I need some advice on how to advise a friend of mine on what appears to be a structural problem.. Her 50’s ranch house was renovated 3 years ago. The carpenter was a hack to start with, but all the door casing joints have opened up, double french doors have a 1/2 inch gap between (the latch doesn’t even hit the strike), cracks everywhere, tile in the bathroom separating by 1/4+ inch, crown moulding separating from the ceiling by 1/2+ inch, bookshelves by 3/4 inch, sheetrock cracking all over, baseboard pulling away from the floor, etc. What really struck me was the bounce and rattling of all the dishes as you walked by the kitchen. From a basic visual inspection, the existing 2×8 joists seem overloaded. When I look across the ceiling plane in the basement and someone jumps at midspan, those suckers are moving quite abit. The archy suggests that sawn lumber can shrink up to 1/2 an inch. I have built enough additions and houses in my time and have never seen shrinkage on this scale. The doors are missing there strikes by 1/2 inch. The problem exists on the extg. structure (joists span 24′ supported midspan by a(3)2×10 beam – typical in this area – Eastern Long Island) but it’s happening also at the new addition (crawl space with 2×8 joists I think). I built an artists studio attached to this house 10 years ago (18′ x 32′). No signs of settling, none of the mitered casings have opened and all the doors swing and latch like they are supposed to. What do I tell her? What remedies would you suggest. I am thinking of placing a beam with columns across the extg. joists span of 12′ to tighten up that bounce, not sure what to do in the crawl space. Any suggestions/recommendations?
Thanks
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Have you inspected the actual foundation? It sounds more like the foundation is sinking/collapsing rather than the fault of 2X8 floor joists. Are there step cracks in the foundation itself. Can you tell if the tie-in point between the addition and the existing structure is still sound?
Where I'm from, West Virginia...houses suffer these things due to mine susidence (old, played out underground mines that are slowly collapsing). Don't know anything about LI New York, but could there be any such possibilty of an underground tunnel or shaft or something that is causing house to sink or shift? Perhaps new addition is sinking and pulling on old structure?
IMHO...I think you have a big problem...and floor joists are not the culprit here.
Bring in a structural engineer...and dump your current archy...he don't sound too promising.
Davo
Sounds to me like the trim and doors were brought in soaking wet and installed in a very dry centrally-heated house. A lot of trim is stored in 'dry sheds' at lumber yards, which means a damp, windowless warehouse where the moisture content is 3x what it will be in the house. Stuff needs to be brought in to acclimate.
The structural stuff sounds like a different problem. Overspanned joists can be supported like you say. The possible settling is harder to diagnose. Is there a drainage system to carry roof water away from the foundation? Is the soil expansive clay? Do you know anything about the foundation for the addition (i.e. was it properly excavated to undisturbed soil?).
Definitely get a new archy like Davo says.