Hanging 70lb heavy bag. Is this safe?

Hanging 70lb heavy bag. Is this safe?

I mean, do you have toddlers playing under the thing?

Next time, don’t place your lags in a square, anything inline with the grain is going to cause issues. You could also consider placing lags perpendicular through the joists on your upper support.

Ideally, you’d use a steal bar with lags in the brackets, or a couple joist hangers and place the 2×6 in upright (the same as your joists) and then nail/lag through the joists for added support.

Your 2×6 has a way better chance of standing up to the tension forces when the “6” side is holding the weight and not the “2” side. In other words, place them perpendicular to how you have them now. But realistically, you’re probably fine unless you’re worried about squishing a kid. Go hang on the bag, if it holds, forget about it and keep going. If it fails, try again!

Nice. Thanks for the tips here. I’m mostly worried about damaging the joists if it does snap. How likely do you think that would be?

I mean, do you have toddlers playing under the thing?

I get your point but part of me wanted to say yes just do be difficult.

Probably would have done it a little different but it should hold… for a while.

I would have blocked your 2x between the joists. Lagged them through the joists. Then lagged your heavy bag through the ply 2x’s.

I was gonna say, having them holding shearing forces would probably be better than pulling

Looks legit to me. Unless of course you predrilled those lag bolt too big. Or if you’re lag bolts are like stupid short.

There are a few problems here that are easy fixes. The split you see is probably because you didn’t pre-drill the holes for your lag bolts, the header on top isn’t doing anything for you structurally because it isn’t anchored to anything, and the choice of wood is sub-optimal for this application – pine is good for axial compressive stress (think studs) but not great for lateral tension. I would re-do it using a hardwood with pre-drilled lags and maybe go a size up on those. L-brackets on the outside might work, but because the stress point is in the center, you’re likely to see the same problem as the brackets bend. Ideally, you’d want to tenon the piece into the adjoining joists, but if they’re load-bearing you don’t want to cut mortises through them. Another poster suggested using a steel crosspiece instead of wood, too. I’d still just go get a reclaimed piece of barn oak and use that.

Hmm I did predrill for the lags, but perhaps not deep enough. Thanks for the ideas!

I hung this the other day and have used it a couple times. It seems to have cracked a bit, but still seems sturdy.

Are my joists at risk? I’ve read that this setup will distribute weight between the two joists.

Is there a better way to hang this? Bag is 70lbs.

Hey turn the top board and screw it in to the joist then do the bottom board like you have it. It’ll be 200% stronger and the simplest way to fix that.

Distributing the weight between two joists is not as good as across multiple joists.

I’d span as many as you can. This will limit the sheer forces on the floor above and help keep the joists stable. Last thing you want is popping flooring above.

If you have carpet though, you’d never know.

I have a similar setup i use for a pull up bar and im 230 pounds you will be fine. Some people dont give wood enough credit.

I’ve demoed out a lot of homeowner basement improvements over the years. I like how the bolt placement is perfectly symmetrical. I like the lines on the lower board 1-1/2″ in (3rd picture). This has that labor of love feel that is very nice but could be done better.

With bolts, it’s better when the pulling force is perpendicular to the bolt. Through bolts are better than lag bolts.

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