Scab or post support?

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
Our 'new' house has a couple of dips in the kitchen floor. While down in the crawl space under the kitchen I notice two of the joists have splits in them, right in the dip spots. I still need to pull the insulation and investigate further, but I'm weighing my options for fixing the situation. My first thought was to raise the floor back to original height and scab new joists to the split joists. Being that it is a crawl space, I could very well get away with pouring a couple of footings and installing support posts (the adjustable type).

Like I mentioned, I'll have to pull back the insulation and see just how they have split, but I think either way I'll have to add some scab to them in order to have something solid for a support post to hold up.

Any other suggestions or anything I may be over looking here?
 
Both, actually.

I'd dig out, and pour two footers, about 8 feet (on center) apart, perpendicular to the joists, then put in two adjustable posts (Lally columns) with a doubled 2 X 10 header across the span.

Lift the sagging joists to level, scab them on both sides to make a 'joist sandwich' then raise the header up to support the sagging joists as well as a couple on either side of the sag.

More work, but it'll help prevent future problems.
 
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