Hey all.
I hope a picture is worth a thousand words here. This is a question about framing the floor in my house. In the attached picture, the grey lines are cinderblock foundation wall, a large one around the perimeter of the house, and an L-shaped one that attaches to the perimeter wall. Where the L-shaped wall leaves unsupported floor (the right side of the image), three cinderblock piers (grey squares) were built up, shown as grey squares. Nothing is really to scale here, but the dimensions are on the image, and all joists are 16" on center. On one side of the house, 2x8 joists (orange) were used to support the floor. Where the foundation wall stops, a girder (yellow line) was placed across the three piers to support the floor joists. On the other side of the house was a mobile home around which that side was constructed. I have systematically been cutting the mobile home out of the house. I have removed 2/3 of it already. Once the trailer comes out, I have been using 2x10 joists (blue) starting on the left side and moving over as the trailer is cleared out. Now I have reached the end of the interior foundation wall, and I have 27 feet to go to the end of the house. Now back to the girder. I see that what the previous builder did was run the 2x8 joists from the outer wall to the girder and stop them just about 2 inches from the edge of the piers (covering pretty much the whole pier). Then he used 2x8 blocking pieces (green) and attached them a few inches from the ends of the joists, roughly on top of the girder. What's left in this picture are the purple and brown dashed lines. This is my proposed plan. I plan to cut out the green blocking pieces, then go farther in and put new blocking pieces, also 2x8 (brown) to stabilize the joists. Then I will run new 2x10 joists (purple) from the outer wall of the house to the other side, over the top of the girder, and attach them to the 2x8 joists. To make that work, I will have to cut a couple of inches off the bottom of the 2x10s on the girder side so that they line up even across the top.
I suppose the question would come up why I don't just use 2x8s, and it's just because I started with 2x10s on the other side of the house a few years ago when I started this project, and I think at the time I had read that the 2x8 was basically just up to code, and I just decided for a few dollars more to take it up a level in terms of sturdiness.
My questions would be whether I'm violating best practices or possible code (Virginia), how far the joists should extend and attach across the other joists, and whether the entire 2x10 would effectively become a 2x8 if I cut two inches off the bottom from the girder to the end point.
I hope a picture is worth a thousand words here. This is a question about framing the floor in my house. In the attached picture, the grey lines are cinderblock foundation wall, a large one around the perimeter of the house, and an L-shaped one that attaches to the perimeter wall. Where the L-shaped wall leaves unsupported floor (the right side of the image), three cinderblock piers (grey squares) were built up, shown as grey squares. Nothing is really to scale here, but the dimensions are on the image, and all joists are 16" on center. On one side of the house, 2x8 joists (orange) were used to support the floor. Where the foundation wall stops, a girder (yellow line) was placed across the three piers to support the floor joists. On the other side of the house was a mobile home around which that side was constructed. I have systematically been cutting the mobile home out of the house. I have removed 2/3 of it already. Once the trailer comes out, I have been using 2x10 joists (blue) starting on the left side and moving over as the trailer is cleared out. Now I have reached the end of the interior foundation wall, and I have 27 feet to go to the end of the house. Now back to the girder. I see that what the previous builder did was run the 2x8 joists from the outer wall to the girder and stop them just about 2 inches from the edge of the piers (covering pretty much the whole pier). Then he used 2x8 blocking pieces (green) and attached them a few inches from the ends of the joists, roughly on top of the girder. What's left in this picture are the purple and brown dashed lines. This is my proposed plan. I plan to cut out the green blocking pieces, then go farther in and put new blocking pieces, also 2x8 (brown) to stabilize the joists. Then I will run new 2x10 joists (purple) from the outer wall of the house to the other side, over the top of the girder, and attach them to the 2x8 joists. To make that work, I will have to cut a couple of inches off the bottom of the 2x10s on the girder side so that they line up even across the top.
I suppose the question would come up why I don't just use 2x8s, and it's just because I started with 2x10s on the other side of the house a few years ago when I started this project, and I think at the time I had read that the 2x8 was basically just up to code, and I just decided for a few dollars more to take it up a level in terms of sturdiness.
My questions would be whether I'm violating best practices or possible code (Virginia), how far the joists should extend and attach across the other joists, and whether the entire 2x10 would effectively become a 2x8 if I cut two inches off the bottom from the girder to the end point.
