How To Repair Cracked Floor Joist – Building Repairs

Been a fan of yours for a long time and enjoy your videos. On split joist repairs we usually jack the joist up and sandwich between 2- 3/4" pieces of plywood with glue on each side and stagger carriage bolts along the span with 2 bolts on each end. In the past, when doing these types of repairs in a few cases, we had to submit repair details stamped by a licensed Engineers and that was the suggested repair detail from all of them, so we used this method for all repairs, especially on the floor joist, because you have to meet a certain load design. As you mentioned before you can use the right screws, especially nowadays because there are many advanced structural fasteners on the market today and most of them don't need predrilling and they can be used instead of Carriage bolts.

Im sorry but from what I know you never use screws on a floor joist because screws cannot withhold as much weight as a screw ..????

My ranch was build all with sub grade floor joists and the inspector didn't catch it before we bought the 1990 built home in 2007. The 2x10s, actually 9" thick, have so many knots through them and some were on the edge which cracked throughout the 3 inch knot leaving us with an actual dimention of 6" thick. Some have knots near the edge which cracked through to those knots too. So I'm looking for ideas or how to sister up the entire 2x10x16.feet long. Once the new joist are laying flat along the subfloor wont I have a hard time rotating them in the space between the sillplate and the subfloor?

Omgeee! So relieved after this video 🙏🏾

Great video. Thanks

What do you consider "light duty". I have some joists with knots on the bottom that have cracked and are sagging. It's a two story home. I've sistered 2 but some won't be able to be sistered the whole way across.

Found a cracked floor joist under the middle of the kitchen floor. An electrician had drilled a 1” hole about 1” from the bottom of it. No load on it as it is in the middle of the kitchen. The crack runs straight up. I glued and nailed a new beam to it while it was jacked. Also glued it to the subfloor because I couldn’t nail or screw it from the top and didn’t want any potential squeaking.

I have split on the joist just showing on one side where it seperating but not on the other side. However the split runs across the whole joist from one end to another. Can I jack it up and then add plywood across it on both sides or does it need new joist? It's a load bearing joist as well :( just the one joist that is cracked.

This is very helpful! I'm in the process of buying a home and one of the joists has a small crack (above the laundry room/below the kitchen) due to a knot. My inspector pointed it out and said as in your video how to fix it with a sister piece, spanning 1.5' past the crack on each side. However, one side has a perpendicular beam within that span. The inspector said that then we would attach the sister piece to that beam as well. Do you know if there is a special way to attach to the perpendicular beam? Any videos/explanations/recommended links to find out more or get a visual example? Thank you!

Why do you need access to the top of the joist to replace it but you don't to add another next to it? Either way you are putting a joist in. Couldn't you add blocking at the ends (where the joist joins the wall) and support away from the wall then remove the joist and put the new one in?

You save a lot of people a lot of money and give peace of mind mister... Bless you

what if the crack at the tip or beginning part of the wood? my wood been warp and cracked how would I repair that?

The builder of my house used multiple floor joists with knots in them in my kitchen. It’s the part of my house that has the most people and most weight bc of the island and cabinets. They all cracked exactly at the knots :/