Shoring Up Floor Joists

Instead it may be an issue with joists and beams below your floor that require shoring up.

Shoring up floor joists.

Whenever anyone walked across the kitchen floor in the home where this old house general contractor tom silva grew up teacups trembled in their saucers and pots and pans rattled on the stove. Eventually his father a carpenter went down to the basement with tom in tow and reinforced the undersized floor joists. For instance you may have a dining room floor that end to end is level but between those two points are various sags and dips. Then set new joists same height as existing ones alongside the old.

Well after doing the navy seal crawl up under the house we found that the joists that were supporting that floor were not actually attached to the sill plate any longer as seen in the photograph below. Deteriorating floor joists posts or beams can be caused by termite infestation water damage or dry rot. Shows raisinge a sagging floor gradually with bottle jacks. Place support of the floor joists with wood studs.

In some cases pouring floor leveling compound will fix the problem. Photo by richard howard. Set a hydraulic jack and post under the beam and jack up the joists about 1 8 in. This type of repair may require a building permit and usually requires extensive.

Your foundation may not be the problem. Where these repairs are not sufficient also consider shoring up joists or beams that were cut drilled or notched for pipes wires or ducts. By building a wall under joists you divide the span. It was nerve racking tom recalls.

For more serious weaknesses you may need to shore up the floor joist structure with a cross beam and lally posts. If you build a wall to support joists be sure to place a stud directly and tightly under each joist. Stretch a string across the floor to evaluate the amount of deflection then use it as a benchmark for improvement when jacking. Floor joists and posts support the flooring and damage to them is the most common cause of a sagging floor.

Tack a beam under the sagging joists. A day until they re level. To check joists and diagnose the problem a pro must pull up the flooring and the subfloor to see what shape they re in. By jacking up the ceiling of the basement you.

The sagging floor was the symptom and somewhere under the house there had to be a cause.