Hey Folks,

(Fun to be asking a question of the FH community. I’ve been a reader since the 1980s, when as a kid I would pore over my dad’s stack of back issues.)

– Embarking on major repair and reinforcement of my house’s cellar, ca. 1780s. Have owned for 5 months, so discovering new and exciting things all the time.

– Dirt floor cellar with low ceiling (+/- 6’). Many old round joists and large beams. Lots of beetle. All wooden posts, some still-hairy swamp cedar, on concrete footers of unknown depth. 

– Said posts have subsided and beams have bowed so that the floor does the classic sag toward the middle. Original center chimney removed ca. 1890 and replaced with a smaller one. Second floor (it was a simple Cape) expanded to create a second floor apartment.

– Plan is to slowly replace framing and then jack the new framing up to approach level. While living in the house (ay carumba). Getting expert help from a master carpenter on this project. Unfortunately he’s recovering from heart surgery and is out for weeks or months to come. 

– Here’s where it gets interesting … the dirt floor is wet. It’s not rainwater intrusion but groundwater seepage (VERY high water table, flood plain), particularly in one spot that doesn’t want to drain toward the sump). I was planning to install a French drain to deal with this, and hopefully dry out the floor before tackling the framing. This week I started digging along one wall to see how it went. Immediately ran into loose bricks, stones, and brickbats mixed with the dirt. About 10 inches down ran into stone flags and very hard packed dirt … Continued trench along the perimeter. Same stuff. Possibly an entire stone and dirt floor UNDER the dirt floor.

– My hypothesis: when central chimney was removed a century or so ago the Yankees didn’t bother to haul the debris, but spread it over the floor and covered it with dirt, and treated it as the floor ever after. There is also some brickwork around the sump well that I suspect is the remains of a cistern. Not sure yet.

So far, cool story bro. But I do have questions for wiser heads …

– Anyone ever see this kind of nonsense with the floor?! Alternative explanations?

– If I’m going to dig out the “new floor” (upper layer) I probably need to add temporary supports next to all those wooden posts. I don’t trust that the concrete footers go deeper than that top layer, and can’t have the house fall down on me. But also don’t want to install permanent ones yet. I have a bunch of screw jacks I can use for now. Could a concrete deck block serve as a temporary footer under a screw jack? P/T wood blocking? Other suggestions?

All input welcome, but especially looking for thoughts on the floor and temporary post supports. 

Cheers.