pennsicdance: Status Reports for Flooring

[Vanessa Layne]

> I don't know that the cross pieces are necessary -- houses have pretty
> sturdy floors, and they have (pretty much) only joists running every
> 16 inches.  So something like
> 
> +-+-+-+-+-+-+           +----------+       _____________
> | | | | | | |           +----------+       |__|________|
> | | | | | | |    or     +----------+  or   |_____|_____|
> +-+-+-+-+-+-+           +----------+       |________|__|
> Fig. 1                  Fig. 2             Fig. 3
> 
> should be sufficient.  (Unless there's something I really don't know
> about housing construction.)  

There's something you don't know about housing construction.

Houses built that way are on nice cement foundations.  There is no
(well, minimal) risk of 

 +-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
 | | | | | | | 
 | | | | | | | 
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+ 

becoming 

    +-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
   / / / / / / /
  / / / / / / /
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+ 

when the four corners of the house are so well anchored relative to
one another.

We, however, can't anchor the corners of our structure that well.
This mode of failure is more of a possibility.  I don't know to what
an extent.  I would expect significantly, due to post wobble.

This mode of failure would probably cause the surface (the plywood
skin) to buckle and lift; and the upright supports to torque and pull free
of their joints.

Also note that real floor joists (especially for big floors :) are big
and expensive.  After all, they're supposed to last 100+ years without
being replaced.  We might go with smaller cheaper lumber.  We should cost
compare.

However, this begs the question in my mind if aluminum frame might be
better than 2x4s.  I'm still rather unfamiliar with aluminum, but I
understand it's quite popular; no idea on the cost.

-- Tibicen's 20th century persona, Vanessa, 
   who once upon a time was a CivE major trying to specialize
   in building construction
   dagoura at mit.edu

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