Floor Joist Cross Bracing Slipping

This can allow for floors to be sturdier and more stable.

Floor joist cross bracing slipping.

This is often referred to as bridging. The common spacing between floor joists is 16 inches on center. Whether your home is new or old it is sometimes necessary to install floor joist bracing in order to eliminate squeaking and deflection in the flooring itself. Bridging or x bracing allows joists to share weight.

Residential building code requires the use of cross bracing or blocking for floor joists exceeding 2 inches by 12 inches but many homes especially older ones have. Simpson strong tie tension bridging galvanized steel the ltb s are used in floor systems to resist the overturning of floor joists and features a staggered nail pattern. Because of this x shape one brace will be forced upon and under tension while the other brace will be compressed. Thd sku 205173.

Even if your joists already have a row of bridging at the center of the span adding a row on each side of the existing bridging will stiffen the floor. The difference is that the cross bracing uses two pieces of support in a diagonal shape that creates an x between the joists instead of a solid block in blocking. Install with two 6d common nails per end. Look inside old homes or warehouses and you ll often see funny cross bracing between the floor joists.

Cross bracing and solid blocking. How to brace your floor studs.