My joists are too long. Should I be worried.

[Dan watts]

I’m doing some work on the house and have had cause to take the kitchen ceiling down. When I did I noticed that a wall I had presumed to be load bearing was not actually in contact with the joists, only the cladding (see pic).

It’s a 1930s house and joists are 7”x2”. The span across the room is 3940mm. According to span tables if it’s c16 (not sure how to tell) I should only be spanning 3830). There is also a short upstairs wall (lath and plaster) sitting parallel on one of the joists so it has more than 0.25kN/m2 on it. The only thing I can see is some herringbone bracing down the centre of the span (pictured). There is also one joist that just seems to be attached to the stair case so can’t see how it’s bearing anything?

Is any of this cause for concern? I’m sure there are thousands of old houses that no don’t stand up to modern regs, but the issue comes when wanting to renovate. I guess any work done now would have to comply regardless of how many years of evidence there are that the structure is sound.

I’m actually planning on moving that upstairs wall and replacing it with a stud wall pretty much on the next joist along. Would it be wise to stick some noggins in to help with rigidity?

 

[tony1851]

As your house has had 'over-spanned' joists for 90 years, they are no problem.

Instead of putting noggins in, why not firmly screw a length of 6 x 2 to the joist under the partition.

It's unlikely the joist will be fixed to the stair string - it's usually the stairs fixed to the joist.