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About Len Kroll
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I can provide advice on the proper design, construction, maintenance, restoration, preservation, cleaning and waterproofing of log homes. Questions concerning proper cleaning, sealing, staining and waterproofing are within my area of expertise. My expertise includes new construction and existing log structures. Chinking application or restoration, log replacement and repair are also in my area of expertise.

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You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Home Improvement/Repair > Home Improvement--General > Cracked Floor Joist

Home Improvement--General - Cracked Floor Joist

Expert: Len Kroll - 11/3/2009

Question

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This house was built in 1962, this cracked floor joist is right underneath of bathroom tub. I am remodeling my bathroom now, and replacing whole floor will be installing new subfloor, backerboard and finally tiles so it is going tobe pretty heavy stuff on top of this floor joist. What are my options to strengthen this floor joist, one of the issues I am facing is that there are wire going thru these floor joist, (electrical work poorly done) not visible in picture on both sides of crack so what is seen in the picture is pretty much the available area to so something. What would be a better solution to this problem, sistering with a piece of 2x8 or using some kind of metal? And is jacking up the joist advisable?
Would highly appreciate any help. Thanks

Answer
Salem,

There is visible deflection of the joist so you must jack it up and hold it in place while you repair it. Jack it up till it is dead straight. You can sister a joist but you apparently don't have much room because of the wiring. If you could notch the sister joist around the wiring and not cut the sister joist too deeply you might get by with that. The sister joist sould extend at least two feet either side of the joist break. The joist break is the result of the notch on the compression side of the joist and the edge knot and adjacent knot on the tension side of the joist directly below the notch.

It would be better to use steel to repair this failure. Steel plate or L bracket would work well. The plate should be 3' to 5' long centered on the break and the same for an L bracket. If you use a plate I would go to about 3/8" thick and 4-5" wide. An L bracket should be at least 3 1/2" by 1 1/2" and 3/8" thick. The steel should be bolted with at least 1/2" carriage bolts, preferably 5/8". Bolts should be placed no more than 6" o.c. in a W pattern or at least one over another.

You could get by with less stout materials but I think the weight above could cause deflection that could break tiles or cause grout to fail. A little more now can save a lot of maintenance later. Good luck.

Len Kroll
Wood House Construction, Inc.

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