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Sloping floor fix with a sister joist that extends over stem wall

user-7001099 | Posted in General Discussion on May 8, 2025 06:50pm

I have a house where a portion of the floor is sloping.  The house is rectangular. It has a basement except for the end with a garage and a crawl space that is 10′ wide x 24′ (garage width) sitting between the back of the garage and back of the house (to the stem wall).  There is a 2.5′ overhang past the stem wall.  The floor joists run from the garage stem wall to the outer stem wall.  In order to create the overhang a sister joist was added to each joist.  The sister joists are about 6′ long and are nailed to the each main joist, the sister joists sit on the stem wall, then extend out to create the overhang.

If I attempted to jack up the floor from the outside would the sister joist be a lever and break away from the main floor joist?  Is the proper fix to jack up the outside and inside at the same time?  Or is some form of helical pier system to lift the foundation?  

I am in the dry area of the Pacific NW.  I think the foundation pour was not correct from the beginning because the two bathrooms I have remodeled all have had major shims to make the drywall straight.

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Replies

  1. calvin | May 09, 2025 06:00pm | #1

    Can you post a picture(s) and maybe a semi scaled drawing of this predicament?

    Show the ares that you found sloped. Show what’s level and what slopes (and direction).

    Can’t really get a good look from Ohio.

    Thanks.

    1. user-7001099 | May 12, 2025 11:23pm | #2

      I highlighted the section of the floor plan.
      Red is the basement. Green is the Garage. Blue is the crawlspace.
      The brown show the floor Joists from the Garage stem wall to the crawl space stem wall. The short brown are what I am calling the sister joists that creates the overhang from the stem wall to the outside wall.
      The black arrows give a sense of the slope...about a 1.5" drop from the garage to the outside walls.
      The floor has a noticable bulge over the basement wall.
      I think I would have to put beams on both sides of the stem wall to jack the joists evenly without damaging the short sister joists.
      Another option is to get someone to lift the foundation wall with a helical pier or something of that nature.

      Thanks

  2. User avater
    ct_yankee | May 13, 2025 08:56pm | #3

    Are there any cracks in the exterior crawl space stem wall?
    Examine the connection of that stem wall to the basement wall at its left end. Is there evidence of a joint between the stem wall and the basement foundation wall?
    Has the stem wall settled at that juncture?
    Is the downward slope consistent across the length of the stem wall (left to right on your sketch)?
    Based on what the above observations reveal one can get a better understanding of what the next step should be.
    [CT Structural engineer]

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