Cut Floor Joist High Spot

I cut out a span of plywood over 3 joists total the high one in the center planed it down with my electric planer and was able to reset the same subfloor i cut out.

Cut floor joist high spot.

I pulled all the nails first then cut the path the nails were on with a saw set to depth of the subfloor. This will create a weak spot. The joist on the other side of the crowned joist was properly level meaning it was in plane with the end joist. To address this unique area of the floor we decided to remove the existing 5 8 inch osb plane the joist using a standard handheld planer and install.

The most basic method is to take a piece of tar paper fold it in half and then push that. What we found is that one technique is to pull up the subfloor and shave down the top of the joist. Fixing a low joist is pretty straight forward. 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.

The joist underneath the hump may appear thicker than the joist on either side of it because of moisture. I noticed the high joist when i removed the old carpet. It s a sign of a high spot. Minor high spots for hardwood and laminate floor installations are easily fixed with tar paper shims.

Bending however is a more realistic concern because it takes much less load to exceed the allowable deflection of a floor. A high joist is a different conundrum. We considered it but we just weren t going to do that. Start by cutting out a small 1 2 in 2 5 5 1 cm section of the floor joist with a reciprocating saw.

To remove the existing floor use a circular saw. Use a circular saw to remove the subfloor to expose the high joist. Pry the floor joist from the subfloor with the back of your hammer. A floor joist will bow upward creating a heaved area on the floor above.

Cut only the area where the hump is not the entire floor. Tradespeople often need to cut notches or holes in floor and ceiling joists to run pipes ductwork or wires. Then use pry bars and your reciprocating saw to pry and cut the floor joist away from the subfloor. High areas in the floor are called heaves and low areas are called dips.

Jack it up and sister join another joist to the original one. Step 2 look at the joist. Back to addressing the high spot.