Hi,
New to this, and owning a shambolic house, so please help if possible.
Basically, recently bought a house with an existing RSJ with no docs - it was done a *long* time ago, probably pre 1984.
We have a bouncy floor (hopefully more to do with lack of 'noggins'?) and wanted to check the RSJ, so have pulled up floorboards but can't really see it - it juts down into downstairs ceiling and is boxed in.
We can however see the the bottom of the upstairs brick wall (runs along RSJ line) kind of 'floating' - it seems to sit on a couple of loose bricks wedged with wood underneath, which I presume are then on the RSJ, which is too low too see (plaster and lath ceiling seems to run to just above the top edge of RSJ).
I'm really panicking about how safe it is, and as I'm about to redecorate the bedrooms and replace floorboards etc this is the time to sort it.
Should I get a builder? Structural engineer? Council bod?
Is there a relatively simple way I could establish the RSJ size and safeness myself? For example if I removed the boxing in would there be a code or something? Would I be able to see the padstones - if they are there?!
Or am I worrying about nothing given how long it has been up for, and should just look at installing noggins between joists to solve the bouncy floors?
Would really appreciate any advice/experience! Many thanks!
Edit - also the upstairs joist just seem to sit on the RSJ, without any kind of fixing. So I presume they move around a fair bit.. is this normal/ok/unsafe? If it is the root of the bouncy floor, how could it be solved? Ta!
New to this, and owning a shambolic house, so please help if possible.
Basically, recently bought a house with an existing RSJ with no docs - it was done a *long* time ago, probably pre 1984.
We have a bouncy floor (hopefully more to do with lack of 'noggins'?) and wanted to check the RSJ, so have pulled up floorboards but can't really see it - it juts down into downstairs ceiling and is boxed in.
We can however see the the bottom of the upstairs brick wall (runs along RSJ line) kind of 'floating' - it seems to sit on a couple of loose bricks wedged with wood underneath, which I presume are then on the RSJ, which is too low too see (plaster and lath ceiling seems to run to just above the top edge of RSJ).
I'm really panicking about how safe it is, and as I'm about to redecorate the bedrooms and replace floorboards etc this is the time to sort it.
Should I get a builder? Structural engineer? Council bod?
Is there a relatively simple way I could establish the RSJ size and safeness myself? For example if I removed the boxing in would there be a code or something? Would I be able to see the padstones - if they are there?!
Or am I worrying about nothing given how long it has been up for, and should just look at installing noggins between joists to solve the bouncy floors?
Would really appreciate any advice/experience! Many thanks!
Edit - also the upstairs joist just seem to sit on the RSJ, without any kind of fixing. So I presume they move around a fair bit.. is this normal/ok/unsafe? If it is the root of the bouncy floor, how could it be solved? Ta!