# foundation



## helio905 (Jan 4, 2008)

hello everyone, I have recently bought A home. It hase fire damage but is still a very nice home. Now that I have bought it I realized the mid of the floor has sunk about 4". After looking undernieth I saw several botlle jacks on the floor studs. This is a box house so how do I jack the floor back up without collapsing the ext. walls.   Any ideas would be great.


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## ToolGuy (Jan 4, 2008)

My best advice is to hire a pro. 

There are plenty of things you can do to fix up the house, but Jacking it up 4 inches is not a do it yoruself project. The house could fall on you and really ruin your day.


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## helio905 (Jan 4, 2008)

Thanks for the reply toolguy. But I can not afford a pro. I can pull the subfloor up to keep from getting crushed. I am just wondering is there a danger of the walls and roof caving in? Only the middle needs raised the footing and 2/6's are level at the ext. walls. I have pictures but the forum says the are to big. I wish I could get them to you. I am not a expert but I realy don't think it is a major problem. I wish I could call a pro but since I can not any ideas would be helpful. Thank you toolguy


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## ToolGuy (Jan 4, 2008)

Nothing is going to cave in. What you need to do is get a length of 4x4 or 4x6 (even better), some bottle jacks like the ones under there now, and some 12" pieces of 2x12 to put under the jacks to distribut the weight, and the length of 4x6 across the underside of the joists that need lifting. 

What is under there now? Are the bottle jacks that you see directly supporting the joists, or is there a beam down the center?

Ideally, you would either use the existing beam or put one there if there isn't one, pour footings and place posts about every 4 to 6 feet. I think I can safely assume the space isn't heated, in which case the footings should be set below the frost line. Doing it right is no small task.


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## mudmixer (Jan 4, 2008)

Also, take a look at a possible cause for the 4" settlement and how to make the repair permanent.

Usually, the soil in a crawl space may be the worst around and may just be rotten wood, loose dirt and drywall scraps.

If you go through the trouble of jacking things up, make sure you have a large enough (width and thickness) footing under them to spread out the load enough.


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## helio905 (Jan 4, 2008)

yes toolguy, the bottle jacks are directly on the 2/6 joist also they have some car stands on the joist. To me it looks like the silinders on the 3 joist busted and the joist fell. Plus they busted one of the joist with the head of the jack. Do I put new brick and release the preasure on the jacks so I can put a 4/4 to keep from busting the 2/6. Also note that only about 4 joist have droped.


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## glennjanie (Jan 5, 2008)

Hello Helio:
Yes you can raise the 4 joists like ToolGuy was talknig about. The 2 X 6 joists were too small to handle the load and may have been made of native timber that has not been properly dried. 
Jacking it up with the beam will make the floor much less springy when you walk across it.
Glenn


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## ToolGuy (Jan 5, 2008)

Mudmixer makes a good point, if you go through all this trouble you should make it a permanent repair. There's a lot I don't know about what you are doing. Is there a load bearing wall on top? What is under the house now? There are so many things to consider. 

All of us here want you to have a successful project. It would be good to see some photos. Maybe you can upload them to PhotoBucket.com, then add the image to your post or give us a link. 

Ideally, we'd see both below the floor and what's on top of it, to better assess your situation.


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## helio905 (Jan 5, 2008)

ok toolguy, i went to photobucket and uplaoded my pics. I am not good at links so just go to there home page and search for helio905. I just put what I thought would be useful to you but I have alot more pics of the house. If you need a pic of something spec. just let me know and I can run over to the house and take it. The pic of the living room is where the fall is just under the intirior wall. There is no room above this and in the attic it does not look bowed in. It may not mean anything but I can shake that wall fairly easy. I should also tell you that the back half of the house was a addon and the foundation under it is in great shape. solid as a rock. and the addon is studded that is where the upstairs room is.                                                thanks alot toolguy


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## ToolGuy (Jan 5, 2008)

If I may take the liberty and make sure everyone here can see...


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## ToolGuy (Jan 5, 2008)




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## ToolGuy (Jan 5, 2008)

For future reference, just copy/paste the IMG code into your post.  

So, I see you've got your hands really full there. But it's not insurmountable. The underside doesn't look all that bad. The joists are resting on a beam, which is supported by posts on footings. For the most part, I'd say you just have to jack the low area up, check it with a 6' level, and replace the posts with longer ones, preferable pressure treated. You can place the jacks right on the footing next to the posts.

I wouldn't go tearing out the floor if you're able to get under there. It would be a lot of work crawling around in the dirt, but then you wouldn't have to replace the floor. 

Will you be doing this yourself, or at least one other. I ask because it would be ideal to have one person underside doing the jacking, the another up top checking for level.


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## helio905 (Jan 5, 2008)

That makes me feel better. So would you say that the house is stable? What I mean to ask is I have never seen the suddles walls like this before. And I didnot want to go jacking whithout asking. Do you know how this kind of structure works. What keeps it from just falling right over?


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## guyod (Jan 12, 2008)

Unless my eyes are playing tricks. you have a cracked floor joist showing in the 2nd to last pic. It looks pretty bad. the one side is dropped the 4 inches you mentioned your off. It looks to be the main beam and looks dry rotted. you will need a new beam which is a project because of all the weight you are dealing with. The dry rotted wood will compress when you try and jack it up.  you need to be perfectly level with the jack and on a solid surface. If your not the jack will kick out so always have a back up support for the beam to fall on.  Where you have one rotted board they normally all are from the pics they look it. I noticed some mold so you have to much humidity down there. If you plan on staying there you will have address that to stop more rotting. I ran into this problem my self and ended up having to ripe all the floor joists and beams out and started from scratch. not something you want to do.


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