The floor joists in our 1992 house (new to us) was notched more than
50% in 2 places (to install the A/C ducts) & drilled in another area to install several small copper pipes. I had 2 contractors come out & look at the notched floor joists & give an estimate for repairs. One said it was no problem because: (1) the house is 15+ years old & there was no evidence of buckling in the floor; (2) the notches are close to perpendicular support beams in the crawl space and near the concrete block framework for the crawlspace. A second contractor said it needs to be repaired & the house may not be up to code because of the notching (although it is commonly done by contrators when installing ductwork.2 questions:
- Is this a problem that needs to be repaired? (Even though there is no evidence in the home that it is causing a problem & the places where the joists were notched are not supporting any heavy pieces of furniture.)
- Can I do this repair myself?
- I have an idea of what needs to be done (i.e., scrape out a flat spot, pour concrete foundation, get 2 concrete cinderblocks [or concrete blocks designed specifically for this job], then install 2 jacks for each cut out. But what type of jacks? and how tight should the jacks be against the floor joists to give it enough support?