Lifting up floors. 7 mistakes to avoid | Jacking and leveling sagging floors

Lifting up floors. 7 mistakes to avoid.

That was my 1st time doing this very difficult technical work and I made tons of mistakes I'm covering in this video:
1) Don't sit piers on the ground - pour the slabs as a footing.
2) You won't fix entire floors by lifting up just beams/girders.
3) Just putting extra beams across joists won't fix entire floor.
4) Bottle jacks can not be your permanent piers.
5) If you use cinder blocks don't place them face side up.
6) Do not use floor jacks from regular home improvement stores like Lowes and Home Depot.
7) Don't think you will make your floors perfect.

Sergii Soshka

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#sergiirealestate

[mmsmms]

Using floor jacks can work. I completely agree that the HomeDepot/Lowes ones aren't very good and in my experience tend to rust after a few years. Ellis Manufacturing & PowerPost make vastly higher quality floor jacks that are properly galvanized. Also, when original and sistered beams don't align on the bottom edge an electric planer can quickly create a flush surface for the top of your jacks to sit.

[stevenhockett]

Great video. Direct and to the point. No fluff.

[MrHappy]

Excellent. I was going to add a beam to lift several joists at once. After listening to you i am now going to sister each joist. Thanks.

[bbconrad]

Thanks, dude! I have no idea what im doing. This helps a LOT!

[Toddtoddy]

I’ve “leveled” a few homes. Your advice is solid. Usually the aim should be to avoid further contortion and or settling. Unbending a bent home can destroy things and is often unnecessary. Flattening of interior spaces can be achieved other ways.

[Foxtrot]

Hi,
Great Video! How do you know where to start leveling? Laser? String Line? Low Spot? High Spot?

[joelk]

Very nicely done video, Sergii. Great tips, and clearly described. I will use your advice, thanks!

[elisabethjones]

Also him just helped me avoid many mistakes I'm sure I would've made. Thank you very much!

[ChitownMilcrib]

I'm currently leveling the floor at my house and had the same issues and couldn't agree more. This girder construction was definitely new to me and had to go off the outside walls to find the level height of the girder or beam .

[pcno]

A friend of mine went through this when he was trying to sell his house in a hurry. He didn't think the sloping floors were a big deal when he bought it, but when he got transferred and had to sell, the agent told him it would drive away any customers that were willing to pay top dollar. He had several jacks in the cellar and kept trying to get everything level, but each time he raised the lowest point in a floor, the ceiling and the floor above it would end up crooked. After he had hired a contractor for other problems, he was told that the jacks he used would end up cracking the cellar floor, so he had them pour footings and install real lally columns. By the time he was done, the main floor looked OK, but the ceilings and the upstairs were still kind of Pee-Wee-Herman-esque. One useful trick for hiding these imperfections was a deep-pile carpet in the upstairs hall, another was a threshold under any door frame where the floors were going to be different heights. Coffered ceilings would have hidden more imperfections, but there was no time for that. He also spend some time fixing the cracks and reworking the door frames and baseboards to "split the difference" between competing angles. Glad to see your project came out so well; it looks like a nice location, despite the shaky ground.

[williamblackmon]

Excellent advice. Wisdom is the product of knowledge coupled with experience.

[sabinolibros]

I’m doing something similar. I just want my house to be structurally more sound. I’m not worried about leveling it, since it’s pretty decent to be this old. It’s been a pain the rear, but I’m doing it little by little. Thanks for your video

[JoeFidler]

Really good video man. Legit video and very informative.

PS - how you only have 382 subs…keep pumping out content cause you’re good at it.

[paulwary]

Mistake #0. Dont forget to use safety equipment, in particular a well fitted respirator (N95 or better) while in the crawl space. There will already be lots of dust from the soil, but if you have have dry cement, or are grinding as shown at 10:10, you are generating a huge amont of silica dust which will stay suspended in the air for many hours. You will also have fungus spores, and often old houses will have asbestos dust from previous renovations.

[bottlefed]

Great video my friend,
The only thing I did not agree with, was using single wedges as a permanent solution to achieve the proper height. This creates a point load and over time it will indent the shim/and or beam. Shims should always be used in pairs (placed in opposite directions) so that the load is distributed along the entire surface of the shim. That said in the case of a heavy load like a floor you are a lot better off to determine the correct space using the shims then after you have done the entire floor, go back and cut wood to the correct width with a table saw etc. and then jack the floor up slightly and remove the shims and replace with your fabricated spacers.

[dchambers]

Good work. On the floors and video. You give good advice. Your hard work is well shown in this video and it's very helpful for others. Thank you brother.
P.S. I enjoyed the music :)

[Beek]

My 100yr old house has pushed an entire railroad tie under the ground. Everything has buried itself. All rough cut, nothing is the same size. I work on houses I'm 35 and want to stop It from getting worse. Thank you

[angetodac]

yeah, same here. and i have to fix it myself as i cannot afford the contractors price

[americanskeptic]

I loved your video. I like to be positive but i don't feel ready until i have seen the ways it could go wrong. I will consider all of these tips as i move forward

[DavidMcCoul]

Sometimes it isn’t always possible, but sistering all the bowed joists as full span as possible is the best way to keep a floor level. The jacks and posts are only temporary to bring each joist back to, or slightly above, level prior to sistering, then they are removed to allow the sistered joists to return to level. It is also worth double-checking that all load-bearing walls above are properly supported all the way down to the foundation.