I am remodeling my home that was built in 1965. A sag in my living room ceiling and a sloping floor above in a bathroom had me remove the ceiling drywall to find the problem. Imagine my surprise and then disgust to find one floor joist completely cut off and two more notched from the bottom up leaving about four inches at the top. The DWV had been routed through them. I have removed the old cast iron drains intending to rerout them. My question is should I sister new full length joists beside these after jacking them back up, which can be done, or could I possible bolt a steel flitch plate of appropriate size along side each affected joist? The span is 16′ 2×12’s @16′ centers. One extra note. The joist cut completely into is directly under a wall. It’s not a load bearing wall except for roof bracing to it. I was thinking LVL lumber under it. Any thoughts or similar situations and remedies would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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According to the American wood council a 2x12 is fine, a number 2 can go 17' 5" 50 pound live load 10 dead. The question is can you get one long enough and straight enough to wiggle in there. I see no real need for a steel plate, unless you want to brag about having steel in your house. A 110 series TJI will do the job fine at a reasonable cost it is only 11 1/8"
deep which maybe of help depending on your current joist depth, you can fur out the bottom to match the current ceiling.
If you were surprised to find a hacked up joist in an older house you you must be new to remodeling or have not watched this Old House enough.
Wallyo
You said LVL under it.
What is it: the first floor wall, the bath.....?
Wallyo
Hers is a web site for span calculators:
http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/calc/timbercalcstyle.asp
You can sister the joists or use flitch plates, but you don't need to wiggle in full length members (which is usually impossible with bearing at each end). Simply extending new material several feet each side of notches and fastening well (subfloor adhesive and nails) will offer more than enough strength.
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