I live in a 100 year old house with very wavy floors on the first (ground) floor. There is a bit of slope in the kitchen, living room, and hallway connecting the two. In the worst areas, there might be a gradual change of roughly 2" across 10 feet, from the one side of my living room to the front exterior wall. The high point is directly over a brick column in the basement and the low point is on the front exterior wall. The beam is approx. a 6x8 wooden beam with visible bend in it in the basement and joists run perpendicular to the direction of the slope. I have owned the house for about 5 years and I don't believe much, if any, additional drop of the front exterior wall has happened, though I think the front porch (near that wall) has had some sinking in that time (or I'm just noticing it more now). The house has plank subfloors and very thin (~3/8" thick solid oak flooring on top, almost as a veneer). I would like to replace the flooring with new hardwood or laminate, but I really want to address this slope first, if only to make it less pronounced. I had a structural engineer check out the situation about a year ago and he said everything looks structurally ok in the basement and with the beam. He recommended putting a few lally posts in certain spots in the basement, but said it isn't anything to worry about. He did say that trying to jack up the beam and joists too much could cause the beam to crack, so that could be tricky. Can you possibly make some suggestions on how I can reduce this slope? So far, I have been mulling over a few options: 1. Getting a contractor to place jack posts and slowly raise the front wall to at least reduce the drop (though not sure what that would cost or involve - any idea?), or 2. Trying to remove the subfloor section by section, shimming the joists, and putting down new plywood subfloors, if only in the worst sections. I am a pretty capable DIYer and I think I would be fully capable of doing a decent job with the #2 suggestion, but I'm not sure it is the best solution. Again, I would greatly appreciate any help you can provide.

OK, so here's my question to anyone out there who may be reading and may know the answer. I had a badly settling floor on the second floor of my wood frame house and floor jacks under a center joist in the basement, the bottoms of which were crumbling with rust. I replaced the rusted jacks with new ones set on solid, cinder blocks. Using a level, I attempted to lift the joist a bit. I've since discovered I should have cranked the posts out no more than about a quarter of an inch. In truth, I have no real idea how far I cranked them up. I cranked them out till they were very, very snug. It seemed to make no real difference in the level of the joist or the second story floor and, as you might expect, some of the plaster and lath walls have cracked. No other damage seems to have occurred. I am in the process of repairing the walls and replacing some of the cracked plaster with drywall. My question is this, before I affect the repairs, should I retract the floors jacks or just let it alone, since the damage is done. I installed the floor jacks over six months ago. Should I expect any addition cracked walls, at this point? Thank you!