adding support in crawlspace

plumber jon

My house is 100 years old and has large rooms. The dining room and master bedroom are both roughly 15x16 ft. The rooms are well supported around the edges with multiple sets of pillars but the entire span of each room has nothing but the rough cut 2x10s holding it up, no posts down to the crawlspace floor whatsoever. My plan is to add some support beams across the floor joists and 4x4 posts sitting in those concrete holders. My question is whether that would be sufficient, and what materials I should use for the beams. I'm hoping to not have to dig and pour concrete under the crawlspace, but could if it is needed. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

gregzoll

Dig out for footings, place rebar grid in the footing hole, then carry buckets of Cement, or pay for a pump truck to allow you to put the cement in the footings. Should add, that you would need to also find out what size the footings would be, along with correct jacks/lolly columns. That means getting in touch with a Structural Engineer.

plumber jon

hey Greg I understand that that would be the optimal solution here but we're not in a position to call in this old house. My thoughts are that it has been this way for 100 years and hasnt cracked the joists or fallen down. The floors bounce when you walk across them, but its not terrible. I have been under many a crawlspace that has had exactly what i am suggesting done and when you get upstairs you dont feel flex at all. years down the road I would like to do exactly the things you talk about but unfortunately for now I must stick to the bargain route. I just need to know the best way to do it for what I can afford. thanks

gregzoll

There is no best way, there is only the right way, which is the best way.

Gary in WA

"My question is whether that would be sufficient, and what materials I should use for the beams." --------- The beams could be solid wood, structural steel, or manufactured wood, LVL, etc. Are you asking the minimum beam size for the span?

"add some support beams across the floor joists and 4x4 posts sitting in those concrete holders"----- Would that sufficient? Depends on the loads, floors, walls, roof, point (concentrated) loads, etc. Without one being there to examine what is built on what, it is pretty impossible to give you an exact answer. As Greg said, you may need a S.E.

Gary

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