Floor joists are usually made of soft woods, which absorb some vibrations from your neighbor’s floor, ... In either case, the air space between the joists carries sound wave vibrations.

Once you've located the general area by sound, remove the insulation from between the floor joists and check for wire or pipes. If all is clear, and we think it will be, have your helper drive a ...

The open beams double as floor joists. To dampen the sound, we suggest you nail ledger boards to the sides of the beams about 5 inches from the subfloor and nail or glue the soundboard it.

Q. This week: My house is about 70 years old and the floors on the first story shake when someone walks on them. The problem, I think, is that the floor joists are too narrow. They're only 7.5 ...

As an example, 2-by-6-inch No. 2 grade wood floor joists set 16 inches apart can span up to 10 feet 4 inches, whereas a 2-by-8-inch floor joist can span 14 feet and a 2-by-10-inch floor joist can ...

Q: The floor in my kitchen squeaks in an area approximately 2 feet by 4 feet. The subfloor appears to be separated from the floor joist, causing the sounds. I have used many shims, but that has not… ...

Homefix: Add joists, beam to correct sagging floors. Dwight Barnett. ... My other problem is there is no room in the crawl to work; the house is about 6 inches off the dirt floor.

When joists are spaced 16-19.2 inches apart, subfloor should be ¾ inches for both materials. With joist spacing of over 19.2, thickness of plywood should be 7/8 inches and of OSB, 1 inch.

Q: We recently expanded a small darkroom into a guest room, with soundproofing material in the wall between this room and the one next to it, and solid core doors. However, every sound from the ...

The drywall sheets meet on the wide dimension of a 2x4, not a narrow 1.5-inch-wide floor joist. There’s no need to install silly 1x3 furring strips as is common in some parts of the USA.