18-05-2016, 04:13 PM
I had a similar story with the joists in my front room. They had been severely eaten away, and as a result, bits of the floor had sunk. In once place, where there was once a 2 by 4 resting on the brick wall, there was now a 2 by 2!
I was impressed with how solid the floor felt, despite the attack. Looking closely at the old joists after I'd replaced them, you could clearly see the difference between sapwood and heartwood, and some informal testing showed that the loss of sapwood made surprisingly little difference to the strength of the timber. It was really quite impressive.
I need to repeat the exercise in the back lounge (above the cellar) - there is a lot of historic damage, but no real loss of strength. I have 2 or 3 options on the table, but there's no rush - it's not going anywhere...
I was impressed with how solid the floor felt, despite the attack. Looking closely at the old joists after I'd replaced them, you could clearly see the difference between sapwood and heartwood, and some informal testing showed that the loss of sapwood made surprisingly little difference to the strength of the timber. It was really quite impressive.
I need to repeat the exercise in the back lounge (above the cellar) - there is a lot of historic damage, but no real loss of strength. I have 2 or 3 options on the table, but there's no rush - it's not going anywhere...
