I'm about to start on a self build and had an architect involved in drawing up my design. I specified that I wanted a solid 1st floor and not one that was going to creak and squeak a couple of years down the line.
In his drawings, he's designed the floor as "22 T&G flooring grade chipboard on sw joists with steel intermediate support beams where indicated and joist hangers to walls. Midspan strutting to joists".
The steel support beams are because we're spanning an internal gap of 6m, so there is a beam across the middle of each of the affected rooms cutting the joist span to 3m on each side of the beam.
There's no mention of how thick / deep the softwood joists are supposed to be, or how frequent the midspan strutting is supposed to be along the length of each joist.
What I'm wondering is are softwood joists and chipboard flooring going to lead to creaking floors in the future? Or does that depend entirely on the joist dimensions and/or amount of midspan strutting? We've had Building Regs approval for this so I don't want to do any unnecessary changes, but I also don't want to regret it a few years later when my landing squeaks with every step!
Any advice welcome!
In his drawings, he's designed the floor as "22 T&G flooring grade chipboard on sw joists with steel intermediate support beams where indicated and joist hangers to walls. Midspan strutting to joists".
The steel support beams are because we're spanning an internal gap of 6m, so there is a beam across the middle of each of the affected rooms cutting the joist span to 3m on each side of the beam.
There's no mention of how thick / deep the softwood joists are supposed to be, or how frequent the midspan strutting is supposed to be along the length of each joist.
What I'm wondering is are softwood joists and chipboard flooring going to lead to creaking floors in the future? Or does that depend entirely on the joist dimensions and/or amount of midspan strutting? We've had Building Regs approval for this so I don't want to do any unnecessary changes, but I also don't want to regret it a few years later when my landing squeaks with every step!
Any advice welcome!