Raising height of joist to finish attic
I am not attempting this project myself, I am trying to educate myself before consulting with contractors. The addition to my home was built with the intentions to finish the attic at a later date, there’s a full.walk up staircase. The orignal contractor left a lot of things done in ways that were questionable and made promises that were never fulfilled. My ceiling joists, which will become the floor joists for my finished attic, are 2×10 they are 2.5 inches shorter then the lvls they connect to. What options are there to raise the height of the joists to lay the sub floor? A “handyman” said it’s simple, to rip down 2x4s to pad the tops of the joists to be even with the lvl. Is that acceptable? I plan to speak with other contractors but after dealing with the one who built it, I’d like to be alittle more educated going into this. The attached picture was during construction, everything is finished now. Removing all the hangers and sistering taller joists would add to the price and I’m hoping to avoid taking that route. Thanks
Replies
Glue the 2.5” strips and you’re good. You could cut some plywood gussets 4”x12” and nail them to the sides of the joist one at each end and one in the middle for alignment. Then I’d probably put the subfloor in with long screws that go through the furring strip into the 2x10. I don’t think I’d do that for every screw but a couple per sheet of plywood.
How much headroom do you have in the attic? It also looks like you have some first floor lighting and ductwork to consider.
I would think about laying 2x4s parallel to the beam. The floor would end up an inch taller.
I like this suggestion because it sounds like the least fussy approach. I’d also put either some perpendicular blocking, or Simpson H1 hurricane ties (or similar) every 48 inches, to prevent any racking that could lead to squeaky floors.
Since this is recent construction you probably don’t have out-of-level and/or deflection to worry about. If you did then I’d lean toward sistering new joists to the originals because that would be the easiest way to get everything level and flat.
Rip 2x6 instead of 2x4.
Less waste, cheaper. Same 2 rips for 2 pcs.