Floor Jacks in Crawlspace

[sri]

I live in a home that was built in 1997. When I bought my home 7 years back I did not go to my to my crawlspace at all. Around 4 years back I had a plumbing leak and the plumber after fixing the problem mentioned that there were 2 floor jacks in the crawlspace and said he was surprised to see that. Later, I went through the home inspection report and the inspector had made a mention about it, not under the problem section, but somewhere deep inside the document where he was listing the characteristics of the house. Looks like his intent was to make sure that I did not see it and he succeeded.

I want to know the pros and cons of pouring a new pier to get rid of the floor jacks and what it would cost.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[thedcdude]

I don't think you need to go through the expense of pouring concrete piers, but I would replace the floor jacks with lally columns (also called jack posts). If the floor jacks are not sinking into the soil, it must be pretty compacted. I would put the columns on a cinder block or something, not directly on the soil. Keep an eye out for cracking drywall.

[pushkins]

IMO it's kind of unusual to have floor jacks in a home that's only 13 years old, however it's not unheard of and I've seen it many times.
If your not seeing any cracks in drywall or the like, then obviously the jacks are doing what they were intended to do and sometimes leaving well enough alone is a good choice.
To replace the jacks your going to have to dig and install a new footer and then install a new post/s, this in itself may cause cracking as you let down the old jacks to be supported on the new footers.

A pier would need to be dug to below the frost line in your area, filled with concrete, with a post stirrup installed, then a post bolted to the pier stirrup and attached to the floor bearers. Not that expensive of a job but kinda needless since your not experiencing any problems IMO.

[sri]

thedcdude and pushkins,

Thanks so much for the replies.

I guess I should just leave it alone from a structural perspective. I was just worried about this becoming an issue when I have to sell the house. Hopefully, I would not have to do that in the near future, but you never know. So, I wanted to deal with this now, when I can make rational decisions, rather than later, when I might have to decide in a hurry under pressure to sell quickly.

pushkins,

I see that you are from NC. Can you recommend someone in the Cary-Raleigh area who have experience in doing this kind of work?

Thanks & Regards
Sridhar

[pushkins]

pushkins,

I see that you are from NC. Can you recommend someone in the Cary-Raleigh area who have experience in doing this kind of work?

Thanks & Regards
Sridhar

Sorry, I'm much closer to the beach. If your looking for a contractor make sure they are licensed to work in your city.