Fixing Rotten Floor Girder

How to fix a rotten floor joist under a bathtub.

Fixing rotten floor girder.

When replacing rotted floor joists it s important to be sure the girder and sill are still intact. If your house is built over a basement first inspect all of the basement support beams and posts where they meet the floor. Seal all cracks. Water from a leak flooding or waterproofing problems can rot subfloors floors and damage joists.

Wet rot on floor joists girders. Wood beams are used to support a bearing load from a roof or second floor. If only a few joists are rotted primarily at the bottom they can be repaired using a process known as sistering after the rot is cleaned away and the timber treated to prevent more problems a new joist is laid beside the old. Depending on exactly what needs to be repaired and the scale of the damage the cost to fix a floor sagging from water damage can cost between 2 000 and 6 000.

It s easier and much cheaper to prevent rot rather than fix it. Support the floor joists and or any concentrated loads the girder carries with jacking timbers set under the joists on both sides of the girder. Steel c channel is expensive and isn t effective if the beam is rotted where it bears on the wall. This causes floors to sag.

As the posts slowly rot and melt into the floor the house settles accordingly bottom to top. Raise these jacking timbers just enough to relieve the load on the girder. Connect each end of the new joist to a sill plate and a girder using 1 1 2 inch by 4 1 2 inch framing angles and 1 1 2 inch hanger nails in. The following steps will help keep the wood in your house dry so fungi don t have a chance to set up shop.

If your floor systems is damaged affordable foundation home repairs can offer free advice on how we repair your home. You may have undersized support beams support posts that are rotting and losing their structural integrity or undersized post footings that are settling. Be suspicious of wood posts set on dirt floors or wood posts with concrete poured around the post bases. Also called soft rot this fungus is known to break wet wood down into cellulose which will significantly weaken and decompose the material when choosing between replacing and reinforcing joists that have been damaged look carefully at the color of the wood.

They can span as much as 20 feet and many times they can be doubled as decorative pieces.