So after reading and researching about our floor some more online, there was another option for our floor strength dilemma... It involved gluing and fastening a 2x4 to the bottom of the floor joists in question to make a shape like this: ┴ . I'm not sure if that character came through properly, but basically think of the floor joist cross-section looking like an upside down "T". This method apparently strengthens a joist by a factor of 250%! It's cheap and relatively easy to do and the only drawback is you loose 1.5" of headroom in the (eventual) ceiling.
Now, I wouldn't normally take any "Joe's" word for it, but this information comes from a retired structural engineer based out of Toronto... so that's on pretty good account that this information is fairly accurate. And it makes total sense if you think about. We just can't really quantify the 250% strengthening claim... Much cheaper and MUCH easier than "sistering" the joists which only doubles the strength.
So that was my project this weekend. Twelve 12ft 2x4's glued and screwed to the bottom of the floor joists. The glue was really powerful smelling stuff, so we slept at Marn's parents Saturday night as Marn couldn't handle it, and was worried about it harming the baby.
First impressions on Sunday? It worked, at least somewhat, as I didn't notice the "bouncing" from Echo as he trotted by. I didn't give it a good bounce test as I want the glue to fully bond which takes about 48 hours. Unfortunately, there's no real way to test out the new strength of the floor now, other than impressions and feeling.... the test will be after we lay tile down - will it crack after some time, or not? I guess we'll see! Hopefully this wasn't a big waste of time!
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