Hello there. Saw your contribution to the thread.
We are planning a ledger plate on the rear wall (and possibly the front) for our second floor joists.
The house is an old Granite built house in Haute Correze and the rear wall of the house is subterranean to around the height of the second floor joists. The old joists have rotted out in the rear wall and are all being replaced with Douglas Fir/Red Cedar joists which are 200mm x 80mm. Probably not helped by no guttering and cement render splashback covering the granite stone.
We plan to remove all the cement render and pointing and repalce with lime/sand. Oh and have fitted guttering!
Rather than reuse the old sockets (which are not evenly spaced) I want to use ledger plate and joist hangers.
Our walls are granite so I am concerned about drilling 40cm long holes. I do have a powerful Bosch Professional drill/perforator. What was your experience?
The ledger plate on the rear will be hidden behind a secondary inner wall so I am not worried about using galvanised joist hangers. For the front wall it is being coated on the inside with 11cm of hemp lime insulating render, then lime plaster. I have thought of a ledger plate for the front as well because the current joist sockets are not evenly spaced and will be lots of work to re-do!
Problem with this is that the galvanised hangers will be visible because they will stick out more than thickness of the hemp lime coating (11cm) - Ledger plate = 8cm plus galvanied hanger.
I really like your solution with a ledger strip and notches in the end of your joists. I presume the screws were 8mm diameter. Did you just have two behind each notched joist? How strong is this at supporting the joist compared to a hanger which has multiple screw fixings?
Is that the only support for the joist? Is the ledger strip just pine or oak?
Also you spaced the threaded bolts at 1 metre? Is this what was advised by Point P? In James original post his bolts look much closer together?
I would be interesting to hear your thought/experiences?