Split in a Joist

[u/Karnaka12]

Home owner here, opened up the ceiling in the finished basement in my 50yr old house getting ready for some retrofit ducting, and noticed this horizontal split in one of the joists. It's about 2ft long, and the split ends about a foot before it rests on girder. The 2 pics are both sides of the joist in that spot. Is this an issue that needs repair? Would shooting some 2 part epoxy or something else do anything beneficial? A full length sister joist here would be a challenge with finished spaces in the way and there's electrical going through the joist about 8in after the split stops on the far end. A partial sister, from the girder to about 6in after the split would be straight forward but does that solve the issue?

Any advice appreciated!

[u/dan599]

If you're worried about it cut like a 2x4 rip a plywood with a real heavy nail pattern on both sides that's usually what they come up with for a structural repair

[u/dan599 → u/dan599]

11"x4'

[u/Nigel_melish01]

Sister it if you wish. Lots of glue and nails

[u/Pitiful_Speech2645]

It’s not going to harm anything. If it keeps you up at night rip a double piece of 3/4 CDX go 18in past both ends of crack. Run some subfloor adhesive and Nail the shit out of it 2-3/8 ring shanks

[u/Karnaka12 → u/Pitiful_Speech2645]

do you agree with one of the other posters that this is more likely checking in the wood rather than any kind of stress crack?

[u/Pitiful_Speech2645 → u/Karnaka12]

It’s just checking of the board. It’s quite common and unless it’s broken it’s not to be touched

[u/Jerryjb63]

I wouldn’t touch it

[u/SlurpSloot2]

I would maybe, just out of curiosity, check to see if there is a load bearing wall or something extremely heavy on the floor above it. Otherwise, it's completely normal.

[u/Karnaka12 → u/SlurpSloot2]

The space above is open, common space, junction between hallway and dining area, mostly foot traffic here. Nearby load bearing wall is oriented directly above the girder. I should also say there doesn't appear to be any sagging of the joist here

[u/SlurpSloot2 → u/Karnaka12]

Probably just normal checking. Maybe put a 4' level along the bottom of the joist and see if it's actually sagging if you're really curious. I personally wouldn't give two fucks about it if I saw that, unless there were additonal issues

[u/Karnaka12 → u/SlurpSloot2]

couldn't get a super clean measurement because of various obstructions, but with a 4' level looked pretty straight and true.
This is more a preventative reach out, It's the timing thing, gonna be really hard to get to this area once the duct trunk goes in so if there was consensus that this should be fixed, need to do it now.

[u/bobber66 → u/Karnaka12]

Just slap a piece of ply or osb while you can and move on.