Bouncy Floors in house

5 years ago

Greetings!

I have been living in my current house for roughly 6 Years. The house was built in the mid 60's. It seems that when ever you walk in the house you can feel the floor bounce. For instance, when I am working on the kitchen table, and someone walks across the table, I can feel the vibration/bounce on the floor. Is there any way to stop bouncy floors? I googled this to try and find some answers. I found sistering the joists, installing bridging between each beam, adding plywood, etc.. Anyone ever do these? Any other options?

Featured Answer

Isaac

5 years ago

Following with interest. I just ordered some Simpson Strong-Tie galvanized bridging ties (the NCA type, which work in retrofits) to make my century-old house less bouncy. Mine isn't too bouncy and I have to work around a lot of pipes and wires (difficult with blocking), so it seemed like a decent solution at a low price point (<$100). Installing solid blocking seemed like too much work and apparently can make the floor squeaky, and adding a beam would be overkill for the scope of my issue.

Fine Homebuilding has an article about six ways to fix a bouncy floor. One of their suggestions involves adding tensioned metal strapping to resist bending of the joists. From an engineering perspective it should work, but you need to jack up the joists a bit before installing it, and need to make sure the strapping is taut, which seems a little fiddly.

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Comments (10)

kudzu9
5 years ago
Do you have easy access to the underside of the floors?
heatheron40
5 years ago
Yes, we have here and there throughout the house. Ours started with needing more space in the crawl space. It was not really feasible to go under and take out dirt so since we gutted the kitchen, we took up the floor! As we were gutting we noticed the joists were hung wrong, cut too much and cracking- there had been a fire and they had been replaced in the 40s. So we lifted everything, I took out 5 gallons of dirt at a time and replaced with correct joists. Solid as a rock now ;^) we've had to in ceiling where plumbers went crazy too
notice LVLs and steel brackets. We often use a combination of solutions.
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Matthew Hicks
Original Author
5 years ago
Yes, I have easy access. As in I can crawl on my hands and knees and still have decent enough head room
Seabornman
5 years ago
The sure-fire method, if there's access and not too many mechanicals or piping, is to install a support beam somewhere near the middle of the span. You'll need to provide support posts and footings to carry the load to the dirt below. Do a search for "add 4x4 beam in crawl space" and you can see all sorts of methods, from simple to expensive. I'd look to place solid concrete blocks at 4 feet apart, and install adjustable jack posts and maybe 2 2x6s nailed together for the beam. You'll probably find there's a little sag to the existing joists and you can tighten up the jack posts gradually to get rid of it.
Matthew Hicks
Original Author
5 years ago
@Seabornman- Do you think that is something I could do? It sounds alittle involved.
Seabornman
5 years ago
Not sure what your skill level is but, other than having to work in cramped conditions, it's shouldn't be too difficult. You don't need to be exactly in the middle of the joist span and don't even need to be parallel with the walls; roughly down the middle is ok. Do you have a picture you could post? Are there ducts, pip NG or wiring in the way? Sistering joists is usually more difficult and bridging would be of limited help in my opinion.
User
5 years ago
There is a television show called: This Old House.

They may be on utube. I remember a couple of shows that addressed your issue...

Reinforcing a bouncy floor is not rocket science, and today, with metal reinforcing plates, and screw guns it is very DIY.
SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
As pointed out, going at it from underneath is the easiest way to do it with having to rip up the floor.

If you plan on changing out the flooring any time soon, you reinforce the wooden subfloor at that time. You have a very poor deflection rating (very bouncy). That means you have wide joist spacing coupled with THIN subfloor.

Joists are expensive...so builders get away with the widest spacing they can. That's why they will use sheet vinyl (very flexible and very light) and carpet (very flexible and very light) throughout the build.

Only after the homeowner changes out the flooring do they realize how bouncy these floors really are. To upgrade to another floor covering, the proper reinforcement must be made at that time. This is where homeowners do NOT want to spend money. It ruins their budget.

They do not want to spend $1-$2/sf on subfloor materials. It eats too much of their 'pretty finish' budget. So many skip it and live with it. That was their choice...but it may not be yours.

So...now you need to get on hands and knees and measure your joist spacing (on centre joist measurements = you measure the joists from 'centre' to 'centre' to get the right measurement). Now you measure your subfloor thickness (just the subfloor...not the flooring sitting on top).

If you have MULTIPLE layers of old flooring then you know what's happening. Too much weight on the subfloor = sagging = bouncing.

Tell us the thickness of the subfloor (*should be two layers, one on top of another) and how many layers of old flooring is sitting on top. And tell us the joist spacing (on centre). We can help from there.

Better yet...take some picks from below the house to add to your next post.
formulaross20
5 years ago
Ditto Seaborn. Definitely a DIY possibility. One extra suggestion, when lifting the beam in place, put several nails high on the inside of existing joists (near ends of beam) and use ratchet straps to lift and hold the beam while placing supports; it improves the environmental language.