Wood Floor Joist Spacing

1 ft 0 3048 m.

Wood floor joist spacing. Floor joists or beams provide the below surface support for the wood subfloor of a room. But larger is not always better when builders are constructing a home or adding a room addition. You should also check your local building codes before starting construction and consult a structural engineer in unusual or extreme situations. Joist span and spacing is set by your local building code.

The extra two inches of vertical distance when a floor is framed with 2 x 10 joists rather than 2 x 12s can be quite important for example. Though joists may be any size that you desire using typical floor joist and beam specifications ensures that you can find hardware to fit the joists and that the floor provides adequate support for furniture and other items in a room. Maximum floor joist span for no. 1 psf lb f ft 2 47 88 n m 2.

Live load is weight of furniture wind snow and more. 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. Normally floor joists are spaced 16 inches apart on center. Putting all these factors together gives the minimum size joists needed for various types of wood grades of lumber sizes of boards spacing of joists and the load that will be placed on the floor.

2 grade of douglas fir are indicated below. 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. As with the joist size the building code for your structure will stipulate the proper spacing between floor joists.