Kitchen and Laundry project, joists and all...

[vm428]

Thanks to you guys' advice, the kitchen subfloor is in. It's not perfect, but there are no major dips/humps, and it is solid!

Starting same process in the laundry room this weekend...

[ss3964spd]

[PC7060]

Nice!

[vm428]

Good morning everyone!
Working on replacing laundry room joists now. We have removed the old joists.
I think the laundry room was originally a porch that was closed in at some point.
There is a hole knocked through the brick under the sill plate between the laundry room and kitchen.

The hole is about 20" wide.
The pipes running through the hole run to a water heater. We will be disconnecting the pipes/moving the water heater to another area of the house within the next year.

Blue = rim joist (2 2x8's)
Green = 2 2x8 boards we glued/screwed to the rim joist from the kitchen side as a ledger.
Red = 2x8 board (part of rim joist?) running in front of rim joist; need to get a better look at it but I don't believe it is nailed to the rim joist lengthwise.

Sorry I don't have better photos, but I will be able to get in there and get better photos/measurements late this afternoon as needed.

14) Do you think we need to add more support above the hole, and options for doing so?

[cx]

Vena, I'm not seeing the blue marking as being a "sill plate," but rather a rim joist. Could you verify that, please? Your sill plate should be the horizontal board we see laying horizontally on top of, and supported by, the brick foundation wall, yes?

14. No. I would be inclined to add joist hangers to the joist ends on the laundry room side, though. Will those joists need help meeting the necessary L/360 deflection requirement? Unregard that. I now read back through the thread and see that you intend to replace those joists. That being the case, I'd be inclined to replace that rim joist as well, if feasible. The current one looks to be of poor grade and not such good condition, if I'm reading the photo correctly (not always the case). Nail holding capability may not be as good as you'd prefer.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[vm428]

Oh gosh, sorry, yes I meant rim joist.

I'm hoping we can pull out that outer joist (red color). It looks bad/different than the 2 original rim joist boards behind it (blue color) and doesn't appear to be nailed to them along their length. I think they added that bad board when they closed in the porch. Will get a better look late afternoon.

Thank you for your advice. I was pretty worried about possibly needing to do something major to support the hole.

[cjarvis]

Looking at the pics of the joist and hangers, is the member the hangers attach to resting on a sill that is resting on foundation (ie a rim joist), or is it screwed to a rim joist that is resting on foundation? If the latter, does that make it a ledger and should it be lagged to the rim joist rather than deck screws? I am not an expert, just asking.
This site helps me a lot: https://up.codes/codes/michigan

[cx]

Judging only by the photo, I treated it as a rim joist, rather than a ledger, Craig.

[vm428]

I just saw the question about lag bolts.

The board marked in red does rest on the foundation columns, so I think it's correct to call it a rim joist board, not a ledger board.
We were able to remove the "red" board and replace it. We glued/screwed a new board to the original (blue) rim joist.

I'm glad this question was asked, as I didn't know it would need to be lagged if it didn't rest directly on the columns, and now I do

[vm428]

Hi again everybody,

We have the laundry room joists in the hangers (not toenailed yet) and are getting ready to check flatness and do any necessary adjusting/planing.

Most of the boards have a slight crown. I read that crowns will generally settle a bit.

15) Is it appropriate to leave minor (what is minor?) crowns as is because they will settle/flatten out a bit, or should we always plane every crown to get as flat as possible before the subfloor install?

Thank you

[cx]

The best and easiest place to flatten that floor is now, Vena, at the joist tops. You want to end up with the subfloor surface sufficiently flat for the size of tiles you intend to use, and you want to need to do as little as possible once the subflooring is in place because there are no really good ways then. There are ways, but better your floor should already be flat. A slight crown, if consistent across all the joists, may be acceptable, but you don't want to exceed the roughest flatness requirement of 1/4" in ten feet.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[vm428]

Thanks again CX. It's helpful to confirm that I really do have good reason to drive my poor husband nuts over joist flatness this weekend, ha!

[ss3964spd]

I'll add that if the crowned joists are fairly short, it's unlikely that the crown will "settle" over time. So, de-crown them. Besides, y'all bought that planner.

By way of experience, remind Mr. Vena to keep his digits away from the sharp spinny blades.

[Snets]

Good advice on safety, Dan. Sometimes we don't realize the power of power tools.

And as long as we're talking safety, IF you happen to have your finger under a Kerdi Board washer with the two spikes on the back side, AND you accidentally tighten it with your finger under a spike, try not to instinctly pull your finger out until you unscrew it.

As Dan said, by way of experience.

[vm428]

Ouch! thank you, good advice, husband said it made his tummy turn to think about that.
Years ago a friend of mine shot himself in the stomach with a nail gun...