Hi All, I purchased a 1920 colonial in Bridgeport, CT. a year ago, on returning from vacation at the end of January, amongst other things we came home to burst pipes, in the powder room off the kitchen, now this had happened just before we bought the house and had been repaired, luckily for the previous owner it was an easy repair as it was just behind the sinks, part of the floor under the vanity was open, I found one part of the burst pipe and repaired that, turned on the water but alas, still water running, well I knew that the room had to be redone, so I ripped the whole thing out on the weekend, the first nasty surprise I got was they had filled the wholspace underneath which is almost 2 feet with vermiculite, which had gotten wet and thus heavy, I removed abut 9 big contractor bags full from under the floor, the next nasty surprise was to see the way this was constructed, it goes out from the back of the house 4`8“ and the length is 16` 4“ starting from the corner of the house, I guess it must have been some sort of porch at one time, the back door from the kitchen leads into a section that is 9`4“ long then the common wall between it and the bathroom which is almost 6` long, my office is above this section, and the floor tilts badly to the exterior wall, ( I have to put an anchor on my sliding chair otherwise will slide to the exterior wall), now from what I can see that they did for supports was one 8 x 8 stack of bricks on the corner of the bathroom then on the other corner of the kitchen side another colum of approx. 8“ x 8“ bricks, on top of the colums is a 31/2“ x 6“beam lying horizontally, it looks like it might be supported by the masonry steps as well, on the kitchen side except for a flimsy divided light glass door, it has the same divided light single pane glass, it`s old, there is no sheathing or anything on the exterior, they just nailed plywood over the lattice it looks like, my main question here is what is the best way, and what kind of foundation could I get in there? It`s about 21“ from the ground to the bottom of the3.5 x 6“ wall plate, I thought of trying to get in pieces of solotube in bit by bit until 42“ but don`t know if that would be the best or the right way? The other thing is they poured cocrete under the bathroom wall but I don`t know how thick it is and it does`nt even look like it goes under the wall plate, Man o Man how a simple little project can grow into something like this, you never know!! Help!! any good advice would be much appreciated, thanks in advance, Mick.
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MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I Love A Hand That Meets My Own,
With A Hold That Causes Some Sensation.
[email protected]
I don't have an answer, but this will keep your post "fresh" so someone else can answer. In the future, if you put blank lines every so often by hitting your "enter" key, it will make you post easier to read for us oldsters (I think that is what the post saying "My Eyes!" was driving at).
Sounds like you have a real can of worms there! I wish you luck!
Thanks I was trying to guess that one without much success, can of worms is the right phrase there!
Welcome to the joys of an old house. Yours is in good shape compared to what a few of us have.
The bathroom on one house that we own was built by inclosing in one end of the back porch. Then a laundry room added next to it. To make the floors level they poured concrete. The the cast iron tub. Tile on the floor, around the tub and 4 feet up the walls. Fill the tub with water and put an average size human in it. All that weight with NO additional bracing under neath. There is only 2 joists going from one end of the old porch to the other. I will give you one guess as to which end broke off at the sill.
OH! By the way welcome to BT. I hope that you learn and laugh as much as I have. In order for folks to help you better it will be helpful if we knew where you live. This can be done by filling out your profile. Never know, you might meet a neighbor that you didn't know you had.
An other thing is that pictures say a lot more sometimes then one long paragraph. Some times, someone else's eyes will see something that maybe yours will not see or don't know to look for.
I know that I haven't answered your question but there will be some others here with far more knowledge about such things then myself.
Good luck with your old house. And post us some pictures of it. Be proud of your ownership of it. Show it off like you would a new born baby.
DaneI will always be a beginner as I am always learning.
Yeah, t
Continued, this ones a first for me , I do a lot of bathroom remodelling, and see and have to correct many things but this ones a first, as my post said I`m in Southern CT, Bridgeport to be exact, well glad to see I`m not the only one with a headache, I would post pictures but my computor literacy opens up another can of worms, well it can only get better!!
Welcome aboard!Now go back to your first post, hit edit (at the bottom of the orig post) and insert some line breaks. Do this by rereading the original post and hitting return every few...Awww heck, I'll do it the first time so you get the idea. #@%^#!FrankieOriginal Message:Hi All, I purchased a 1920 colonial in Bridgeport, CT. a year ago, on returning from vacation at the end of January, amongst other things we came home to burst pipes, in the powder room off the kitchen. Now this had happened just before we bought the house and had been repaired. Luckily for the previous owner it was an easy repair as it was just behind the sinks. Part of the floor under the vanity was open, I found one part of the burst pipe and repaired that, turned on the water but alas, still water running. Well I knew that the room had to be redone, so I ripped the whole thing out on the weekend. The first nasty surprise I got was they had filled the wholspace underneath which is almost 2 feet with vermiculite, which had gotten wet and thus heavy, I removed abut 9 big contractor bags full from under the floor, the next nasty surprise was to see the way this was constructed.It goes out from the back of the house 4'-8" and the length is 16'-4" starting from the corner of the house, I guess it must have been some sort of porch at one time, the back door from the kitchen leads into a section that is 9'-4" long then the common wall between it and the bathroom which is almost 6' long, My office is above this section, and the floor tilts badly to the exterior wall, ( I have to put an anchor on my sliding chair otherwise will slide to the exterior wall), now from what I can see that they did for supports was one 8" x 8" stack of bricks on the corner of the bathroom then on the other corner of the kitchen side another colum of approx. 8" x 8" bricks.On top of the colums is a 31/2" x 6" beam lying horizontally, it looks like it might be supported by the masonry steps as well. On the kitchen side except for a flimsy divided light glass door, it has the same divided light single pane glass, it`s old, there is no sheathing or anything on the exterior, they just nailed plywood over the lattice it looks like, My main question here is what is the best way, and what kind of foundation could I get in there? It`s about 21" from the ground to the bottom of the 3.5" x 6" wall plate, I thought of trying to get in pieces of solotube in bit by bit until 42`` but don`t know if that would be the best or the right way? The other thing is they poured cocrete under the bathroom wall but I don`t know how thick it is and it does`nt even look like it goes under the wall plate, Man o Man how a simple little project can grow into something like this, you never know!! Help!! any good advice would be much appreciated, Thanks in advance, Mick.
Hey Mick - Great post. What you have is a typical condition of an older house that has, over time, morphed into a bigger house than originally intended. See, porches or yester-year were given less structure and less footings than the rest of the house. Enclosing them and adding second stories was not even considered in the original plan. All the add'l new weight has caused the minimal footings to sink and therefore you have a sloped second level.Stop by any of the big boxes and pick up Tauntons book on porches. In it they discuss the merits of pouring footings after a porch is built and various methods for doing this.My recommendation would be to pour a number of 24" x 24" x 8" footings with 10" sonotube piers. Number of footings and piers would depend on the dimension of the beam. My guess, in Bridgeport, you don't have great drainage, so I would be sure to include 6" of gravel at the bottom of the footing, tamped down. I think your frost line there is 36".You can probably jack the second story back to level after you install a new PT beam which spans the piers and supports the structure above.Just some thoughts,Frankie
Thanks Frankie! For setting me right on the spacing problem, I finally see what my "EYEES" WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT!! I will bear your suggestions in mind, I just know it`s going to be a bear going down 42`` I believe here in Bridgeport, from both sides. Thanks for your input, Mick.