Cross Members Between Floor Joists

What is the proper placement.

Cross members between floor joists. The common spacing between floor joists is 16 inches on center. If you have central heat and or air conditioning with floor vents it is very easy to remove the vents by pulling them straight up. 2x10 to 15 feet and 2x12 to 18 feet. Be aware that lumber yards have a far greater inventory of floor joists than the home centers or big box stores.

How far apart are floor joists placed. Blocking is also needed each time the joist overlaps with a center beam and every eight feet between two joists. A lot of questions revolve around joists when it comes to building a deck. It should be placed at eight foot intervals between any floor joists 2x10 or longer.

Providing more support and rigidity than cross bracing solid blocking is a reasonable alternative but can be an obstacle for running plumbing pipes and electrical wire between floor joists. In general terms joists spaced 16 inches on center can span 1 5 times in feet their depth in inches. Removing a floor hvac vent is the best way to check for total floor thickness. With the vent removed you have a wide clear view of a cross section of your floor.

I just watched an episode of ask this old house which dealt with cross bridging between wood floor joists of a house. When incorporated into a floor framing system joists serve to provide stiffness to the subfloor sheathing allowing it to function as a horizontal diaphragm joists are often doubled or tripled placed side by side where conditions warrant. Tom silva explained that the cross bridging transferred the load on the joist to the other joists thus strengthening the floor. Solid blocking should be used where floor joists overlap over beams.

This is contrary to my understanding of the purpose of bridging. Floor joist bridging is critical to the structural strength of a floor as shown in figure 1. Yet it is not uncommon to find bridging not properly installed or missing all together. Look inside old homes or warehouses and you ll often see funny cross.

Proper bridging distributes the load on the floor to other joists and over time prevents floors from sagging and squeaking do to floor joists twisting and warping. Building code requires the use of blocking for floor joists that exceed 2 inches in width by 12 inches in depth. B the framing member that runs around the perimeter of your house and that the floor joists butt into often gets riddled with large holes. Absolutely visit a real lumber yard to get some advice on strong and affordable floor joist lumber.

The cool thing about these however is that the space between cross members is usually big enough to accommodate big pipes even ductwork. A joist is a horizontal structural member used in framing to span an open space often between beams that subsequently transfer loads to vertical members.