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philwr

Sagging floors, please help

philwr
16 years ago

Hello I have a house that was built a little after 1900, and now in the middle of my living room and directly aboce it on my upstairs floor are sagging. The wall running down the center of the house a load bearing and the sag is right against the wall to about 2 feet out. I crawled under the house and saw the double joist for the load bearing wall, and then there is a center support beam in the center of the house the floor joists connect to. Heres my problem, do I jack up the center support that everything attaches to with about a 12 foot 4x6, or do I just concentrate on the load bearing wall joist. Please let me know, everything I said makes sense in my head, but it might not to you, let me know if i need to clarify more, thanks

Comments (5)

  • ron6519
    16 years ago

    Is this a new problem or something that has existed for along time? How big a sag are you talking about? What sort of vertical support is the main beam on and how many are there? How far apart are the vertical supports? How long is the main beam? Is the sag on both sides of the wall? What's the span from the foundation to the middle load bearing wall? What are the floor joist dimensions? What is the double main beam dimensions?
    Start with these questions.
    Ron

  • lucy
    16 years ago

    This is not something I'd proceed on based on tips from the internet - you need a proper inspector or structural engineer to look at things carefully and diagnose where the problem is and what to do about it.

  • fandlil
    16 years ago

    Sagging floors are a common problem in homes of that vintage. How much you should worry probably depends on the extent of the sagging, whether it has been gradual or whether there's been a sudden increase, which would probably spell trouble. Back in 1976 I bought a house built in 1930, a 9-room Dutch Colonial, that had sagging floors. It was our first house and I was naive about these things. The realtor suggested that I get telescoping poles and install them under the main beams at the lowest point of the sagging and gradually, over a period of weeks increase the height of the poles and thereby counteract the sagging. I did as he recommended and the place is still standing, as far as I know. A lot depends on how bad the sagging is. In our case, the floors on the first floor were slightly uneven, and we were told that that is "normal" for a house of that vintage and type of construction.

    I would start with a good house inspector, the type who does inspections for houses that are changing hands. A local realtor should be able to recommend one. It should not cost so much because you're not asking him to inspect the whole house, just this one issue. With his trained eye, he should be able to tell you a good deal about what's going on and whether you need someone with more expertise like a structural engineer.

  • dporter81_gmail_com
    12 years ago

    I have a floor that is saggin under a small load bearring wall that is hanging over the center of the piers under the hous and the joist are not doubled under it

  • renovator8
    12 years ago

    I'm curious how is that relevant to the thread from 2008.