Over Jacked Floor Joists???


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Old 08-20-13, 06:00 PM
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Over Jacked Floor Joists???

I purchased a real fixer upper a little over a year ago. Built in 1905, two story, 1750 square feet. We had to do some jacking of floor joists and while we were in the crawl space (had a professional assist in this) we noticed that this has been done before. Floor joists running through the middle of the floor have been over extended (if that is the right terminology?). The middle of the room is extended 2 inches higher than they should be (which is about 3 1/2 inches higher than the jacking we are doing to the fix a rotten sil and foundation on a corner of the house. What is the solution for this? We have had 3 different solutions given to us by 3 different companies. I have no experience in this, but feel as if no solution is the right one. The first "idea" was to lower the jacks under those joists and allow them to "settle" again. If this is correct, what kind of time frame before I can refinish and replace as necessary the hardwood floors? The raising has been going on since the day we signed the contract and we are almost where we should be. The second idea was to remove the subflooring and put in new floor joists (called it sistering which I understand), but then they want to "remove" or saw off the two inches from the top of the original joists. I am not so comfortable with cutting portions of the joists holding up my house. Is this even a reasonable thought. He really sounded like it was something he was familiar with, but I am not so confident. The last idea was to fudge the subfloor, raising the subfloor to level using wedges and whatever else necessary to raise the outer edges of the subfloor to the same height as that middle floor joist. I realize that I am not an expert, nor have I probably explained correctly but we have this problem running through the living room and dining room and I feel like I live in a funhouse with the ups and downs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I live in a very small town far from big cities, so I am left with self proclaimed carpenters and handymen. I have no clue if they know what they are talking about and I for sure don't have a clue.
My "job" consists of stripping layers of paint off of the all original wood trim and that is about as far as my expertise lies. Thanks so much for any advice you have.
 
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Old 08-21-13, 04:49 AM
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Normally I'd just lower the jacks and let the floor settle but I'm concerned why it was over jacked so much in the first place? You mentioned sill plate damage. Is it possible the floor was once level but the sill collapsed letting the outer walls sink as opposed to the center being over jacked?
 
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Old 08-21-13, 06:07 AM
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Well I believe that unless the foundation has sunk all the way around, that the floor was overjacked. There is only sill damage in one corner and the rest of the foundation looks good. Most of the jacking took place in the middle of the floors, of course. Is it possible that the foundation would settle consisently around the whole perimeter? If I were to lower the jacks and allow for settling, what kind of time frame am I looking at? 6 months, a year?
 
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Old 08-21-13, 04:02 PM
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I'd be concerned about any remodelling that was done in the house since the floor was "straightened". Let's say they overjacked the house, and then, for example, put in kitchen cabinets and shimmed them all level based on where the floor was "at that moment in time". In that case, letting the floor down would cause some major problems.

I don't know that it's possible for any of us to give a decent opinion on a floor that is that screwed up. We also don't know what, if anything, you're missing in your analysis and could give you bad advice as a result. If the house has been added onto, for example, there may be various levels of framing that might be confusing the issue. Just a thought.
 
 

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