Why are there bricks under my floor boards?

stator

Having looked under several floor boards (between ground floor ceiling and first floor floor) there seem to be bricks in some places and I'm curious as to why. Some of them are loose and can be picked up and moved and some are like this:




That photo is the point where the joists from the front of the house overlap the joists from the back of the house, there is a load bearing wall in the middle of the house. 1950s concrete if you're interested.

Gloomendoom

From your pic they look like they are there to stop the joists from warping.

Furts

They should not be loose and they should all be in place. In my part of the country I know them as "beam fill" - no idea what they are called elsewhere.

Their role is to be built in tight between the joists to give stability, and solidity, to the floor joists. This means they serve a structural purpose and are important even though they look insignificant.

They stop twist and movement of the joists as the excellent contributor gloomendoom has mentioned.

tonyh66

why use bricks? surery they don't bond to the timber and always come loose. Timber noggins would be a more sensible way of doing it.
I can see by the picture the bricks are holding the short joist, I wonder what the function of that piece of wood is?

Furts

tonyh66 wrote: »

why use bricks? surery they don't bond to the timber and always come loose. Timber noggins would be a more sensible way of doing it.
I can see by the picture the bricks are holding the short joist, I wonder what the function of that piece of wood is?

The bricks get bonded with mortar to the top of the wall. Put another way, a wall should be built up in height to within the joist space - when they are left down, which does happen, it is a clear sign of cowboys or sloppy bricklayers. It follows a noggin cannot do this function because it is not bonded to the wall.

I suspect the other noggin in the photo is a plasterboard fixing noggin.

Mr.Generous

feng shui? or possibly posts #2 and #3 have it. My money is on the feng shui.

tonyh66

just read the first post again, missed the sentence under the picture, they are obviously bonded to the load bearing wall holding the joists and do provide stabilty to the joists.