwed into the existing joists (some needed packing underneath). then covered whole lot with caberfloor. Had to do it this way cos the existing floor wasnt level. Mind you I had a bit more to make up than 80mm so I was using 5x2 inch for the battens. I put everything at 40mm centres to match the standard length of caberfloor panels. All seems to work and I finally have a level floor, with no step.
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