Bouncy Joists

Dec 13, 2013 27 Replies

BCO rule of thumb (which corresponded very closely to the span tables in my day) was that floor joist permissible span in feet was twice depth in inches - 2, which gives 14' or 4.2m.

Flat roof joists 2D -1

Ceiling joists 2D

A job load of expanding foam canisters?

Hah!, Remember a real party at an old house in South London many years ago, first floor flat was heaving!! the floor must have been going up and down about a couple of inches and the floor upstairs seemed the same, everywhere someone was bonking away like there was no tomorrow!..

Ah!, ye good olde days;)...

if the bounciness is because the joists are flexing, one will eventually lead to the other

tim

According to my structural engineer, inadequate joists will shear (I think that was the fail mode) with absolutely no warning at all

tim

For normal joists deflection determines sizing and failure will only occur after excessive deflection.

Quick check assuming BS permissible stresses give a factor of safety of 1.8, 4m span 50x200 C16 joists

Normal deflection, 9.4mm

Bending failure occurs when deflection = 21.6mm

Shear do, 52.4mm

+1.

At a pure guess you might need a deflection of a couple of feet before it starts to fail, and you might not judge that to be an acceptable amount of "bounce".

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