Eliminating Floor Bounce

Q: How can I eliminate the bounce in my living room floor? It shakes whenever anyone over 100 lbs. walks on it. What are the options?

A: Depending on how you feel about your basement space, there are a couple of ways to steady your floor. The easiest involves installing a secondary beam underneath the floor joists, ideally across the middle of their span, held up by adjustable metal posts at each end. This job could be completed in an afternoon at minimal expense, though it would also obstruct your basement. That’s the biggest drawback. Another option is to install additional floor joists in the space between the existing ones. This is a much more involved job, but does offer the advantage of not affecting the basement area. Either way, you’ll notice an obvious improvement after you complete the work.