"RichardS" noaccess@invalid wrote in message
. ..
"DjB" wrote in message
...


Thanks for all the replies, I'll answer to all the posts here rather
than
reply to each individually

I'm going to take Bigwallop's advise and remove the old joist and
replace
it
with new. My only concern about this is that it looks like it might be
tricky to get a joist exactly the same size (the existing ones are 2.5"
x
6.25"ish), so I'm considering installing two 2" joists to replace the
old
one i.e repair the holes left and install one each side of the original
position. I quite like this idea as I can run further joists if required
between other joists in the floor if I think they need reinforcing.
Regarding joist hangers, I'm not sure how I could angle the joists into
the
hangers if the boards are still in place upstairs, it seems easier to
remove
the boards (the room is empty, there's no carpet of anything) and then
drop
the joists in from above. I can then take my time chiselling out the
corners
to get the joist(s) level with the others.

A couple of things I'm not clear about - when installing the hangers
into
a
brick wall, do they have to be bolted? Or is it sufficient to cut a
small
chase into the wall, slot the hanger in place and apply some mortar?
The
other ends of the joists have to be fitted to hangers that are fitted to
the
joist running across the fireplace, I presume I need to find some sort
of
hooked hanger that will hook over the joist. I had a look in a timber
yard
over the weekend and they had some that had long ends which can be bent
over
but they didn't look that strong. Are there stronger ones available or
is
there a better way of doing this?

The question about Rentokil and why they didn't see this problem, I can
only
guess about this but I think that the true extent of the damage was only
visible once the ceiling downstairs was removed. I'm pretty content with
the
job they did, at least they didn't try to pull the wool over my eyes by
telling me the whole house needed excessive treatment...




looking at the photos the interesting bit is going to be dealing with the
wiring. Obviously, you can't simply drill a hole through the joists and
thread the wires through, so I suppose that leaves you with the only
option
of notching the joists.

remember to have a google search thru this group for notched joists if
you're planning to do that - I remember there being a couple of
discussions
about it in the past - the positioning of and depth of allowable notches
when it comes to maintaining the strength of the joists vs safety of the
electrical installation.

cheers
Richard

--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk


A joint reply to all the previous posts:

Thanks Dave for the info, and thanks Bigwallop/Alan for the links to hanger
suppliers - very interesting as they show usage and loadings. We're going
hanger shopping and ordering joists in the next couple of days. We've
already cut through the old one and it's ready to be removed. The others
seem to be ok but we're going to install new ones between them anyway.

I visited my local Waterstones 'library' and had a look at the Collins book
which is a great help. I do have one of these but it's 15 years old and
doesn't cover this subject too well.

Regarding the cables, there's 5 in total. 2 are lighting to the pendant
which are loose and can be fed through new holes. 2 are ring main which I'm
going to cut and feed through new holes then join with junction boxes, that
way I can avoid notching the joists and risk potential nail damage. The
other is co-ax aerial which I'll probably slot into a small 1cm notches
(fortunately it has plenty of slack).

I'll try to remember to take some pictures before we board the ceiling -
I'll post a follow-up.

Thanks again.