All About Flooring Repairs

Like a lot of other home renovation jobs, some of what you’ll need to do with the flooring in your home will have nothing to do with the fun aspects of laying down the new material. Often, there’s a tremendous amount of prep work that goes on behind the scenes of any job of this scope and a severely arched, cracked, bulged or sagging joist can only get worse over time. Eventually the floor above it will be deformed over time and that’s a great reason to get to repairs.

One of the quicker ways to fix a joist problem is to fasten a few new joists next to the damaged one to support it. When installing this new one, you may need to notch the bottom edge so that it can fit over the foundation or beam. But first you’ll need to find the high point in the floor using a level. Mark this high point and measure the distance to a reference point that you’ve made that extends through the floor. Here you can use a heating duct or exterior wall.

Next mark the high point in the joist from under the floor in the basement. Next make a straight cut into the joist using a reciprocating saw and allow several weeks for the joist to settle. After you’ve given it the correct amount of time, reinforce the joist with a centerpiece with common nails but make sure to stagger the nails so that they hold the weight properly.  You can also add a sister joist for those problem areas where the situation seems more severe. This is a similar procedure that takes more work and a little more preparation as you are actually adding another complete joist to the basement; this procedure is the more permanent of the two and supplies a better level of reinforcement.

One of the first things that you’ll need to do here is remove any blocking or bridging above the sill or beam where the sister joist will go. You can determine the level of sagging with a level and make sure to cut the sister joist to the same level as the other. You’ll also need a crossbeam and a jack so that you can work on the sister joist hands free. Once you’ve got the jack and sister joist in place, you’ll need to drill pilot holes into the sister joist and use lag screws to tighten the joist into place. Here it’s best to use these screws since they are specifically designed by the construction industry to hold these larger pieces of wood in place. Remember to tighten them properly with a ratchet so that they stay in place.        

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