Posted by Nate(DC) on January 28, 2003 at 17:15:27:
could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand, and it’s hard to say without actually looking at it myself.
If you call a structural engineer be aware that
A. they will charge you, probably min $250 just to see what is going on and recommend a fix
B. they will provide a very conservative solution, because they don’t want to get sued.
This sounds like a fairly minor problem, so rather than get an engineer I would find a different contractor - one that is more experienced at structural work - and get them to come out and see if they can find the source of the problem, and fix it.
I have a house that I recently rehabbed. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that the staircase and kitchen floor are leaning a bit when I bought the house. It’s not too obvious, but the buyer’s property inspector noted it and now she wants me to level the floor somehow.
My contractor tried to jack the floor up from the basement, but said that the weight was just too much for the jack he tried. He is not experienced with this, so I assume I’d have to get a structural engineer to look at it. Does anyone have any ideas as to where to start with this? Ideas on cost for such a job??
I just looked at a house this weekend that had this problem (3 story row home…every staircase was sagging). If your doing rehabs I would suggest getting…Carpentry & Building Construction by William P Spence. Very good book. You Should be able to jack up the floor in the basement and level things out, look at the beams though, check to see if they have been cut into at some point for plumbing or something which would have weekened them.
Posted by pro home on January 29, 2003 at 08:49:42:
I just completed a home with sagging floors, etc. and used several (4) 20 ton bottle jacks and 4x4 posts to get the job done. Once the floor was crowned slightly, we sistered the floor joists with new joists. After the jacks were removed the floor leveled into place. Another method would be to use jack posts available at all hardware and home stores. Again, jack up the floor, put the jack post in snug, and remove the jack.
One thing to remember when doing this is that any movement can cause problems with plaster, drywall, windows, flooring, etc. The best time to do this is at the start of a project. Obviously it’s too late now so go slow and really watch what’s happening.
Good luck.