Floor Joist Puns

Crawlspace information:

1. 1950's brick house, 1800 square feet, 30 mins south of Atlanta.
2. Dirt floor crawlspace. I can stand up in there if I squat/hunch over (I'm 6' tall).
3. The crawlspace is vented with "automatic" vents that open at 70 degrees and close at 40 degrees.
4. The floor joists and other wooden components are covered in either a thin and smooth whiteish/grey film, a powdery yellowish/grey substance, or both.
5. I cannot afford to encapsulate ($9,500) or professional mold remediation ($8,400).

Here is what I have done:

1. 20 mil black vapor barrier over dirt.
2. Interior foundation perimeter french drains with a sump pump.
3. Installed 6" gutters, leaf guards, and redirected downspouts to discharge 15 feet away.
4. Sprayed distilled white vinegar on the joists.
5. Sprayed a heavy mixture of bleach/water at 1cup/1gallon on the joists.

THE PROBLEM CONTINUES.

1. There is no more standing water in the crawlspace and the sump pump has not needed to switch itself on after new gutters installed.
2. However, and despite all of the above, the mold persists. I think it may be getting worse*.*

My plans:

1. I will be spraying RMR-141 on all joists this weekend. I am up to speed on PPE and proper ventilation.
2. If that doesn't work, I will wait a few weeks and then spray RMR-86 PRO on the joists.

Questions:

1. The vapor barrier does not touch the walls, so the french drains are uncovered and so are the concrete block pylons. Is this okay?
2. Considering using a box fan on a timer to a few minutes every hour to push air around. Would this help or just spread mold spores everywhere?
3. Considering using UV-C lightbulbs instead of household bulbs in the two light sockets down there. Fire hazard? Waste of money?
4. What else should I do?

Good morning all,

I live in the NE 20 min from NYC. My addition is cinder block crawl space below frostline. My contractor installed all of the beams and joists per code. The underlayment flooring is two layers of 1/2" plywood screwed to joists. No glue. A few years after the addition lots of squeaking. After much research I finally, i removed vinyl tile and screwed the heck of of the floors (like 3 screws per sf with good brass wood nails) and they were fine for about four years. In the high traffic area, the squeaks have returned. It's driving me nuts.

I am wondering if we could remove the 1st layer of plywood, install a new second layer, but insert something in between that is waterproof and would muffle any noise.

Any Ideas and reccomendations welcome.

Add'l Info: The crawlspace has sealed vents cement floor and a commercial dehumidifier (Sante Fe Compact 70 Dehumidifier). We keep humidity well below 50% all year and it fluctuates to the high side but still below 50% during snowy periods and the mostly humid summers we have here in the northeast.

Thanks in advance for reading. I hope you can help.

Have a great day all!

Wanting to add exercise equipment (TRX bands and yoga straps) in an open floor area of an unfinished part of basement. Exposed TJI floor joists are 14” tall, installed 19” on center, and run the length of the room - about 24’. The bands would need to be able to support 220lbs.

My first thought was to run a bar through a couple pre-cut knockouts on adjacent joists and suspend the equipment from that - would that work or am i risking compromise of the vertical OSB webbing?

Just bought a 1940s built 2 story home with old beams holding the place up. Partner and I would like to do workout videos in the house for exercise but will screw up the floor with so much jumping. We thought maybe it would be possible to arrange for concrete to be poured throughout the entire ground floor, so that we can do as much jumping as possible. If anyone has any advice on this could you please share? No idea who we would try to get in touch with regarding this idea.

I have a 2-story home w/poured concrete basement in Climate Zone 6 (near the border of Climate Zone 5). The only insulation in the basement is some fiberglass in the rim joist. In winter, temperatures stay between 50-55 degrees in the basement (w/1st floor between 55-62 degrees). The water lines run through the basement, and there is a forced hot water (via propane) heater in the basement. (The heater does not ordinarily go on in the winter, but is really there in case it gets too cold and there is a risk of pipes freezing).

I've gotten mixed information from a home energy audit, energy.gov, and other sources on what's the best approach to the basement. Energy.gov recommends focusing on basement walls over basement ceilings when looking into insulating a basement, and I've seen information that there could be a concern with the pipes freezing if heat is not allowed to radiate down from upstairs (including from a spray foam company that came in to give an estimate on the rim joists when I asked about ceiling vs walls. Obviously, they're biased). (I do know that, prior to my moving in, the pipes in the basement did freeze at least once in a very cold winter storm). Meanwhile, my home energy audit suggested insulating between the basement and conditioned space as a good energy saving measure.

Thoughts?

We have an older home, built in 1958, if that’s relevant, with fiberglass insulation under half of the floors.

There’s a lot of moisture under the house at present. Standing water in a few places - it’s going to be addressed in the near future. Water pools against the foundation during/after rain events.

I’ve heard insulation holds moisture, but it was put under there for a reason, right?

House is on crawlspace, with plastic on the ground.

Should I remove the insulation or not?

Thanks an awful lot guys and gals!

We have a stand up under basement I guess you could call it. It's clean and dry. I need someone who can sister a floor joist that vibrates too much. Any recommendations?

Edit to add: 1949 house, only this space of the house is above crawl space. This area is under full stand up basement? Where my office is and I also have an aquarium. I hate heavy footed people walking across the room because my monitors and the Aquarian bounce. Just need a little light support and need someone who will take it on. I've had a broken floor joist "sistered" before and it solved the problem. I am not looking at those assholes at Ram Jack to come out. Previous experience, no thanks. It's just a thought to try here, if you can help please comment. We're located right next to downtown Durham.

Here's a photo:

https://i.imgur.com/lULKkVr.jpg

It was found underneath the floor joists of the 1st floor. This photo is taken from the basement. It is about 4-5" inches square. It looks like a large metal junction box, with black metal plates bolted on the bottom, the final of the series of black plates having a big convex curve to it.

I tried to post it to /r/whatisthisthing but it got locked in 5 seconds by a mod for being a "doorbell transformer", so I turn to you guys for help!

Here is a zoomed in photo of the writing stamped on it:

https://i.imgur.com/h22rSKL.png

I don't know what it is, but I've seen a lot of transformers in my time, and a handful of doorbell transformers, even some vintage ones, never seen any transformer of any kind that looks like that.

I need to add a support beam in my crawl space to address a sagging floor. Ideally this would span the center of the room perpendicular to the floor joists.
At some point staggered blocking was added between the center of the joists. Is it ok if my 4x6 support beam is offset from center by approx. 4 inches? Or do I need to remove all of the blocking?
The room dimensions are 12' x 18'. Beam would stretch the 18'

Hey everyone, I have a quick question before embarking on finishing out the area below our garage. The foundation is a block foundation and it looks like the floor joist doesn't rest on the blocks but is held up only by its connection to the rim joist. Is this normal? I've included an image for reference to show what I'm talking about.

Https://www.imgur.com/a/cODGRNU

Hey guys and girls, question for you...

We have an extension, which almost an extra house built onto ours. It was built 30 years ago and is in the UK.

There is a room 6m x 6m on the ground and the same above it on the 1st floor. The joists also span the 6m. About a year ago it had stud partitions on the ground floor but no supporting structure. I'm certain its not normal. Question is, would it have been within regulation at any point and also, is it safe going forward? I can't see any obvious bowing in the middle!

Edit: The joist dimension looks to be: H x W x L - 220mm x 50mm x 6000mm.

The space between joists looks like its 360mm.

There's no engineer drawings in the planning portal. Just a standard drawings of internal floor layout and look at the front, back and sides of house.

I’m remodeling a home that’s about 50 years old. It’s a nightmare of termite damage and rot. Grading wasn’t done properly. It did not get adequate termite protection. Today, I found a bearer that is at least 25% gone in one section of the house. I’m getting stressed and could use some advice.

I'm renovating my bathroom and things were going great until I started to figure out why the floor is sagging so badly. It's about 3 cm / 1 1/4 inches across a 6 ft span. It's because one particular joist under that part of the bathroom was decimated to make room for the venting stack. I've got a short video below.

My questions are:

• why are there two auxiliary vents off the main (cast iron) vent that come right back together under the floor?

• what are my options for fixing this? Can I remove some / all of the existing plumbing, install a sister joist along side the one that was removed, and replace the plumbing to come below the new sister joist? I'd lose a bunch of headroom in the basement but I can live with that if it's the best option. Is there a better option?

I have an electrician scheduled to install a ceiling fan on a first floor master (2 story house). If the ceiling joists run parallel with the first floor joists I will have a problem (cutting through joists and avoiding bathroom exhaust lines during install). She says they should definitely run perpendicular or else my house would not be structurally sound. Is this accurate?

TLDR: do second floor joists run parallel to the first floor’s, perpendicular, or is it really a mixed bag?

Basement stairs

Two summers ago i had my basement gutted out, and fresh cement poured. I also, replaced the old columns and removed basement steps. I had a structure engineer come in. I spoke to him about the work and he said everything would be fine. However, the guys that did the cement work promised me that they would be able to replace and remove the basement columns. My house took a little minor shift. While jacking back up the house i remember hearing a popping sound. When i asked the engineer he said "You woke up an old house that was sleep." Also, I wasn't aware that the basement stairs was also some how a supporting column some how. I came to the conclusion because thats where theres a slight unevenness in my house.

Work that needs to be done.

• Reinforce basement beams without using a column?( I removed the stairs so the basement would have more space. More of an open space.)
• Level out cracked/ split basement floor joist? Sister lock cracked/split floor joist?
• Jack up existing beams that would level out floor joist?
• Who specializes in this type of work? I have been asking around in NYC and can't find the right person. I was told carpenters but the few I asked seems very uncertain.

Any Help would be really awesome.

Thanks,

I have to sister 10 joists in the basement that is holding a 3 storey stone home.

What wood is best? Douglas fir or Pressure treated? They are 14 feet in length

My plumber had to cut into a floor joist in my 2nd floor bathroom in order to move a toilet drain. About 5.5 inches deep and 12 inches long.

The drain is basically on top of the joist which makes it impossible for me to sister. The joists on either side have other plumbing near them so I don't think sistering plywood to either of those sides and tieing them to the middle joist is an option.

The cut is about 2 feet away from where the joist meets the exterior wall.

I'm pretty new to house renovations an am stumped on this one. I don't want the joist sagging in 10 years.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Mangled joist https://imgur.com/a/SOvDaVp

Edit: I'm not sure if this makes a difference. But I live in a cape so the floor joists on the 2nd floor only extend about 12 feet in that particular section.

We recently bought a wacky house with a hot tub in a second story atrium. We're yanking it out, leaving us with an atrium upstairs and a 13'6" x 13'4" unfinished room below. I want to finish that downstairs room. My issue is that the 2x10 joists are only 7'4" overhead. I'm assuming I could swap in 2x8 joists, but gaining only 2 inches doesn't seem worth it. However, gaining four inches might make it worthwhile.

Is there a suitable 2x6 joist product out there that might work?

Feel free to tell me I'm crazy and live with what I have.