Floor Joists.

[Oldcynic]

"BoraCare" is a good anti-termite, non-poisonous treatment as well as coatings.

The main beams in the little house I'm building are made up of 2x6/plywood sandwich with epoxy instead of mayo.

[PickleSnout]

Plain ol’ 20 mule team borax powder is how I treat logs too big to oven cure, so I don’t bring pests into my wood shop. I sprinkle it on and just bag the wood for a couple years as the log dries.
The way I heard it explained, the borax is both toxic for bugs to ingest, and the powder cuts the exoskeletons around the joint areas. Once open they dehydrate and pass on.

Poor things…. but I can’t have them in my house.

[IDR]

For the past while I have noticed a small amount of drop developing in the center of my house and here lately it has suddently got a lot worse by way of things shaking/floor bouncing feeling in my living room and one half of the kitchen. The last time I had gone under my house about 2 years ago for a water leak I took note of the beam (my house is not large & is shaped like a rectangle so it is just one 12x12 beam that runs the span of my house) which has a section that is gone bad about 10 feet long and the joists in that same span on both sides were also starting to go. I guess it is time to start work on repairing it.

First thing I am going to do is buy up some 16 foot long 2x6's and sister up the ones that are going bad, using liquid nail and also putting a new pier at the 8 foot mark to help give support because to be honest I am not sure how well off the rim joist is along this bad section either and if it is bad it would be a motherfucker to replace because my house is brick and I really do not want to start knocking out exterior wall to gain access from the outside. Second thing I am going to do is buy 2 12 foot long 6x6 treated posts to go alongside the bad section of beam on either side with new piers. I will likely jack up the floor and weight bearing wall about a half inch as well while doing this. Once the new supports for the beam is in place I want to scab a 16 foot 2x12 onto each side of the main beam where to rotten spot is and re level the piers in that area as well.

If all goes well by summertime Master Jaken can jump off the couch and hit the floor like a 80 pound bag of concrete dropped from 6 foot up and everything in the living room won't bounce with him.

If things do not go well keep an eye out for a newspaper article about a man crushed while under his house doing something reserved for structural engineers and foundation experts. j/k I hope.

I done this for a 3rd cousin of mine. Part of the reason her floor sagged is she weighed 300lbs. But I digress. In the crawl space I saw a 5 inch thick footer for holding up the pier in the middle of the span for the joists. It had cracked in half and was sagging worse that a thugs jeans. So I took a ten ton jack and some lumber down there to jack up the floor. I asked my cousin t not be in the middle of the house.   I jacked the floor up to level, then poured a 24"X24"X 12" pier footer with rebar in it. When it cured I put a new post up to the beam which was now level and secured it with proper brackets. It was a pain in the ass because it was a 24 inch crawl space so it was all low crawl work.
The bitch never paid me. She said the bill was to high. I couldn't even say F you because she was too fat and ugly.

[JB1]

So I have been crawling around under the house this weekend with a flashlight and hammer inspecting everything. As it currently stands, I am going to have to replace/sister about 25 floor joists and repair a 20 foot section of the beam. The joists in question are in varying states of decay and the bad section of beam actually appears to be dry rot and is sagging at the part of its span. I also noted several piers under the beam that have settled and are no longer level. I also noted a washed out rim joist pier. The good news is the rim joist and sill beam looks good everywhere I inspected. 

The repair shall go as follows. Tear out 30 year old duct. Clean crawlspace of junk/debris. Install a 16 inch ventilation fan on each  side of the house to reduce humidity in the crawl space. Repair washed out rim joist. Add a sister joist to each bad joist. Spray bad section of beam with fungicide. Do a 1 inch lift on bad section of main beam & scab new lumber to that section. Relevel the piers under main beam as needed. Add two 8 foot sections of additional support beam on either side of repaired bad section of main beam with concrete block piers. Add an additional 8 to 12 foot of beam under area with all the repaired joists, also supported by new piers. Tack all cabling that was on ground to floor joists. Replace remainder of copper water line with PVC. Redo copper gas lines that feed supplemental wall heaters. Install new ductwork. Install new insulation between joists. Probably go with styrofoam type as I fucking loathe fiberglass.

Will probably take most of the spring and summer to get it all done but should be good to go by next winter.

[DaJavoo]

So I have been crawling around under the house this weekend with a flashlight and hammer inspecting everything. As it currently stands, I am going to have to replace/sister about 25 floor joists and repair a 20 foot section of the beam. The joists in question are in varying states of decay and the bad section of beam actually appears to be dry rot and is sagging at the part of its span. I also noted several piers under the beam that have settled and are no longer level. I also noted a washed out rim joist pier. The good news is the rim joist and sill beam looks good everywhere I inspected. 

The repair shall go as follows. Tear out 30 year old duct. Clean crawlspace of junk/debris. Install a 16 inch ventilation fan on each  side of the house to reduce humidity in the crawl space. Repair washed out rim joist. Add a sister joist to each bad joist. Spray bad section of beam with fungicide. Do a 1 inch lift on bad section of main beam & scab new lumber to that section. Relevel the piers under main beam as needed. Add two 8 foot sections of additional support beam on either side of repaired bad section of main beam with concrete block piers. Add an additional 8 to 12 foot of beam under area with all the repaired joists, also supported by new piers. Tack all cabling that was on ground to floor joists. Replace remainder of copper water line with PVC. Redo copper gas lines that feed supplemental wall heaters. Install new ductwork. Install new insulation between joists. Probably go with styrofoam type as I fucking loathe fiberglass.

Will probably take most of the spring and summer to get it all done but should be good to go by next winter.

[Pintaday]

So I have been crawling around under the house this weekend with a flashlight and hammer inspecting everything. As it currently stands, I am going to have to replace/sister about 25 floor joists and repair a 20 foot section of the beam. The joists in question are in varying states of decay and the bad section of beam actually appears to be dry rot and is sagging at the part of its span. I also noted several piers under the beam that have settled and are no longer level. I also noted a washed out rim joist pier. The good news is the rim joist and sill beam looks good everywhere I inspected. 

The repair shall go as follows. Tear out 30 year old duct. Clean crawlspace of junk/debris. Install a 16 inch ventilation fan on each  side of the house to reduce humidity in the crawl space. Repair washed out rim joist. Add a sister joist to each bad joist. Spray bad section of beam with fungicide. Do a 1 inch lift on bad section of main beam & scab new lumber to that section. Relevel the piers under main beam as needed. Add two 8 foot sections of additional support beam on either side of repaired bad section of main beam with concrete block piers. Add an additional 8 to 12 foot of beam under area with all the repaired joists, also supported by new piers. Tack all cabling that was on ground to floor joists. Replace remainder of copper water line with PVC. Redo copper gas lines that feed supplemental wall heaters. Install new ductwork. Install new insulation between joists. Probably go with styrofoam type as I fucking loathe fiberglass.

Will probably take most of the spring and summer to get it all done but should be good to go by next winter.

I hope you know what you are doing. That is a major rebuild and could be dangerous if something goes wrong.

[JB1]

So I have been crawling around under the house this weekend with a flashlight and hammer inspecting everything. As it currently stands, I am going to have to replace/sister about 25 floor joists and repair a 20 foot section of the beam. The joists in question are in varying states of decay and the bad section of beam actually appears to be dry rot and is sagging at the part of its span. I also noted several piers under the beam that have settled and are no longer level. I also noted a washed out rim joist pier. The good news is the rim joist and sill beam looks good everywhere I inspected. 

The repair shall go as follows. Tear out 30 year old duct. Clean crawlspace of junk/debris. Install a 16 inch ventilation fan on each  side of the house to reduce humidity in the crawl space. Repair washed out rim joist. Add a sister joist to each bad joist. Spray bad section of beam with fungicide. Do a 1 inch lift on bad section of main beam & scab new lumber to that section. Relevel the piers under main beam as needed. Add two 8 foot sections of additional support beam on either side of repaired bad section of main beam with concrete block piers. Add an additional 8 to 12 foot of beam under area with all the repaired joists, also supported by new piers. Tack all cabling that was on ground to floor joists. Replace remainder of copper water line with PVC. Redo copper gas lines that feed supplemental wall heaters. Install new ductwork. Install new insulation between joists. Probably go with styrofoam type as I fucking loathe fiberglass.

Will probably take most of the spring and summer to get it all done but should be good to go by next winter.

I hope you know what you are doing. That is a major rebuild and could be dangerous if something goes wrong.

I've worked in carpentry and demolition over the years. I am not an expert but I have done similar work in the past. Also, I don't have $60 grand or more to have it done by "professionals". 

The most dangerous part is trying to do any kind of lift on the main beam for repairs. I would not feel comfortable cutting out any of the beam, I am only going to scab onto the existing lumber and add a new beam for support. I'm also not removing floor joists, just adding new joists alongside what is already there and putting a 6x6 under that section of the house.

[JB1]

I figured I would give some kind of update of how my home repairs are going. I found the source of water getting into the crawlspace and fixed that. It was a hole where the mortar have washed away where the people who built the house messed up laying block and had a joint that was about 3 inches wide. This hole was about 2 feet down on the back side of the house which has higher soil elevation. I dug out to below the hole, packed it with mortar and back filled with rocky concrete mix. My father and I also have removed just about all the insulation from between the joists. We also removed the duct work and will be installing new duct once all other repairs have been made. This weekend I will be laying block so by the time I order the lumber and it is delivered, most of the prep will have been done. I have also purchased 5 20 ton bottle jacks, a pack of 50 lag screws, 10 pounds of 3 inch hex head deck screws, 3 pounds of 4 inch hex head construction screws, 2 cases of heavy duty liquid nail, some lighting, a new impact driver to go with the one I already have and a impact wrench.

The only thing left to do prep wise is remove all of the water lines, which need to be done anyhow as it is all old copper. I won't do this though until I absolutely have to because once cut out I will have no water to wash with until I get the new pvc water lines hooked up.

All in all though, decent progress.

[DaJavoo]

Mercy ~ I don't envy you this chore.  

[JB1]

Mercy ~ I don't envy you this chore.  

Its all good. Im not trying to rush and kill myself with the work. I will work on it when I have the time, a few hours here, a few hours there, and some on the weekends. As long as I am done by winter it is cool beans.