hotwheels514 wrote:
I have a damaged joist, it supports the 2nd floor of my house. My husband
severely notched it to get a piece of furniture up the stairs. He tried to
repair it by bolting in another piece of wood, but now it also has a crack
in the same area, and Im afraid it will get worse. Also, he cut out a much
smaller piece of the same joist in the bathroom (near where the joist meets
the wall), on the bottom of the joist, so he could put a pipe in. Im
worried about all of this. I'd like to bring in someone to fix it. Who do
I call? Carpenter? General Contractor? Is this really expensive to repair?


You need to attach a "sister" board, which it sounds like he already
did, badly. I had to do this to a joist in my garage where the builder
installed a defective truss.

Put a jack under the weak joist to take some weight off of it. Glue
another board to the side of the joist with construction adhesive and
bolt it together tightly with carriage bolts. The sister board should
extend several feet on each side of the damage. If you have a nail gun,
shoot some 16d nails into it to help keep it from moving. If the joist
is cracked (like mine was) I would also put a steel mending plate on the
other side right over the crack. When it's all bolted together tightly,
you can remove the jack.

Best regards,
Bob