Floor Joist Removal

The original owner of the home turned a crawl space into a dug out basement. However the stairs have a very high rise and as I want to fix this I'm faced with one of two solutions. The easiest one would be to cut the floor joist but it is directly under a wall and the section to be removed would be about 3 feet wide. The joist is a 2x10 and I would only need to remove about 5-6 inches to get the clearance I need. I know that sistering would be the best wya to deal with this but this joist is on the end and there is a joist to the est but not one to the west. Is there a way to safely support this and still get the extra 5-6 inches of clearance that I need. The other option would require using a cement saw and removing a portion of the cement floor of the basement as a way to chagne up the lay out of the stairs. I have never used a cement saw and would like to do this project by myself. Which way would be better or should I just sticke with cutting out the cement.

 

A picture or drawing may help some. Depending on where you live, you may be able to find a structural engineer that could give you an opinion. It wouldn't be all that expensive unless you wanted drawings, certifications, etc. I did this when I discovered a problem when remodeling, and it only cost me about $100. He came over, looked things over, took some measurements, and went home. Called later after he'd made some calculations, and told me what I could do. As I said, though, if you need drawings, and certified, stamped, approved plans, it would boost the cost considerably. A wall sitting on a joist, rather than crossing them, is probably not a load-bearing wall. That doesn't mean you can just arbitrarily cut things...you'd first want to support the joists, then cut, then reinforce. Whether that would require simiply sistering things, or a header, or what, is hard to tell without more details. If that mod ever needed to be inspected, there are some fairly strict rules about the pitch and run of a set of stairs.

 

+1

You have a picture you can load up and post?