Sister’s neighbor has a problem with a sagging bumpout on his house. It has dropped about 3 inches front-to-back and about 1/2″ left-to-right. When he opened it up, he got a couple unpleasant surprises in the form of rotten wood and a buttload of bees.
It appears that the bumpout joists do not extend in to the first floor joists. Looks like there is a ledger board nailed to the side of the house, and the bumpout joists attach to this.
Proposed fix is to the jack the sucker back up and then sister in some new joists, possibly drill through and lagbolt ledger board through the wall, make sure the drainage issues are cleared up, foam the cavities, and close it back up.
Anyone with thoughts on the fix?
Jim has been working on this circa 1870 (?) house for the last 10-15 years. He literally rescued it from the trackhoe/dozer. Fixes one spot and then moves on to the next. I think he has a lifelong project here.
jt8
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. — Sir Winston Churchill
Replies
It's sure worth fixing.
What an exquisite bay window. Most definitely worth fixing up...it would be a shame not to do it properly. "Properly" to me would to be put in foundations, and a pony wall to hold everything up. There's a lot of weight there - those brackets must have had a hard time! I expect that sistered joists would have a hard time too. (Q - do they run perp to the window?). Yes, I do see the small window underneath. Beautiful bay. Do whatever it takes to save it!
cheers
***I'm a contractor - but I'm trying to go straight!***
Edited 6/21/2005 12:31 am ET by piko
Just had to come back and visit this again.... Firstly, it's not a 'sucker' - its a delicate old lady of 135 years that deserves a bit more respect. As I imagine you would if you'd lived so long. Secondly, you don't just 'jack it up' - she's taken 100 of those years to settle gracefully, and isn't going to like some brute trying to push her back up in one day. You'd creak and groan, too. Be gentle.Forget trying to crunch it back up - it's possible to build the footings and pony wall underneath, then, when you put in new floor joists perhaps add firring pieces if you need to make them level. As for the 1/2" side to side - heck, if I only listed 1/2" in 135 years I'd be happy. Leave it, it's negligable.
cheers
***I'm a contractor - but I'm trying to go straight!***
As for the 1/2" side to side - heck, if I only listed 1/2" in 135 years I'd be happy. Leave it, it's negligable.
ha ha, he started talking about bringing it back up level and I laughed. Why make the bay window level when there probably isn't another level surface in the whole house. :)
The house has more than one of these bumpouts/bays (on the left side of pic 1 you can just make out the edge of another), but I 'think' this is the only one which has obvious problems. If he extended it to the ground, he would have to do so on all of them. But I suspect that he is trying to keep it looking as original as possible. In places you can't see without a ladder, he modernizes, but the outwardly visible stuff he has kept fairly close to original. So I don't think his first choice would be to create foundations for them.
A variation on the original plan: He has considered wacking the nails between the underlayment and joists, cranking everything but the joists up, and then sister new joists in. So the old and new joists would be at angles to each other. I wasn't sure of the wisdom of this approach, but my gut reaction is that there is something I don't like about it.
Considering the weight of the critter, I'd rather see those joists extend through the basement of the wall, but this isn't practical in this situation. jt8
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -- Sir Winston Churchill
Extending joists often invites rot and insects further into the house. Ledgers are really better, from what I understand (though I've been known to be wrong). Putting a foundation under the bump out may have been the best idea--but pretty expensive.
Brace it up just below the windows. Also brace it above the windows. Both to the ground.
Cut out and replace everything below the good wood that is below the windows.
Have new brackets made from metal, and make sure the back plates that are up against the wall are wider than these are.
Once the rotten stuff is out, spray everything down with boracare, or just plain old anti-freeze to stop the rot and prevent any future rot, and infestations.
(I just learned about the anti-freeze solituion as an alternative to the expensive boracare, in another thread here. You can also make your own boracare for about a quarter the price using borax, boric acid and anti-freeze. It does stop rot, and insect infestation. And the anti-freeze alone stops rot, fungus, etc.)
Do not sister new wood to the rotted wood, (the joists you are talking about sistering.), unless you spray it first. Saturate it and let it dry.
Are we there yet ?