Hi, my house was built in the 50's, I've recently been doing a lot of redecorating, plumbing e.t.c. and realized that the upstairs block walls are built straight onto the floor boards. What I'm concerned about, is, there are two walls spaced around 2ft apart which form a closet dividing two upstairs bedrooms. The walls span 13ft across the living room below, and rest on the floor boards. The joists have been doubled up where they coincide with the walls. It's been that way since I bought the house in the 90's, but I've always had a problem with hairline cracks across the ceiling in the living room in this location. Was this common practice in the 50's? It just seems a lot of weight to have on an 8 inch floor joist. There's also a large old cast iron radiator, bed e.t.c. being supported by these joists. There was a fair bit of 'bounce' in the floor, but I've just installed tongue and groove hardwood flooring perpendicular to the floor boards, and this has somehow stopped the bounce entirely and stabilized the floor. Originally, there would have been a dividing block wall on the ground floor across the living room, coinciding roughly with the upstairs walls, this looks to have been removed a long time ago.
Am I right in supposing that, because the walls are on the tongue and groove boards (not sole plates), it becomes less of a point load on one or 2 joists, and a lot of the weight is distributed across multiple joists/the whole floor instead?
Am I right in supposing that, because the walls are on the tongue and groove boards (not sole plates), it becomes less of a point load on one or 2 joists, and a lot of the weight is distributed across multiple joists/the whole floor instead?
