5 points to anyone who can explain this. Did a 1994 house today with very few issues and no jackleg alterations that I noticed. In the crawlspace, directly below the kitchen, I see this peice of pressure-treated sandwiched between 2x6s and bolted to the underside of the joists. It dead ends into thin air on both ends (about 12 feet long) and doesn’t rest on anything else, although there are other piers nearby. Why?
how about to act as a floor “stiffener”----tile finish floor in kitchen?
I thought it might be something like that too. Initially I wondered if I was underneath a grand piano. But no piano, and the kitchen floor is wood.
It could also be someones way of forcing poorly crowned joists straight.
It is extremely difficult to install 3/4 T & G hardwood flooring on a wavy, poorly crowned,floor.
Plus it just looks bad.
Good suggestion, Cheremie. The joists looked fairly true, but I suppose even a very subtle variation could cause the subfloor not to lay flat.
I would think it was an attempt for additional floor support, or stiffener. That is lot of work to do I would ask the seller if he knew why it was there.
JMO;
It appears to be a poor way of substituting bridging between the joist span.
It might be that the floor finishes above warranted no springing of the floor or the owner did not want any bounce. This is a poor substitute to solid bridging or it’s equivalent.
Solid bridging or it’s equivalent, will provide the floor system as a diaphragm and be as a whole one package deal that will support the load and eliminate the springy affect that could cause the unacceptable affects, regarding cracking of tile joints, etc…
Marcel 
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If it were to stiffen the floor, it would work a lot better with supports from underneath.
If it were to stiffen the floor, wouldn’t it have to be perpendicular with the joists and not parallel to them in one spot?
It may be hard to see from the photo, but it is perpendicular to the real floor joists. What you may be seeing sandwiched on either side of the pressure treated are not floor joists. It’s just weird. This wasn’t a hugely unsupported area, either, so the very need for a stiffener is strange. I’m recommending simply that they ask the seller what that thing is.
Look to the left of the beam. I see 2x solid bridge blocks.
They watched one DIY show to many.
Hum, 1994, Friday afternoon prehaps???
I am just wondering if it had Rube Goldberg’s signature on it somewhere. All it is doing is acting as ballast and unsupported weight.
Larry
I agree.