!@#Termites!@#

[jm951 0]

Ok, a buddy has termite damage in his crawl space to the rim joist, sill plate and the ends of about 10 joists. The outer wall in this area is brick venier and we'd rather not tear it off as it's pretty substantial. We're debating on the best way to repair this. Current thought- support floor joists and repair about 6-8 feet of the rim joist and sill plate at a time. Then, cut off the affected wood on the supported joists and scab in new, support the joint of the scab with a 4x8 beam on piers.

Would this pass inspection or will we have to completely replace each joist? I would think that the scabbed joists would be fine if the joint were supported. From a labor standpoint, it would be much easier this way.

Any carpenters/inspectors/engineers out there have a comment on this plan?

[Broke 0]

Perhaps a call to your local municipality would be a better place to fine the answer if something will pass code or not

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[Royd 0]

The problem with termite damage is that much of it can remain hidden without opening things up.

I recently did a job where a dryer vent apparently became misrouted and put a lot of moisture into the wall.

I was supposed to put on some new siding, and upon realizing that the nails weren't grabbing anything, I started tearing the sheathing off. I ended up rebuilding about 6' of wall from the floor to the rafters. There was no obvious evidence until I opened it up.

From your description, I would access the job from inside the house by first removing the flooring. Not only will you be able to find the limits of the damage but you will have an easier time of replacing everything. Trying to install joists in crawl space is most often a nightmare.

Depending on the amount of damage, I might cut all of the damaged joists the same length and install a header to support them. Then reinstall new joists with hangers, or set them on a ledger board. I use screws for all of the major fastening.

This would eliminate having to use twice as much lumber that scabbing would use.

[billeisele 130]

that will work, local pest companies have folks that do this all the time and they might give you some advice, regardless I'd get an engineer to certify the design and the final product so when resale time comes you won't have any problems, when you install the support beam under the joists, install the jacks and tighten them about 1/8" a day to avoid creating any other damage

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[2fat2fly 0]

My construction advice....

Try really, really hard not to drop the house on yourself

I am not the man. But the man knows my name...and he's worried

[billeisele 130]

Quote

My construction advice....

Try really, really hard not to drop the house on yourself

Step 1 - send helper under house

but seriously, use some house jacks made for this purpose, extend the support beam at each end to the "good" joists and attach the beam to the joists, hang a small weight from each end of the beam down to the ground to measue how much you are raising the beam, go slow

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[jm951 0]

I've done the method I described, but that was a long time ago and codes change.

I just checked in with the local inspector. He tells me that the codes changed about 04 and don't allow for it. Current code is to sister an entire joist alongside the old one. He also said that the method I described was the one commonly in use until the code change and he saw nothing wrong with it. In additional comments, he added that there were builders trying to get the code changed to allow that method again and it was through regulatory snafu that it was deleted in the latest edition.

Upshot is, the inspector basically said, use the method I've described and am familar with. Keep the project broken into segments under $1k and less than 12 feet and no permit would be required, hence no inspection problems with the building codes. I also went over this with a licensed home inspector who recommended this method as well.