Preventing Annoying Floor Vibration

by
Dr. Frank E. Woeste, P. E.

Under certain conditions, a residential floor can vibrate when someone is walking
through a room, exercising, etc., resulting in vibrations that can prove annoying to other
occupants. The vibrations can also cause items such as furniture and contents or
decorations to rattle. For the most part, the problem of annoying vibration can be avoided
in the design stage.
Some people are much more sensitive to floor vibration than others, and no
practical set of rules will guarantee that 100 percent of all possible occupants will be
satisfied with the performance of a floor. However, some simple rules-of-thumb for joist
design will yield floors that most occupants judge to be acceptable. In this article,
simple design rules to minimize the chance of annoying floor vibrations in residences are
presented.

Prescriptive Rules-of-Thumb
When designing a residential floor:
· Always use a live load of at least 40 pounds per square foot (1.92
kN/m2). Table R301.4 of the 2000 International Residential Code® (IRC)
allows 30 pounds per square foot (1.44 kN/m2) for “sleeping rooms”, but
when this lower load is used in design, the joists will generally be more
flexible and more likely to produce annoying vibrations. It should be
borne in mind that the minimum requirements of building codes primarily
address safety; they do not address design methods for preventing
potentially annoying vibrations in residential floors.
· Increase the joist depth by one size. If the code requires a 2 by 8 joist at
16 inches (406 mm) on-center, then use a 2 by 10 joist of the same grade
and species, or a 14-inch-deep (356 mm) floor truss when a 12-inch-deep
(305 mm) truss would meet code requirements. This rule should provide
excellent results when used in conjunction with a 40 pound-per-square-
foot live load.

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 · Glue and screw the sheathing. Floor sheathing should always be glued
down. Screws work better than nails for long-term bounce control.
Reducing the on-center spacing—from 16 inches to 12 inches, for example—is
probably the least efficient way to improve floor performance. Occupants feel “bounce”
as the result of a foot impacting an individual joist, and even at 12 inches on-center, the
joists are not close enough for the shock of a foot to be carried by two joists.

Practical Rules-of-Thumb for Solid-Sawn, Truss, and I-Joist Floors

Solid-Sawn Joists
In 1964, the Federal Housing Administration published Minimum Property Standards for
One and Two Living Units, which recognized that solid-sawn joist spans over 15 feet
(4572 mm) in length may be inadequate to prevent annoying floor vibration. The agency
proposed a rule limiting live-load joist deflection on a graduated scale from L/360 at 15
feet to L/480 at 20 feet (6096 mm), and a total deflection of no more that 0.5 inch (13
mm) for spans over 20 feet. I propose a more simple rule-of-thumb for the design of
solid-sawn joist up to 20 feet in length (a practical maximum span):

Using a 40 pound-per-square-foot (1.92 kN/m2) live load, limit live-load deflection to

L/480 for all spans up to 20 feet (6096 mm).

This rule is very easy to remember, and it can be easily applied to span tables based on a
L/360 deflection limit. As it turns out, a maximum joist span, S, under a L/360 live load
limit matches a maximum joist span of 0.91 times S under a L/480 live load limit. Here is
how to design a joist under the L/480 limit using a L/360 table:
1. From the framing plan, determine the clear span (face-of-support to face-of-
support) of the proposed joist. Assume the clear span is 15-feet, 1-inch (4597
mm).
2. Divide the 15-feet, 1-inch, span by the factor 0.91 (15 x 12 + 1 = 181 inches/0.91
= 198.9 inches). The artificial span for joist selection from an L/360 table is then
198.9 inches or 16 feet, 7 inches (5055 mm).

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3. Find a joist species, size and grade that will span 16 feet, 7 inches, under a live
load of 40 pounds per square foot. This joist will check under a L/480 deflection
check.

Wood Trusses
An important step in preventing annoying vibrations in floor truss systems is the
application of a strongback. People are highly sensitive to vibrations in the range of 8 to
10 Hz. Published research by Dr. Dan Dolan, P. E. and others has found that when joists
in occupied homes vibrate at a frequency of 14 Hz or more, the vibrations are not noticed
or judged to be annoying. Strongbacks control annoying vibrations by stiffening the floor
truss, which causes it to vibrate at a higher frequency and thus not be felt by the
occupants.
The strongback should be a minimum of 2 by 6 in size, installed at the center of
the span and securely nailed to a vertical web—usually at the chase opening (if the floor
truss configuration provides only diagonal webs, a vertical 2 by 4 scab can be nailed to
the top and bottom chord and used in lieu of the vertical web.) I recommend that the
strongback be nailed to each truss web with 3-10d Common nails (0.148”x3”) or 4-10d
Box nails (0.128”x3”). It is important that there be no gaps between the strongback and
the truss webs, as they reduce the effectiveness of the nail connections. Simpson Strong-
Tie ¼”x3” SDS screws is a good option to nails for producing stiff connections between
the strongback and vertical truss webs. For spans longer than 20 feet (6096 mm), the
strongback should still be installed near the center of the span, but I recommend
installing an additional 2 by 6 strongback or one 2 by 8 in place of the two 2 by 6s.

Wood I-Joists
Preventing annoying I-joist vibration is generally more complicated than other
cases, but the “Prescriptive Rules-of-Thumb” provided earlier still apply. My best advice
is to consult the I-joist manufacturer on the subject of vibration control. A simple way to
get good results is to use the tables designed for L/480 deflection. I-joists stamped under
the APA-The Engineered Wood Association (www.apawood.org/) standard for
performance-rated I-joists is designed to meet the L/480 limit. The APA standard also

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uses 40 pounds per square foot as the minimum live load for any floor (as recommended
in this article).
Another design system for vibration control in wooden I-joist floors is TrusJoist’s
TJ-Beam software. TrusJoist has done extensive testing of floor performance and has
developed its own “TJ-Pro” rating system. Using the TJ-Beam software, a user can select
a number between 20 and 70, with higher values offering the greater levels of protection
against potential floor problems as judged by an occupant. For example, a design that is
rated at 55 is expected to be judged as being “Good to Excellent” by 96 percent of the
population, while 2 percent should judge such floors to be “Marginal” and 2 percent
should judge the floors to be “Unacceptable.” This system allows the homeowners,
through their contractors or architects, to select the level of floor performance that meets
their expectations. The software also contains a number of toggles that allow the designer
to tweak the floor performance of a given joist depth and series. Toggles include deck
thickness, type of deck attachment (nails only, or glued and nailed), and the presence or
absence of a direct-applied ceiling, bridging or blocking.

Summary
Preventing annoying floor vibrations in residential applications is an easy matter at the
design stage, and additional construction costs are typically minimal. In many instances,
a good design for solid-sawn joists can be achieved by shortening the span a couple feet
or, in a worst-case scenario, selecting a joist that is one size deeper than that required by
the building code. In general, a design live load of 40 pounds per square feet is
recommended for checking the live-load deflection limit of L/480; floor sheathing should
be screwed and glued to the joists for superior performance.

Frank E. Woeste, Ph.D., P.E., is professor emeritus of wood construction and

engineering at Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg. He specializes in the engineering
and performance of wood buildings. For a list of his publications, visit:
www.woodscience.vt.edu/resumes/woeste1101.pdf