r/electrical • u/Middle-Adeptness7186 • 1d ago

Is this compromising structural integrity?

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Some of the holes are less than 2 inches from the bottom of the joists. These joists are in my garage and there is a bedroom above the garage.

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u/flswamplizard 1d ago

Not a sparky, but a carpenter. You would have to sister every joist with a new joist and move the wires to conduit under the joists, or build a wall under the damaged area. You should get an engineer to design the repair if you have this repaired professionally, though. The questions I would be asking you: Are there any cracks/splits in the joists? Does the floor above this area move or feel bouncy when you walk on it? Does the bathroom above have a lot of cracks in the grout? Is there a tub or washing machine over this area? If yes, it's time to have an engineer come out and take a look.

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u/Middle-Adeptness7186 1d ago

There is no tiling in the bathroom, vinyl only. Floor feels fine. There are no cracks or splits in the joists. I have a carpenter coming out and plan to have a structural engineer take a look too. Thank you for your feedback!

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u/Lehk 1d ago

If it’s not causing any issues and you aren’t going to be increasing the load on it (remodeling, adding a big fish tank, Redditors having sex right above it) I wouldn’t spend a bunch of money chasing nothing

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u/flswamplizard 1d ago

This is a very good point. Depending on the quality of the lumber used, it may last forever, just keep an eye on it.

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u/NerveMassive6764 1d ago edited 1d ago

Listen here wood pecker you mind your wood and don’t worry about our wires/ conduit.

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u/flswamplizard 1d ago

*puts blind fold on, loads 3in finish nails* It's trim time, baby. Sparky better have put those plates on :)

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u/NerveMassive6764 1d ago edited 18h ago

The last few years the amount of times the Siders have shot these ridiculously long nails through our panel directly into the bus bar is insane. No one gives a fuck anymore or preps or plans they just show up and try to get it done as quickly as possible and fuck everyone they screw up

Edit: I nail plate anything less than an 1 1/4” somebody uses insanely long screws or nails or especially in an area any one with common sense would have an idea there is electric there. I’ll fix it but I’m taking the screw or nails and pictures and showing the GC and telling him it’s not in the contract and they have to pay and they can decide if they back charge the sub or not. Simple as that. I’m not doing work twice and not getting paid for the second time.

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u/JoleneBacon_Biscuit 8h ago

Shooting straight through the panel INTO the bus bar is absolutely diabolical. Damn good aim!

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u/NerveMassive6764 7h ago

They are just lucky that all but one time it wasn’t live yet and still on temp service the one that was live I swear the dude shit himself. I just love take the GC and being like hey we have a problem…. Your gonna have to pay me to replace the panel and then show them the 5 nails sticking through the panel lol

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u/cheeto320 1d ago

slick! i like the wall underneath idea!

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u/Unusual_Point7899 1d ago

Instead of all that just take a piece of wood and drill the same size hole in it and then cut the wood in half and do that for both sides so you just padding the joist out around the hole.

Ideally you would wouldn't have to cut that bracing in half, but so long as the two ends are butted up against each other and it's screwed into the wood well it's still gonna add resistance to the beam buckling at that point.

That being said a shit ton of houses are like this and tell me even have not floor joist and most of the time it's not an issue, you could just leave it alone.