I am no expert but have to interject a big, fat O.M.G.

1) SECOND OPINION.

2) The house has stood up for 140 years. It's likely not that fragile.

But wait for more informed thoughts. Except #1. Definitely do that.

Sounds like he wants you to buy him a new shiney Corvette/bass boat/RV. It seems very fishy - as least the way you wrote it up, does. Surely you need a second or even third opinion before deciding what to do.

That's what I'm thinking, too.

Because, think how much Bradbury and Bradbury wallpaper you can buy for $50,000.

Sometimes, I think I am "easy prey", because I'm initially quite anxious when I get hit with something new. To be honest, I was expecting them to want to go in and put a few floor jacks in....so when they said this, I probably was just sitting there in stunned silence gawking. I just kept being like, are you sure?!?! Really?!?!?

Despite this occurrence, I'm still quite madly in love with my house. I can't wait to get rid of all, or most, of the updates. Except central heat and air. We'll keep that. Lol. I've got a closed off Butler's pantry I want inside of badly. In fact, I want to move the washer and dryer hookups inside it. Right now, they are in the master bath. This was closed off during an unfortunate kitchen remodel, which took place in 2006. I found the receipts. $20,000 they spent on custom maple cabinets, which belong in a McMansion. I hope they did not take a sledgehammer to the originals, like they do on remodeling shows. The thought of it brings me to the verge of tears. Unfortunately, I have not found them in the garage, carriage house (which is awesome btw....why did we stop making carriage houses), or basement (my basement has a round room in it lol I love it), and I'm afraid to go into the attic, because the access is at the top of the back stairs, and I can envision the bone crushing pain of falling down those. However, hubby is a brave soul and has found little of interest up there.

I have found bottles and tins that are a hundred years old, maybe more. A book from 1884 and another from 1900. The post at the bottom of my stairs, you can unscrew the top and there is a hiding place there. It's very small, maybe it was for drugs.

There are so many interesting things, and so much I dislike, someone painted the glass in one of the transom windows, and I saw in the garage, when a little square of glass was broke, there is a piece of ornate, etched glass which has been cut to replace it. I don't know where it is from, but it looks like the same pattern as the window above the double doors in the front. I try to not look at it too much, because it upsets me that someone cut up a window to patch it.

Our house is the same age as yours. We hired a structural engineer to inspect our foundation. Since neither he nor his firm do foundation work, he gave us what we felt was an unbiased opinion.

Obviously I don't know whether your house's foundation needs repair, and I'm not suggesting you should not be concerned. But I would be very, very wary of the proposal this first guy is giving you. I hope others with more experience weigh in here because I would be interested in learning more about this.

I'll also add that a number of potential contractors wanted to jack up our house, level and plumb all the walls and floors, replace the foundation, etc. They all made it seem as though the house was going to fall down any minute. Don't be rushed into doing anything this drastic.

I am a licensed building contractor in two states. I haven't visited your property and I've seen no pictures, but I can assure you your foundation is fine.

Keep a roof on it and that house will stand another 140 years without helical piers.

It's got a brand new roof! :-)

I was actually shocked it was only off by around an inch in 140 years. I expected it to be more....and I didn't think more was that big of a deal. The only thing visibly crooked is the front porch, and that's because it IS screwed up, I knew it was when we bought the house, and I was okay with it. The porch used to be where you could go out on the top of it, but the railing is gone, and even if it was there, I don't really want anyone out on it. There is a door out to it, and it is visibly "off" at the top, but they have put weatherstripping around it, and you can't get it open, because they carpeted up to it. I mean, you can, but it would tear the carpet if you forced it.

Yes, I HATE it when people are like "you gotta fix this right now! This is horrible and it's going to explode at any minute or something!"

I am afraid messing with it could create a problem where none really existed. He already pretty much said it's going to ruin all the sheetrock and plaster. I don't want someone picking up my very big, old, but reasonably structurally sound house, and knocking down a wall or something.

There are things that hubby and I won't touch with a ten foot pole. One of them is the porch. Other things include obviously foundations, roofs, and major wiring. Painting, sheet rocking (except maybe ceilings ugh), sanding, etc....plumbing, minor wiring (we have a chandelier we are working on) etc....these things fall under the "minor things we can do" category, and don't bother us.

I just think sometimes people do not like the same things we do. The realtor thought the cabinets and pergo were selling points....to us, they were horrible. They work, and I will live with and use them for now, and maybe for the next ten years. But I will be on the search for big, tall, soaring cabinets that match the Butler's pantry....I will have all the architectural salvage places in a 400 mile radius keeping an eye out....and if something comes up that will work, or even almost work....I will be all over it....even if they have to sit under a blanket in the garage for three years until I can collect a whole set of them and install them.

Like this guy, who came and looked....I said, will doing this screw up my windows, and he said, it might....but you probably should replace them with energy efficient ones, anyway....and I was like, no....these are the original windows....I don't WANT new ones.

That kind of defeats the purpose of having an old house. Our house we ate moving out of is a 1973 ranch style. It's the only house I've ever owned, and I've never lived in anything but a ranch. It's okay, and I have loved my house deeply, it is where we have raised a family, the first place we lived as a married couple. I have cried about leaving my house, and it is sad, but when I see my new house, it makes the hurt better. I knew as soon as I walked into it that if there was nothing bad wrong, I was going to buy it. The day I paid for my house and got the keys, I went inside and literally hugged the banister and cried. I know everyone who lived in my house, I know the people who built it, and I've visited their grave.

Things that aren't major, we WANT to do, because it is fun, relaxing, and rewarding. It is rewarding to restore our house to its glory. My house is so warm and welcoming and friendly. I don't ever want to leave it. I can't wait til I can decorate it for Christmas. I can't wait to have holiday dinners there. I can't wait to plant the garden full of old fashioned hollyhocks and bleeding hearts and four o clocks. We do not have many Italianate style houses around here, mostly Queen Anne Victorians, four squares, bungalows, and ranch styles. An Italianate, like a Second Empire, is less often seen, and is special.

Several of my friends are like, is it haunted? I said, no, or maybe they like me because I visited their graves. Maybe, we have the same taste. We do in houses.

What does loving my house hurt? It doesn't judge me. If I wanted a McMansion and a huge mortgage, that's what I would have. I have never, ever loved a house like I do this one. It took us a long time and a lot of looking, to be able to buy a pretty house without borrowing money. I want to use the money from when we sell our other house to fix the porch and do the other minor things. Yes, there are some things I want to do that aren't historically perfect. I want carpet in the living room, which is already scheduled. I want a jetted tub in the master bath, and a walk in shower to replace the $100 Home Depot special plastic corner one that's in there now. That can be where the washer and dryer was at. But most of it, I just want it to be like it was back in the day. It doesn't have to be fancy and perfect, but it has to be okay, and things that are wrong I want to fix. That's why I was so horrified about this guy looking at it, I mean don't get me wrong, I'm sure they do a good job, and he was nice and all, but his job is to sell us repair work. And I just was thinking, my GOD, we had this inspection done, and talked to an engineer....I thought we were being safe....and to hear this quote that's at least 5 times what I expected....and maybe 10 times....I have been nervous ever since. And I told hubby, maybe we should just wait, and watch a few years.....if we patch where we need to, and it never cracks again, and we go around it carefully filling in any little places where there is missing or cracked mortar....and nothing changes, we are good. And he was like, I think so, too, but we should maybe not fix the porch, then? If it would have to be torn out in the future. And I am like idk....I am the queen of screw ups believe me.

Pictures, please. :o) Does it look like this?

This post was edited by morningstarlet on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 8:56

Kind of yes and no. Mine is only a 2 story, but is brick. It's not as big as that house, it's about 3200 sq feet plus the basement. It's not as small as it looks in my picture, though...i think the gigantic trees make it look smaller.

Is your house an italianate or second empire? To me, they are similar styles.

Here is a link that might be useful: my house

Joker_Girl, that link doesn't lead anywhere in my browser. Is this it? Does this work?

Click here.

Yep, that's it. I have a picture on my phone of it that's pretty good, but i can't seem to upload it....God only knows why lol.

The cracks are very small, don't appear to affect anything, and there are a total of probably 6 cracks in the plaster in various places throughout the 3200 square foot house, between just a hairline crack to the worst one being maybe 1/8" wide.

OMG!

Who ya gonna believe? Your own eyes or someone with $60,000 dancing in his eyes?

Still concerned? Have a structural engineer take a look.

I never, ever trust what my own eyes and brain tell me, because im always wrong about everything. No matter what, if something that has to do with me could go wrong, it will, and it will always go wrong as spectacularly as possible.
Im not going to have anything done at present, waiting to see if there is any change, which i don't anticipate, but this is me we are talking about. I am notsuprised if the ddamn thing would suddenly explode for no reason,just because it's me.

You can draw a chalk line across the cracks and then monitor to see if the halves of the lines fail to line up in the future. That would show you if the wall is shifting. If your chalk lines continue to line up, then you have your answer.

I know this thread is a couple of months old - and I hope you don't mind my hijacking (!) - but I have a similar problem (sloping floors and some cracks in walls). Our house was built on clay, in 1913. I was told by a structural engineer that the sinking/unevenness probably happened way back in the beginning and not to be concerned. But my husband's father was a mechanical engineer and knowledgable about many things and he says he thinks we should put a jack under certain areas where the floor is too high now, compared to where it sunk (I might be forgetting details here - it's been several years since he suggested this). He says that we should then very slowly - over time - cut down the beams little by little that support the house where the floor is too high (if that makes sense!) in order to level things out. I don't know how long "very slowly over time" means. Plus I don't know if a jack/s would have to be bought or rented or what the cost of that would be. Does his idea seem reasonable? His carpenter nephew thought it might cost us around $600 though my memory's bad (could he have said $6,000?!). I know there was a six in there! We don't really talk to that nephew often and I don't want to bother him about it.

The bigger question though, is this: I'd like to finish our unfinished basement and make it a family room with extra bedroom and bathroom. My husband was concerned that if we did the basement without fixing the settled floors/walls issue - and if the house were to continue to settle - that all the basement work could have issues (walls, beams, floors, I don't know...). Do you think his concern is warranted (granted you don't know our house or its actual history, I know)?

Thank you!

Joker Girl - what did you decide to do??

We bought it...it's solid as a rock...and I'm still completely in love with it. The best purchase I've ever made. This ol girl will still be here long after I'm dead and gone. We are having the porch fixed, by a contractor, who is also going to repair a small amount of old termite damage, and fix where the banister is kind of loose from kids sliding on it im sure.
The walls...even most of the interior ones...are solid brick...three layers thick.
It's unbelievable.
Im quite sure I will live here the rest of my life.
And we'll enjoy restoring it one room at a time, though it's quite livable as is. Although the previous owner painted the master bedroom bright dark teal green, and that is actually starting to grow on me, and I'm doing our bedroom and master bath in kind of a wild, bright colored, gypsy-boho- Moroccan kind of theme.

" He says that we should then very slowly - over time - cut down the beams little by little that support the house where the floor is too high (if that makes sense!) in order to level things out."

Not five minutes ago in the Remodeling section I thought I'd heard the dumbest thing I'd ever heard on this forum. I was mistaken. This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard on this forum.

You do not lessen structural members, especially 140-year-old structural members that probably do not meet modern building codes in their existing condition. Low areas are jacked into place and supported, high areas are not chiseled down.

Philosophically, if you don't like some funk in your floor, you're not an old house person. Build new with TGI's made of bushes. They're stronger and stiffer than sawn lumber and on a modern foundation the house will stay level for hundreds of years.

6 plaster cracks!!! SIX!!!! CALL IN THE BATTALIONS.

Just kidding. Unless it is on a nasty hillside known for landslides, some guy's $50k "problem" is the last thing i'd be worrying about.

One time I had these guys out to clear the toilet and they told me I needed a $15k sewer line replacement. That was four years ago. What a joke.

I'm not too worried about it anymore. We bought it, and there have been no changes.

I was kind of worried about it because I have a tendency that whatever I do, it almost always screws up in the most magnificent way possible. Common sense told me it was fine, so it's not perfect, well heck, it's old...no biggie. And to be honest a little bit of lean here and there, a crack I can patch, a creaky floorboard or loose railing....I don't care. Peeling wallpaper....I don't care. It's "character".

It kind of sits up on a hill, and we took out some bushes, and now where we did this (not close to the house, but still) is eroded a little because we need to get it rocked and plant grass in the other areas. But my guess is, as long as we keep the gutters clear, and divert water away from the foundation, it's fine. This house is a monster. The brick walls are three layers thick. Literally...my walls are over a foot thick. How could it even be able to settle anymore? The dirt under it has had three layers of brick forty feet high on top of it for 150 years. And it's only off by 3/4"? That's unbelievable, IMO.

But, you know how these people are, they come look at something, and act horrified, like it's AWFUL and NOT SAFE and OH. MY. GOD. You have to fix this NOW, it's TERRIBLE...and I start thinking....well, maybe it's a big deal...I mean, that guy was measuring my kitchen floor, saying, "Oh, this is NOT good....it's not straight..." and I'm thinking, yes, I know, that's why my freezer door always goes open so far it will hit the cupboard door if it's open and I don't hold it....but, so? My other house was over 100 years newer, and I figured out it wasn't square when I put up wainscoting and crown molding. It didn't bother me.

If it's not so you can just look at it and tell it's" off", or if things don't go sliding across the floor, it's not going to bother me. If there is a little crack I will either ignore it or patch it. In the upstairs bathroom there is more significant cracking and peeling on one wall, and rather than re-sheetrocking it, I'm thinking about taking the plaster down and treating the exposed brick, and just leaving it that way. Exposed brick is lovely.