Cutting Floor Joists For Plumbing

The notching and boring rules of thumb for solid lumber are shown in fig.

Cutting floor joists for plumbing.

Holes anywhere in the web area of engineered i joists except within 6 in. Structural floor joist repairs. How to cut the subfloor to access the floor joists for plumbing. If the cut outs are too large or in the wrong location the joist can be weakened and unable to support the load it was designed for.

Engineered floor joists can be drilled only according to their manufacturer s guidelines the code specifies the maximum size of the holes you can drill or the notches you can cut where you can and can t place them and how far apart they can be spaced. I jacked up straightened out the floor before gluing nailing and carriage bolting the new joist to the cut joist. As a remodeling contractor and carpenter one common structural framing issue i see alot of in bathroom remodeling jobs are floor joists that were cut drilled notched or need to be cut out to accommodate plumbing pipes and drains. Roger goes over the best practices and rules for notching and drilling holes in joists while filming our bathroom series.

Of walls and rim joists. It s important to calculate the siz. Even worse is that over time any rot or decay from moisture that these cut up joists see. Codes don t directly address how many holes and notches you can cut in a joist.

Tradespeople often need to cut notches or holes in floor and ceiling joists to run pipes ductwork or wires. The maximum allowable diameter of a hole in any solid lumber joist is one third of. Where and how to drill joists for electrical cables or plumbing runs depends on what type of floor framing you have. Things might work out for a while but you will have a high likelihood that the floor will flex and your tile will crack.

One fix i did was to sister on new joists. I ve also sistered on steel flat plate when i wasn t able to nail on a long enough replacement joist for example existing plumbing or electrical wires prevent you from getting a full. One rule of thumb is to provide twice the distance between holes as the diameter. When it s time to remodel it s often also time to reroute plumbing or replace subflooring that may have become rotted or cracked.