Two years ago i added a large addition to our house, a 1200 sq. Ft apartment up stairs, a 500 sq. Ft. Family rm. Down, and a garage. I bought my lumber package through a local lumber yard in my area, (portland, oregon) called parr lumber.
Parr also did the take off for tji floor joist system (trus joist macmillan), it's a engineered lumber product made for supporting floors, you have probably heard of it?"the silent floor", the silent part depends on where your standing, when your out side it's silent. Parr did the take off and furnished me with a floor framing plan, and material list of size and types of tji floor joists. They arrived at these sizes for floor joists by using a software program furnished to them by tji (trus joist macmillan).
I trusted there expertise in this matter. There is a recomended way in which you are to handle and also install them, although parr didn't handle them correctly (layed them on there side) we installed them as per.instructions. The house is done, and it looks great, but there are a few problems, the ceiling in the family rm. (which is also the upstairs liv. Rm. Floor) deflects or bounces to the point that you wonder about the safety of the floor. The ceiling fan blades in the family rm. Bounce up and down as foot steps cross the floor upstairs.
In short the ceiling deflects a lot, is it safe? According to state and local codes, parr lumber, and trus joist macmillan yes. I'm no engineer, i know that long spans on bridges can flex alot and still be safe, so maybe safety of my floor is not an issue. When i asked parr why my floor joist were so bouncy, they replied that at the time when my take off was done they had a person doing take off's who was going for the low end of the engineering curve (minimum allowable size) in order to keep the cost down, and get more people to by from them because of there low bid on materials. They later said no, that that person didn't do my take off. Parr said that i must have talked to them about prices at the time, and i must have decided to go with a less expensive trus joists, well i was never consulted about there being any differences in price, or sizing of joist.
They also said that i should have taken the" tji expert framing layout" they did for me to a engineer, and had him check it. The main problem is this, the joist will probably will never break, but because they flex so much, they tend to move on the top plate on each outside wall, and when wood moves against wood it squeaks, and the ceiling really deflects, and the ceiling fan bounces, it's very disturbing.By the way the span is 22' over our liv. Rm. Where the trouble is, the span over the garage is 20' and uses the same grade tji joist, and it performs well.
If they would have said to me at the time of ordering the joist that they were bottom of the curve as far as strength, or would deflect a lot, or would have offered me a choice of how i wanted a floor or ceiling to perform. I would have at least had a choice. I wouldn't have ordered them knowing they were bottom of the curve, i trusted there judgement, to bad for me. I got on the net one night and looked up engineered lumber and came acrossed boise cascade web site, they talked about the importance of telling there customers the differing sizes, and strengths of floor joist, making sure a person knows what to expect out of there choice.
I wish parr or trus joist macmillan would do the same. If you know of any one who is going to use silent floor system, or something like it you might tell them to take care to have the different defelections explained to them, so that they can make a good choice. Also if you know anyone ealse who has had similar problems, have them contact me at [email protected], i would like to know what run around they may have gotten, or what resolutions they may have come up with.
Thanks for your time bob
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