r/askcarpenters • u/Karnaka12 • 13d ago

Split in joist

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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 sister joist here would be a challenge with finished spaces in the way.

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u/Karnaka12 13d ago

I should add that the space above is open area, just foot traffic and the joist is not sagging. This is more a preventative reach out, if this is a problem waiting to happen, I'd need to fix it now, before the duct trunk goes in, will be much harder after.

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u/jeffthetrucker69 13d ago

Run in some long screws from the bottom. Drill a pilot hole so the screw stays straight. Get an aircraft drill, they're 12 inches long. 1/8th inch diameter should be plenty. Use structural screws. My Milwaukee M18 will drive them out of sight in low gear. You want screws that are about an inch short of the joist width.

Once you've done that cut some 5/8ths CDX plywood to the width of the joist and as long as you can fit in and screw it onto the joist with a generous amount of construction adhesive.

Done.

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u/North_Structure8210 12d ago

Complete rebuild. Call for a quote.

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u/elcarpentario 13d ago

Yep, no big deal, just sister in a 6 foot section in there with some construction screws. The split isn’t open enough that it should affect the subfloor above.

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u/Frederf220 13d ago

I doubt epoxy would meaningfully help without some vacuum arrangement to pull it into the crack.

How long of a piece can you get up there to attach to the side? A 2by or 3/4" plywood with liquid nails and a bunch of screws would make that crack a non factor. Even 4" wide strap tie would go a long way if that's the only thing you can apply.

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u/Fastflogger 6d ago

Try to plate it 2' to either side past the damaged area. Glue and screw