Greetings,
I recently bought a colonial home built in 1888. I love it, but the floors are sagging. The house has settled and it is sagging towards the center of the house. I have two Chimneys and the floor joists are discontinued at each chimney, the points where the sag is most noticeable. I went into the basement and discovered that the floor joists are 2" x 6" and sag noticeably. The spacing is inconsistent as some of the spans are 14" while others are less than 13" likely due to age and sagging.
My temporary fix involves building/putting up 5 ft spans of 4" x 6" ceiling and floor with adjustable lollies raising floor joists where sag is most noticeable in the dinning room (center) Kitchen (rear of Chimney where refrigerator sits) and underneath bathroom (off of kitchen). I intend to take my time in raising the floor joists (leveling from basement) over the next two months of spring.
I plan to spend the summer removing, moving, and replacing the plumbing and heating lines into the ceiling (joist areas) and then install 3-4 double 2" x 12" or 6" x 4" load bearing beams with permanent columns or building 3 1/2 load bearing walls in the basement (24', 18' and 10' ) as to sure up the old sagging floors.
I'm no expert and this is pretty ambitious. Do these fixes make any sense? Please Help!~Mecca
I recently bought a colonial home built in 1888. I love it, but the floors are sagging. The house has settled and it is sagging towards the center of the house. I have two Chimneys and the floor joists are discontinued at each chimney, the points where the sag is most noticeable. I went into the basement and discovered that the floor joists are 2" x 6" and sag noticeably. The spacing is inconsistent as some of the spans are 14" while others are less than 13" likely due to age and sagging.
My temporary fix involves building/putting up 5 ft spans of 4" x 6" ceiling and floor with adjustable lollies raising floor joists where sag is most noticeable in the dinning room (center) Kitchen (rear of Chimney where refrigerator sits) and underneath bathroom (off of kitchen). I intend to take my time in raising the floor joists (leveling from basement) over the next two months of spring.
I plan to spend the summer removing, moving, and replacing the plumbing and heating lines into the ceiling (joist areas) and then install 3-4 double 2" x 12" or 6" x 4" load bearing beams with permanent columns or building 3 1/2 load bearing walls in the basement (24', 18' and 10' ) as to sure up the old sagging floors.
I'm no expert and this is pretty ambitious. Do these fixes make any sense? Please Help!~Mecca