joist

Dictionary: joist (joist) pronunciation

n.
Any of the wood, steel, or concrete beams set parallel from wall to wall or across or abutting girders to support a floor or ceiling.

tr.v., joist·ed, joist·ing, joists.
To construct with joists.

[Middle English giste, joiste, from Old French giste, from feminine past participle of gesir, to lie, lie down, from Latin iacēre.]

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Architecture: joist

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One of a series of parallel beams of timber, reinforced concrete, or steel used to support floor and ceiling loads, and supported in turn by larger beams, girders, or bearing walls; the widest dimension is vertically oriented. Also see binding joist, boarding joist, bridging joist, ceiling joist, common joist, floor joist, principal joist, sleeper joist.

joist

joists in a flooring system

WordNet: joist

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: beam used to support floors or roofs

Wikipedia: Joist

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Look up joist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A roof made with a concrete slab with concrete joists

A joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist. Joists are often supported by beams and are usually repetitive.

The wider the span between the supporting structures, the deeper the joist will need to be if it is not to deflect under load. Lateral support also increases its strength. There are approved formulas for calculating the depth required and reducing the depth as needed; however, a rule of thumb for calculating the depth of a wooden floor joist for a residential property is half the span in feet plus two inches; for example, the joist depth required for a 14-foot span is 9 inches. Many steel joist manufacturers supply load tables in order to allow designers to select the proper joist sizes for their projects.

Engineered wood products such as I-joists gain strength from the depth of the floor or the height of each joist. A common saying in the industry is that deeper is cheaper, referring to the lower-quality cost-effective joists 14 inches and above.

Bandsill is another term for joist used by construction workers and home inspectors in the southeast U.S.

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joist". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

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joist

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