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I am currently renovating a house built in 1900. Their is a two and one half inch drop in the floor from the outside wall to the center support beam of the house, a distance of twelve sloping feet from outside to the center support beam. What is the correct procedure and necessary tools required to raise the floor to a level position? How will this effect the freshly installed drywall and taped job?
I had a brainstorm of leveling the floor by laying plywood gradually to build up a subfloor, then use floor leveler to use as a base for my floor tile. The demensions of the floor are 12ft(sloping distance)by 20 feet. Is this a feasible method if jacking up the floor is not feasible?
Experts are solicited.Thanks
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Hi Robert,
Too bad you didn't have the brainstorm before installing and taping your drywall.
Because none of us can see the structure of your floor, it is advisable to have an experienced contractor look at it for advise. Yes you will have to pay a small consulting fee, but it may save a lot of money and grief down the road.
Normally, jacking the main beam that has dropped in the middle of a house is not a big deal and can be done in an afternoon.
But like I said, I can't see the structure and would be hesitant to give specific details or advise.
Gabe
*Ahhh, the things a little plywood and alot of fixall won't cure. It's what's better known as a patch job. If the house were your very own how would you handle the problem? Would you have a house mover slide in some "I" beams jack it up and redo the foundation, or shim the sill,or drop the beam in the center ? Tough call when it's your own money. Chances are that if the house only settled 2" in a hundred years a floor patch should last say another 50 or till the next happy homeowner wants to install marble granite or tile where the vinyl flooring is. I say patch it, fixall's cheap and it works.
*So, Mr. Pro-Dek, do you also throw all your construction debris into the wall cavities and let the next owner worry about it? It's cheaper than dumpster fees and it works.
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You been peeking at my jobsites Ralph? Jeff
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So that's why I find all that crap in the walls.
*If this beam is in a crawler, how about a 6x6 post base cast into a 1' x 2' x 2' pad, and before you cut the post to size, use a couple of bottle jacks to raise it half the distance its out. You probably won't pop any sheet rock nails, and will stop the sag problem from going any further downhill.  Some of the doors may have already been trimmed to allow for this level problem. Maybe someone with more experience fixing level problems could shed light with the results of raising a floor this much. You might also state what is directly above the beam in question. A living room would be different than a kitchen, I would guess.
*I'm with Nantan. Stop any furthere settling and then level the floor from above.Unless they want the house jacked to level and want to pay you for the work to do that, the steel you'll need, patching the plaster, rehanging the doors and windows, and any other structural damage that is discovered (or caused) as you try to bend 100 year old floor joists 1-1/2" over 12'.You could disassemble the house piece by piece, inspect each, replace any that are warped and reassemble the house, or you could just do what's necessary.
*on examination i would probably go in and start jacking the center beam.. which would pick up the center bearing wall..which would crack some of your drywall..which would bring some of your doors back into correct alignment..with the new laser equip. the extent of the problem can be more easily determined than in years past..one of the things to determine, or course, is WHY the center beam dropped..a problem like this is usually evident from the street, because it carries thru all the way to the ridge.. the old sway-backed horse......i wouldn't be too hasty to be shimming the floor
*If you jack it up very slowly, like maybe a half inch to start, and a quarter inch every week or two, maybe it would come up without causing too much trouble.
*Or maybe it won't...
*Is that Herbie the Love Bug racing by? Jeff
*Robert, I bet you Mike is spot on on this. If the ridge has sagged, prepare for this beam to come out swingin' as you try to raise it.
*LOL Ralph, Would this be a remodel , say, south of San Diego ?
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AHH, a little paint and some TLC, and it's good as new!
*Robert, 1. No matter how slow you lift the center or any other sturctural support the cracking will be the same. Going slow is an old wives idea. 2. After 100 years warped and bent lumber will often crack or continue to "lift" the warp right up. 3. Curing a problem in one area can often cause worse problems in another area. We replace basements, and consequently end up leveling houses which cuases me to adivse most homeowners to go with the ideas above of stabilizing and either leave it alone and use self-leveling concrete. 4. Just out of curiosity where is the chimney in relation to the center support?
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Going slow is because you're paid by the hour.... ;-)
-- J.S.
*The last house that we remodeled had a terrible floor system that had bowed more than 8 inches from centerline of the house to the perimiter. This is the unfortunate result of 100+ years of spring melt off running directly through the yard. The floor system consisted of notched beams for rim joists and hatchet-flattened trees of various dimensions for the joists and a mudsill foundations. My client initially wanted me to jack up her house, but you can't remove 8" of bow in 6-10" trees in a week or two. We ended up gutting the house and rebuilding it from the foundation up. Wish we had dozed the property instead :)
*Aren't old houses fun?Jacking up the floor usually works, but as someone else already said, you need to find out why the floor sagged in the first place; Just 100 years of holding up a lot of weight, insufficient or disintegrating pillar or support, water damage, etc. Also, before you start lifting up the saging members you should be sure not to put too much pressure in one place. The load may need to be spread out to avoid making nasty cracking noises. As for putting all that plywood and putty over the top, you already have a sag in the floor, more weight would not help the underlying problem one bit.As the others have said, it would be a good idea to let someone who has worked on these before take a look before you go ahead with anything. Each old house is different, but that's what makes working on them interesting.
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I am currently renovating a house built in 1900. Their is a two and one half inch drop in the floor from the outside wall to the center support beam of the house, a distance of twelve sloping feet from outside to the center support beam. What is the correct procedure and necessary tools required to raise the floor to a level position? How will this effect the freshly installed drywall and taped job?
I had a brainstorm of leveling the floor by laying plywood gradually to build up a subfloor, then use floor leveler to use as a base for my floor tile. The demensions of the floor are 12ft(sloping distance)by 20 feet. Is this a feasible method if jacking up the floor is not feasible?
Experts are solicited.Thanks