dealing with settled floors

[pbc]

I recently purchased a house that was built in 1850. The kitchen has 'settled' almost 3 inches on the northern wall so it's a down hill slope type of affair from the center of the house to the outer wall.

Having been built in the mid 1800's, there's not much more than a 12 inch crawl space under the floor... and... there is a 70's addition that was built onto the eastern wall (with a full cinder block cellar, and a 40's addition on the western wall (another crawl space). and a mud room was added to the outside of the (already) settled wall. So without tearing half the house down, how can I level the kitchen floor?

My idea is to tear up the floor to the joists, then add braced joist to the top of the existing joists. Is this feasable?

The settled wall is dead center in this picture (right where the snow on the roof is) so you can see it is really nestled in there

<-- east west --->




OOPS! POSTED IN THE WRONG AREA!!

[pushkins]

3" in such a small area of floor is quite a bit. Have you thought about jacking up the existing floor bearers?

If you remove the existing flooring you could add 2x material (probably 2x8 or 2x10 depending on the span) from one side of the kitchen to the other and level out the floor that way, making sure you use joist hangers if you do. But if you do it this way you need to remember that now your ceiling to floor heights will be different as well.

[pbc]

Originally Posted by pushkins

3" in such a small area of floor is quite a bit. Have you thought about jacking up the existing floor bearers?

If you remove the existing flooring you could add 2x material (probably 2x8 or 2x10 depending on the span) from one side of the kitchen to the other and level out the floor that way, making sure you use joist hangers if you do. But if you do it this way you need to remember that now your ceiling to floor heights will be different as well.

It is a bit of a drop, but the mud room was built onto the already settled floor, as was 'that 70's addition' . So, current plan is to rip up the floor, leaving the existing joists, and either sister them, or instal new joists. The ceiling is not flat, it follows the pitch of the roof.

I'm also planning to build a second foundation wall under the northern wall to support the new joists. The crawl space is over dirt (remember we're talking a house from 1850). I may pour concrete to eliminate the dirt crawl space, but that will probably leave a 9"crawl space.

am I off track? is all this feasible?

[pushkins]

Sistering or replacing the joists is fine but you need to make sure that what they end at or sit on needs to be able to accommodate the new 3" higher joists.
The ceiling height I refereed to was at the corner of wall and ceiling, if it is 8' at the highest end and you sister on joists that at the other end are 3" higher then you ceiling /wall height is now 7'9" and this may be noticeable.
Building a new foundation wall is without a doubt your best option, then a new bearer and new joists sitting on (or joist hangared to) this bearer. You could install piers every 6' instead of a whole foundation wall.
As for the concrete in a 12" crawl, don't waste your time or money, install a 6mil. vapor barrier over the dirt, pinned in place, this will solve any moisture problems and be much easier and cheaper and just as effective.

[pbc]

Originally Posted by pushkins

Sistering or replacing the joists is fine but you need to make sure that what they end at or sit on needs to be able to accommodate the new 3" higher joists.
The ceiling height I refereed to was at the corner of wall and ceiling, if it is 8' at the highest end and you sister on joists that at the other end are 3" higher then you ceiling /wall height is now 7'9" and this may be noticeable.
Building a new foundation wall is without a doubt your best option, then a new bearer and new joists sitting on (or joist hangared to) this bearer. You could install piers every 6' instead of a whole foundation wall.
As for the concrete in a 12" crawl, don't waste your time or money, install a 6mil. vapor barrier over the dirt, pinned in place, this will solve any moisture problems and be much easier and cheaper and just as effective.

good stuff
thanks
at least I know have a feasible plan

[HayZee518]

my house was built in 1910. its what looks like it was a mobile home at one time with many additions added to form a two story house. my main (center) beam is on bedrock. the outer edges have all sagged a bit because the foundation is all ledge with large field stones on top. over time the ledge settled and so did the foundation stones. only thing I could do was jack up the house on one side and put in brick shims or patio block with mortar in between. there is no bottom plate. the fascia board is all that supports the wall studs.