HELP - ADVICE NEEDED

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Office in my house is pathetic, here's the situation:

The floor is unstable. What do I mean? I walk, the bookshelves shake (visibly) and the monitor on the desk in the middle of the room shakes (it's that bad). I looked under the floor of the office (in the basement) to find that not a single nail destined to fasten the floorboards to the floor joists/support beams had met it's mark. Basically, every single nail was off to the side just floating in the air, doing nothing. So yes, the floorboards are just sitting on the joists without any fastening whatsoever (crappy builders?: yes).

depiction of the view from underneath the floor...

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* &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp * &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp * &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp * &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp *

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* &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp * &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp * &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp * &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp *

So as you can see above, each pair of lines is a floor joist/support beam (whatever you call it), and the asterixes are where the nails are sticking out of the floorboards from above. So pathetic.

How can I fix this? Do I need to hire pros to fix it for me or is it doable myself with a nailgun or something?

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Turbo...
How old is your house?
Sounds like the wood has shrunken and the nails have popped loose.
The only way I know to fix this is, it's a pain in the ass, but you'll have to rip up the floor and screw the floor boards to the joists. I hope you don't have expensive floors. If its a carpet, you'll have an easier time.

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Welcome to a2k, Turbonium. (Hi Ceili!) Turbonium, I personally don't know much about construction, but I asked Mr.Piffka what he thought. He's a real handy guy, being a commercial construction superintendent. He told me to give you this advice (I mostly don't even know what he means... shiner? sister joist?... but I will be happy to act as a go-between):

Sounds like more than one problem. The "shiner" nails situation is fixed, naturally, by nailing into the joists. Or screws are good. But if the book case and monitor are shaking, maybe the joists are a little inadequate as well; are they noticeably moving up and down? They could be strengthened by sistering up another joist alongside and nailing the crap out of it. Try nailing the floorboards down to the joists first and see if that helps enough.

I would be checking all the other joists in the whole basement too. If you have to fasten through carpet, they make special screws you can screw down through the carpet and then snap the heads off (they're made for fixing squeaks.)

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I'll look into it.

In response to Ceili (did I spell it right?), it's not cuz of shrinking. Since the house was built 13 yrs ago it's been like this. Cheap-ass builders. The nails are like so far away from the beams, so stupid. Like half a cm in some cases.

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Good luck, Turbonium.

It's a shame but a lot of modern houses are made by inexperienced guys who don't know much about what they're doing... otherwise they'd be building commercial construction and getting paid better and having real benefits. A gross generalization, of course, but true more often than you'd believe, even with houses that cost a lot of money.

Mr.Piffka likes to visit new construction sites (for fun) and has shown me some unbelievable mistakes... ones that will be covered up and nobody will ever know until things go wrong.

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sister joists, now there are words I recognize. Back in the morning when I can pay more attention.

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Really? YOu recognize a phrase like "sister joists"?

I'm thinking it is a joist nailed right next to another (somehow) with an arcane nail pattern so that it can take up some of the weight.

My dad used to do things like that and my sister & I called it "be-okie-ing" it.... as in, he was from Oklahoma (even though he wasn't) and just making do. We also used to say he was a grape of wrath (again he wasn't... he came to California ten years too early). I wonder if he ever minded? Mr.P had to demolish a carport dad had be-okied and said it was very hard to do. So many nails, so much extra wood, very little standard practice involved. Very Happy

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Piffka's husband is right. You need to sister the joists. Here's agood link that will give you an idea on what kind of work is involved. Yours may be less or more depending on the area in question.

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/framecarp/supplement/floor/joist1/sister.htm

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You need to determine if the joists are moving or if the flooring is just seperated from the joists (Most joists will have a bow in them so if the floor isn't nailed to it you'll see a gap between the joist and the flooring when you look at the seam from below.)

If the joists themselves are flexing then you'll probably want to sister them (the floor should have some bounce - Otherwise they'll be "hard" floors which are uncomfortable to walk on..)

Once you figure out/fix the joist situation I'd get a power screw driver and run long screws from beneath, through the joists at a 45 degree angle and into the flooring so that the flooring is held down from below.

The first few will take some trial and error testing. You want to make sure you get through the sub-flooring but not so far that you go all the way through the hardwood flooring above it.

If you try nailing from above you'd either have to take the entire floor apart to do it properly or you are going to end up with hundreds of nailheads showing in your floor.

Using the screws would be the same process as you'd use to fix a squeaky floor. http://www.handymanusa.com/questions/floorsqueaksq.html

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HELP - ADVICE NEEDED

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