The price for level floors

Well, our crew is halfway done with our floors upstairs. Some of the problem areas (such as above the living room) are already framed with the new LVL joists, and there is some temporary plywood sitting on top of them. Without the floor even being finished, there is already a noticeable difference in our floors. You can actually walk across the "room" without feeling like you're walking in a bowl like it used to feel!

Quite refreshing, to be honest. Especially since this is where our bedroom will be. The key to this whole system was lifting the existing floor from below into a quasi-level state with some house jacks.


The old floor was so far out of whack that we lifted approximately 2 inches at the center of the celing beneath! The new joists are sistered to these old joists, and span the whole length of the room, so they will effectively be holding up the original joists when we release the jacks.

All this, and only 2 small crack in the ceiling's plaster. Other rooms in the house, however, were not as fortunate. A small hole has developed in our first floor bedroom from a dropped (tool? foot? lumber?). Other cracks or smaller holes are evident throughout the other rooms on our first floor. The biggest thing may be the lighting fixtures in our DR and Kit, which dropped down while Jen was making lunch the other day! Thankfully the ceiling fan was OFF, otherwise she may have been beheaded!

Our home is sadly an official hard-hat area now. :(

Beam says Thankya Big Big!

Took it a little easier today. We still have the remnants of a 10 inch snowfall in Chicago, and as I crushed through slush on the way over, I came up with a plan to tame the possibility of making the dirt airborne again. Snow! So I filled up about 10 buckets worth of the white stuff and pushed it around in the basement.

The snow did a decent job of solidifying the dirt, and I pushed it towards the floor drain. Lots of squeegeing later, I had a black lake forming where the floor drain once was. The drain worked when I tested it earlier with a cup of water, but it drained really slow once the slush melted on top of it. Looks like we might have to get John to rod it out someday.

Afterwards, I unpacked the house jacks and set them up under the main wooden beam between the existing wood posts. The sagging that had been going on for decades had become quite extreme, especially under the kitchen. It almost looked like each length of the wood beam was smiling. So while visions of denistry danced in my head, I ruined each smile by making each jack snug underneath the beam.

We didn't want to bring the beam back to level right away because we figured since it took the house 90 years to settle, it probably wouldn't be too happy if it went back to straight in 9 minutes. Our plan is to let the house adjust and turn the jacks a little bit each week until the floors on the first floor are corrected. Then we begin sistering the joists.

In any case, after the jacks were all in place I took a step back and it already looked like things were better. In fact, upstairs there seemed to be less bounce going on. To help spread the structural loads, we may just need to build a partition wall in the basement under the entire beam once it is level.

Demolition Derby

Fear of mixing alcohol and power tools prevented us from having the demolition derby on New Years Eve as promised. Or perhaps the alcohol just prevented it from coming up in our minds. In any case, today was the rescheduled date, and Scott and Sara helped us set to work on destroying the basement's original wood lathe and plaster ceiling.





This was harder than it first seemed. Not because of strenth required, but because:
a) it was overhead
b) all electrical was attached to this (we had to remove and reattach to joists)
c) decades and decades of FILTH

We were outfitted well with safety gear - gloves, goggles, masks all around - but it was no match for the decades of dirt collecting above. Shortly after the first swings the air was laden with a gray hue of plaster and dirt. Within an hour, all of our masks, originally white, appeared as if they were dipped in charcoal. Opening the windows and door and turning on a high powered blower had only a mediocre effect. There was nothing we could do but grin and bear it.



We ended up working hard from about noon until 5 and got 2/3 of the basement done. The other part is the tool room / utility area, and we need to wait to move stuff out before doing that area.

One thing we did discover to our delight was that the dumpster has a door that opens! Allowing us to just walk in and load it up. Yay! Lots of buckets were emptied there today.. it's probably 1/4 full already.

After the dust settled, we could see that the first floor wall that is under part of the master bedroom (thus carrying a lot of the weight) was resting on a floor joist over the main beam that had been CUT OUT. Not a little, but a lot. Some Prev.Owner had destroyed all but 2 inches of the 2x8 joist to add a heating duct in the wall above. Doh!

No wonder the floors sag so much! We'll definitely be turning that wall vent into a floor vent and fixing that hole (more sistering).

After working, we all broke in the shower and tried to wash off the grime from every crevice. It was moderately sucessful. I still showered at the condo later though. :)

Thanks for your helps Scott and Sara!!