Settling Floors Fix?

[Chadwick]

Hey All;

The floors in my girlfriends house have settled, and continue to. Looks like about 1" over ten feet. After crawling under the house, there were no failing joists or support beams. The support columns also looked good, and did not appear to be failing. From the look of things, it is the result of the ground under the house settling.

What I would like to know, is what precautions and corrective measures can I take to correct, or at least stop the problem? The house should not be jacked to the proper height all in one move, should it? And what type of support do I need to put in place - IE, pouring a concrete pad's, floor jacks, etc?

Thank you,

Chadwick

[DUD]

I have a little experience with that, but it is not an easy job. If it's settling all over the

house, I would recomeend calling someone. If the floor is dropping in one or more

places, I would jack it up with floor jacks slowly, over a couple of months. While waiting

for it to acclimate to being level again, I would look to see where the new footing need

to be dug and dig them. We have to dig down 18" here in Arkansas, but I don't know

about where You live. After digging pour the concrete, get it level, and when You have

the house jacked up to where it needs to be, go a little higher, then having alreadry

measured the length I would cut My 6" X 6" pressure treated timbers to length and go

back over and set them in place, let the jacks down and get out. I would suggest that

You set some kind of anchor in the concrete, and nail or screw the timbers to the floor j

oists. HTH, Bill

[crokett]

If the floor is wavy or low in spots you may be able to fix it yourself by jacking up slowly as Dud says and pouring new footings. If the house foundation is moving or sinking I would call a professional.

[Chadwick]

Jacking Floor

Finally getting around to this project, and what I am wondering is, when I start to take pressure off, is there anything that I need to be worried about? The foundation and all of the supports look to be in good shape. So I don't need to be worried about something shifting and the house falling or anything do I? And since this is a 2200 sq. ft. two story house, how many jacks would I need if it's only settling in the center?

Thank you.

Chadwick

[Chadwick]

If the floor is wavy or low in spots you may be able to fix it yourself by jacking up slowly as Dud says and pouring new footings. If the house foundation is moving or sinking I would call a professional.

David,

What do you mean by the foundation moving or sinking? With this situation, from going underneath and looking at everything, it appears that the ground has settled where the center support columns are, but structure appears to be in good shape. We have fairly sandy soil here.


Chadwick

[cgallery]

In my parent's old house (which is well over 100 years old), they jacked the beams carrying the floors up, then added 1x material between the column and the beam.

I was very young when this was done, I think they spent several months doing this. The the old man was a perfectionist and when he was done you could use the floor as a reference to check your level.

[crokett]

Chadwick, the foundation under the outside walls that the house is sitting on. Sounds like it isn't moving though and it is just the posts settling. In that case a few screw jacks will work but you need to make sure those are well-supported before you start cranking. If you go too fast you could crack walls so you want to perform the lift over several months.

[Chadwick]

Jacks

Ok, that's what I was going to do, slowly raise the jacks and let the house adjust.

Thanks
Chad