Residential Second Floor Joists Layout

But larger is not always better when builders are constructing a home or adding a room addition.

Residential second floor joists layout. Ceiling joists are usually 2 by 6s or sometimes 2 by 4s if it is an older home. Let s expand our house beyond that 17 2 span capability to 24 feet wide. Headers girders joists interior load bearing walls and columns footings gravity loads exterior load bearing walls and columns gravity and transverse. Second floor construction techniques follow a standard process.

Framers construct the second story floor system to match the layout of the main floor system. The 1 grade material is more expensive than the 2 grade but if you can use fewer or smaller 1 grade joists or rafters in your design you may actually save money. Designing the framing system for engineered lumber is a little different from dimensional lumber. Wooden i joists provide a good balance of strength cost and ease of installation and they are what we are using for the floor joists on the fhb house with lvls for beams and headers.

Floor joists are typically 2 by 8s 2 by 10s or 2 by 12s. Using floor joist span tables. A floor s framework is made up mostly of wooden joists that run parallel to one another at regular intervals. When building a house or even a deck it is important to confirm you have the correct joist sizes spans and spacing before you get started.

Section r502 10 of the international residential code states that header joists can be the same size as the floor joists when the header joist span isn t greater than 4 feet but if the header joist span is more than 4 feet you ll need to double the header joist and ensure that it s capable of. Additional support for the floor joists is achieved by nailing the ends of the joists into headers. Don t worry you won t need to do a lot of calculations in determining the size and placement of the structural framing within your house design. The widest span in the floor joist span table in part 2 of this tutorial module showed that floor joists can span 17 2 if they are 2 x 12s spaced 12 o c.

2attic loads may be included in the floor live load. Rafter spans can be extended slightly beyond what the rafter tables suggest when there is a cantelever extending beyond the supporting wall. Design loads for residential buildings 3 1 general. Common sense tells you that large floor joists can carry more load and spacing joists closer together also increases the load bearing capacity of a floor.

Some newer homes have manufactured i beam shaped joists. While most residential construction uses 2x8 joists with 16 inch spacing there are many other factors you need to consider when determining the proper joist span length. So the house dimensions will now be 24 x 13. Typically the second story floor joists will not only run the same direction as the first floor joists they will also be directly over them.

Residential structural design vertical structural forces we were about to start learning about floor joist span tables. Continuing on from part 1.