Hi all, First time here so go easy on me. I recently purchased a 1930’s semi detached house and have been doing works upstairs. The ceiling joists are 3x2 (at 350mm centres) and I can’t find any info relating to maximum span for 3x2 although it seems nowadays, 3x2 is not sufficient for ceiling joists. Anyway, I guess I have 2 questions. 1. Can anyone help me with the maximum span of 3x2’s? 2. If I add extra wooden “joist hangars” from the rafters to the ceiling joists, is this acceptable and does this in effect, “extend” the maximum span? thanks in advance Simon
Google ,ceiling joist span, for tables, 1.3m ish span is about max for c16, hangers from rafters is recognised way to extend span but rafters must be designed for extra loading
Ok. Span in feet, divide by 2, plus 1. So for 12' span =12/2=6 +1=7inch, or 175mm, except irmts not 175, its 170. What is your span? Theoretically, a 2 by 3 should only manage a 4' span, but somehow, in the old days......
As arrow said it’s plus two, similarly the metric equivalent is twice the span plus one, so a 3m or 10’ span would require a 7x2 for floor joists. Ceiling joists were sized to carry much lighter loads and act as ties back in the day.
Forget rule of thumbs, go www.timberbeamcalculator.co.uk and with a bit of interpolation between centres and sizes you can see what max span can be
just checking its 350 centres and not 350 between timber faces as that would actually be 400 centres [406/16"]
Is the ceiling sagging? Not sure why you're worried when it' been there near on 100 years. Timber quality back then way better than modern stuff
So the plan is to remove this and rebuild something similar but obviously the opening is wider than the NHBC recommended 600mm. The previous owner took the original wall down to build the cupboard and that was how they supported it. Without the cupboard today the 3 x 2 wold be running its full length (3 ish metres, to where it’s joined to the next joist that runs to the rear across the bathroom ceiling. That span would be far too big.
True. Absolutely true. I was comfortably on the ouyside of a few bottles of McEwan's Champion, and really shouldn't have been posting