Would you use this?

[bkelly1]

Was wondering if anyone would have used this or thrown it to the side.? I would have thrown it to the side.

[bkelly1]

You can stick your fingers through it most of the way here.

[gmaher]

Ben, I think a good carpenter would have looked at that board and set it aside for use in a place where a shorter length of it could be used, or it would have gotten a quick ride back to the lumbar yard for exchange with a solid board. Using this board where it was is simply asking for failure at some point in time, before it's time. It simply should not have been used in this location, period! What to do now? Refer it to a structural engineer.
George Maher
Home - Safe Home, LLC
Fargo, ND

[bemelander]

The builder shops at Home Depot apparently.
I would call it out, They could probably sister another joist next to it.
Bill

[Michael W. Gault]

Originally Posted by bemelander

The builder shops at Home Depot apparently.
I would call it out, They could probably sister another joist next to it.
Bill

If it were under my house!

[David P. Valley]

That's just KNOT right...

[igompertz]

There wood be a problem sooner or later.

[dspencer]

2x12.... what is the span. No load bearing wall on top..I doubt it is a problem and with lumber today.. if it is straight and has little crown I'd use it. If that was spf and not yellow pine........

[msaxton]

If the hole was a bit bigger it wood be a good outhouse seat!

[Russell Spriggs]

Hhhmm-
I just filled my truck full of similars, for $50 the other day . . .
I'm rebuilding my chicken coop with that load!

Aaahhh, the joys of living in Lumber Country . . .

[Russel Ray]

It's really no worse than the three behind it. An occasional one (like 5% or so) in use for load-bearing does not cause me any problems. With all of those in the picture being of the same quality/grading, I probably would not have used that specific grade as the foundation for my house.

Knots in Southern Yellow Pine (and other softwoods) can actually increase the engineering characteristics of the wood. It's just that the engineering calculations are sooooooooo difficult to do because of the tremendous variations of lumber and the knots themselves, so everyone prefers just not to do it. Knots in hardwoods are a totally different story.

When I was in Texas A&M Forestry Summer Camp in 1976 in the East Texas Piney Woods, we had an opportunity to visit a Weyerhauser research facility where they were doing load-bearing tests on knotty lumber. The geek in me found it very interesting, and I decided then that I wanted to take my degree and work in forestry research. Alas, after careers in word processing, computers, restaurants, more word processing, computer software teaching, insurance sales, wireless telecommunications, property flipping, Realtor--oh, just too many to list--here I am as an outcast home inspector. Now I've all depressed and shall have to go see what Ms Margarita and Dr Cuervo are doing. Hmmmmmmmmm. 0314 in the morning. They might be having naughty, naughty! Maybe the voyeur in me can watch?

[John Onofrey]

That's henhouse material.

[George A. H. Luck]

Russel ; "Knotty, Knotty!"

[sbogren]

It doesn’t appear to extend clear to the top or the bottom. If this knot is toward the center of the span, the moment is generated toward the top and bottom of the joist. This knot becomes more of a problem as it gets closer to the bearing point which would be an issue.