adjusting teleposts

hildebrand

I have an older home, recently had some repairs done. My contractor adjusted onlyl one telepost, and now I have a visible hump in the floor on main floor and 2nd floor on the side that was not adjusted. there is also hairline cracking in the walls and main floor celing along the same line. Could this be caused by improper post adjustment? How are posts supposed to be adjusted?
any ideas? thanks.

joed

Could be. Is the hump directly over the post? Why did he adjust the post? They don't normally need to be adjusted.

Ron6519

What repairs were done that needed a post adjusted? These posts are generally put in to replace something or add support. Why did you put them in?
It sounds like he over adjusted the post. There should be no hump. If the post needed to be adjusted that much the other posts should have been involved and the process should have been done over a week or two or three based on the amount of lift involved.
Plaster cracking could occur even if it were done properly.
Ron

hildebrand

Thanks guys for the input. The house was built in 1947, sometime after, not sure when, the house was raised and basement added - that's when the posts were installed. I've lived in the house for over 10 years. I'm really not sure why he adjusted the posts - I think because of crack in concrete basement floor. I'm getting a 2nd opionion tonight - speculation that one of the posts may have been adjusted the wrong way - causing the hump. Contractor is trying to convince me that the humping is caused by other foundation issues due to extremely dry summer and now extremely harsh winter. But, I find it hard to believe it's a conincidence that the hump appeared after the post adjustment, given that I've been in the house through a lot of extreme weather in the last 10+ years, with no drywall cracking or humps appearing in the floors during that time. Thanks again.

joed

Cracking floor could be an indication of no footing under the post.

buletbob

HILDEBRAND, try this take a string or better yet a laser light and string or sight that girder. if that girder has a hump over that column back off on it. it should be straight from foundation to foundation. if not then adjust as needed. I have run across this problem where the center of the house was down more then the outside walls. some were from under sized footings, and a few where from the girder shrinking in width. which was about 1/2" not that big of a deal.

hildebrand

well getting a 2nd qualified opinion was certainly money well spent! Problem seems to be with the joists that meet and overlap at the site of the post that was adjusted downward. On one side there was space for the joists to drop, however the other side has a basement wall attached to it, absolutely tight with no room to move, so when the one side dropped, the joists on other side with no room to move were forced upward - hence causing the noticeable hump in the upper floors. Will have to cut the wall either at the top or bottom to allow the joists on that side to settle downward onto the supporting beam to be even with the joists on the other side. When explained properly this made perfect sense to me, someone with no DIY expertise. I say this to encourage you other newbies to take heart, and don't be bullied into accepting explanations that make no sense, like my contractor telling me it was just a coincidence that the hump appeared after the post adjustment. Thanks again for your feedback and hopefully this might help someone else to runs into similar problems.

buletbob

Sorry you had to spend the extra money. But That's where Pictures and complete information would of saved you that extra expense. Glad things worked out for you. BOB