Envelope #15: Are notches and holes in wood joists OK?

Happy Thursday! Welcome to another email from Back of the Envelope, where I share what I learned recently.

Today I am going to talk about notching and drilling holes through sawn lumber joists (I-joist is a different story).

This came up because an electrician recently told me that he often notches the bottom of joists to run Romex wires because he was taught to avoid drilling holes…

Something tells me that’s not quite right, so I had to look it up.

Below is what I gathered, so you don’t have to 😉 – it could be helpful on your next wood project (or when you remodel your home…)

(Estimated reading time: 2 minutes and 10 seconds)