Making good floor joists after chimney breast removal.

[LeeJC]

Story goes, when i bought this house the chimney breast had been removed up to the first floor, but under advice it has been removed up to loft level.

Prior owners had ripped the floorboards up to rewire, and instead of replacing had just thrown some chipboard down on top, now i'm removin this chipboard i'm left with trying to devise a cunning and safe solution to the problem of floor joists.

There is some cross member with 4 bolts in that had nothing attached to them, but this is bolted to another member which isn't sitting flush with the brace which connects to the joists, but is held in place with a couple of bolts and plates.

I need to make a floor strong enough to take floor boards, and to be honest i'm not sure how secure the joists are coming from the far side of the room as you look at the pictures.

All help greatly appreciated, really need to get it sorted before friday due to carpet fitters coming in.

Cheers
Lee

http://www.1188squadron.co.uk/PC230178.JPG The heads of the bolts holding the wonky support member???

http://www.1188squadron.co.uk/PC230179.JPG Said member with plates.

http://www.1188squadron.co.uk/PC230180.JPG Full view, with the 4 bolted thing...............

http://www.1188squadron.co.uk/PC230180.JPG Another Angle

http://www.1188squadron.co.uk/PC230183.JPG This support with the bolts in doesn't appear to be fixed to anything??

http://www.1188squadron.co.uk/PC230192.JPG The proper joinery, probably circa 1899.

 

[JerryM]

From pic 80 I think the current arrgt is:

1) 2 timbers fixed in the side wall (say A LHS & B RHS)
2) 1 timber say C spanning across A & B (2 bolts at LHS no nuts and 2 bolts with nuts RHS)
3) Joist No 1 (nearest wall, say D) fixed to B
4) From pic 92 there is a trimmer timber (say E) fixed to end of Joists 1 & 2

I don’t think the arrgt is complete as LHS of timber C appears unsupported. If timber C is supported at LHS and firmly fixed would fit nuts to the LHS bolts and leave C alone as this effectively joins joist 2. Joist 1 needs a piece of joist adding in to span the cuts. suggest bolt at RHS to B (say 3 off M12 at 75 ctrs with double sided timber connectors) and metal joist hanger at LHS fixed to trimmer E.

After doing above if timber C is unsupported then remove and do same to span the cuts in joist 2

Suggest putting a couple of acro props under joist 2 whilst doing the work as a precaution.