Author Topic: Leveling my floors, need some advice  (Read 5192 times)

Offline m_fumich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Leveling my floors, need some advice
« on: February 28, 2019, 10:36:42 AM »
We bought a 70 year old farm house. My wife looked at the house but I was unable to see the house before we made an offer and the inspection lacked some details so there were things I discovered after we moved in. Mainly that the crawl space is less than 18” so getting under the house is impossible. Also, do to the placement of the previous owners dining room table, I didn’t notice the bad slope in the floor when I finally did get to see the house which was after we made the offer. The uneven floor and the small crawl space would not have changed out offer or our desire to buy the property. There were no other properties in our area that met our needs and that were in our price range. BTW, I love my barn. We’ve been in the house since mid August and I’ve been able to figure some things out about how the house was built, the upgrades that have been made, and how the house is settling.

About the floors.....

I have discovered that all the floors in the house are not level except in the addition the previous owners had built. The most significant part is the the slope goes from the exterior walls to the interior walls. If you were to pour a glass of water on the floor anywhere in any room, no carpet in the house, it will run toward the interior wall. Due to the low crawl space, we will have to take up the floor to get under the house. That’s not a big deal. The flooring the previous owners put down is inexpensive manufactured flooring. We want to replace it all anyway. The upstairs bedrooms had the original hardwood floors under the carpet that we immediately ripped out. Unfortunately, the original flooring is 2 1/4” which I don’t really care for. We want to replace it with something a little wider. When we do, that will give me the opportunity to level the floors. After we pull up the newer flooring and the original flooring beneath that, I can pull up as much of the subfloor as needed to access to the underside of the house. I know I need a firm base to support the walls. I’m not counting on that being in place. Due to limited work room, I think I can dig a hole about 2’ deep at best to fill with concrete to create a pier to support a foundation jack or support blocks. I think I’d prefer screw jacks. Once I get them in place, I can just leave them.

Since I’ve never done this before, I don’t know the specifics on what to do. What would be the minimum and maximum spacing between the jacks. I was thinking 4’ apart. What weight rating do I need? The ones I’m looking at are 9 tons or better. What else do I need to know?

I plan to leave a way to get back under the house easier in the future.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline coolmercury

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 621
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2019, 03:17:01 PM »
Before you make any decisions/purchases find a way to look under the house with a light and see if in fact there is a main beam under the middle of the house, and if so how many piers are under it.  Also, using a three foot or preferably a longer level try to determine how much the house has settled in the middle.  Then the answers you get will make more sense.

Offline m_fumich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2019, 04:03:16 PM »
There had better be a central beam. There’s a wall running dead center through the middle of the house from one end to the other and it’s directly under the centerline of the roof. In the original floor plan, the rooms forward of that wall are the downstairs bedroom, the bathroom, and the room we call “The Library” that the front door opens into. Behind that wall is the kitchen, dining room, and the living room. The back wall of the upstairs bedrooms are directly above that dividing wall.

Offline m_fumich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2019, 04:04:21 PM »
Which purchases are you suggesting we hold off on?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline coolmercury

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 621
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2019, 05:33:35 PM »
Mainly the jacks.

Offline m_fumich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2019, 05:35:42 PM »
I was wrong about the alignment of the peak of the roof with the wall, not that it matters. The wall is about where the red line is.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline john k

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 913
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2019, 07:32:53 PM »
That looks like it would be the original outside wall.  You should determine what the main house has for foundation too, and how deep.   I live in a 1903 house.

Offline slip knot

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2586
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2019, 07:43:48 PM »
Go buy a cheapo security camera. mount it on a long pole and slide it under your house. easy simple inspection device.

Offline m_fumich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2019, 08:11:14 PM »
Go buy a cheapo security camera. mount it on a long pole and slide it under your house. easy simple inspection device.

I can see pretty well once I’ve got my head in the opening. But I’m not gonna bother until we get some dry weather. The ground by the crawl space door is a swamp due to all the rain we’ve gotten.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline m_fumich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2019, 08:18:04 PM »
That looks like it would be the original outside wall.  You should determine what the main house has for foundation too, and how deep.   I live in a 1903 house.

Do you mean where the red line is? That’s an original interior wall. I don’t know why they didn’t build a full 2nd story on this house. I was just telling my wife that I wonder what the cost would be to expand the 2nd floor and add a full attic. The ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms are beveled because they’re so close to the roof. The windows upstairs go to the floor otherwise they’d be tiny. We are only the 3rd family to live in this house since it was built in 1948.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline slip knot

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2586
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #10 on: February 28, 2019, 09:05:49 PM »
Some things never change. :D

Offline m_fumich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Re: Leveling my floors, need some advice
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2019, 09:20:08 PM »
Some things never change. :D

Huh???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk