Leveling FLOORS in our 100 year old Farmhouse! Fixer upper

How to level floors in an old house! How we leveled our floors in our Farmhouse. Watch us take on the task of fixing all the low spots in our old fixer upper before we tackle the kitchen remodel.

Hey there! Welcome to Little Dreamers Farm! We are a family of 5, starting from scratch and building our dream farmhouse while trying to grow our own food and raise our own livestock; all while striving toward becoming a self sustainable homestead.

EQUIPMENT:

LETS BE FRIENDS:

[sryana]

Nothing about that floor looks 100 years old. 1947 is more realistic.

[annfitch]

Thank you, I'm 70 years old and my house was built in 1947. I used your video to put support under the house for addition of walk in the and 50 gallon hot water tank. Speaking of cleanliness once I picked up all the garbage left by plumbers and electricians over the years mine is just as clean. Did I mention I am a female

[jeffcenters]

That's the cleanest crawl space I've ever seen. Looks about like a new house underneath.

[noobnoob]

Make sure your leveling doesn't change your plumbing Pitch for your sewer pipes, this could lead to a shittie Situation

[Deluxe]

Doin' work! That may be the cleanest crawl space I've ever seen.

[SRejman]

May I ask why you guys didn’t use steel plates to shim. Wood compresses over time. We leveled our main beam and used 1/4 inch thick steel shims (4x4 in inches).

[stephenfallis]

I'm face to face with this situation. On a friend's home. He is looking at me with shaking head as I explain air vents being used to bring in beams. I showed him this remarkable filmed video, and now his head is nodding with a different attitude that should get his floor shored back up with no arguments. Thanks for all the time you sacrificed video shooting a job as difficult as this one is. Working in crawl spaces is an experience even professionals wish were avoidable. Big round of cheers to the wife she is a special gal. Mine would have waited till I got under house and drove off to her parents house. Lol

[mikeb.]

If you're going to use bottle jacks, always put a 1/4" thick metal plate between the top of the jack and your lifting crib. Otherwise you lose lift due to the jack crushing into the cribbing and risk crib blowout and dropping the load. Experience says so. I use 10t screw jacks instead. No risk of a hydraulic seal blowout. Keep up the good work. Old house renovation is a daily adventure.

[nathanreay]

I have never in 40 years of trading as an historical building renovation, refurbishment, and repairs, specialist engineer, seen such beautiful working conditions under a building of any age. From this I can only assume you work in a clean safe environment at all times.
Good work Geeze 👊🏼👊🏼

[thomasmorrison]

Very cool. I don't see what keeps the cinder blocks from sinking into the dirt over time. There does not appear to be a footer under each cinder block. That is my main concern.

[naomidaum]

Shoot, son, I am the wife, and I'm the only one who's going to be doing work and cleaning up in our 100 yr old crawlspace. I couldn't even pay my husband to do renovations, maintenance, or repairs. His logic, though, is that he doesn't know what to do, so he'd rather pay someone else or leave the work to me. I understand where he's coming from, and I enjoy doing the work that I know how to complete. Sometimes, all I need is his strength, and that works out because he doesn't have to think too much.

[darrenmcintosh]

Thats the best !00 yo farm house floor joists i ever saw

[skook]

Just bought my first house and I'm going through a similar process. Thanks for sharing your methodology! Looks like the laser level is going to be a necessity for me, too.

[JamesWilliams-smog]

Love the demonstration. Unloading of a structure by jacking is crucial when repairing or replacing members. There are folks hammering shims and beams into place.
I would caution against the use of those types of shims due to the amount of shrinkage that will occur and minimum bearing area requirements for setting a wooden beam on concrete. The biggest challenge is that the material properties of wood differ in every direction possible and the shrinkage will not be uniform. It loosens, one small area ends up carrying all the load, high local concentration of stresses, crushing (beam or CMU), loss of a support point, and a little extra bounce. Check your local codes for minimum bearing area requirements.
Do not allow anyone to make repair or remove structure if they have not investigated the interior to determine what is above the location (aka structure along load path). If they have not investigated and jacked, some will be banging all day trying to squeeze that beam into place.

[davidcristallo]

Well done guys my wife and I have been building a house together for 4 years, and while some times difficult when you see the end result of your hard work it is so rewarding.

[leestebbins]

I have to show my wife this video, I’m a one man show in my crawl space.

[marciaewell]

I am just a homeowner that has built a few homes and rebuilt a 1927 home which needed extensive rebuilding of joists that were over spanned and undersized. We tore out living room floor for access to work and discovered the 2X6 joists spanning 32 ft were 2 rough cut 20 ft long 2X6 and were supported mid span by a long row of sandstone blocks that had cracked and settled over 90 years, some of the joist were sitting on native soil/sand. We jacked rim joist up from inside, replaced 2x 6 joists with 2X8 speced out by structural architect. But first we removed the row of sandstone blocks, leveled and temp supported structure and poured a bomber concrete footer after digging out crawl space to minimum 18 inch code, we have termites. Built a 3X6 pressure treated stud wall on the long footer with separation from wood and concrete as per code. Installed a nice hickory floor on top and insulated R19 between bays and installed vapor barrier under insulation. I am about to level a 1910 church I just bought and no way will I use hollow cinder blocks as they can catastrophically crack as they have little strength. I will use laser or water level to figure out where the sagging 10X12" beam needs to go, use screw or hydraulic jacks with blocks to temp level, pour concrete footers hopefully to bedrock which is a foot to 18 inches down and use post and beam with thick burly simpson style connectors and adhere to code or better. I suggest your fix is good for a temp fix, but you might consider a more permanent solution. If it was a 2 story structure, the cinderblocks would be very dangerous and a hazard to be under the home. I hope others watching will understand that using cinderblocks as structural piers is not a good solution, especially if you double stack without wood in-between them as they will crack under load better to mix up concrete and form concrete piers with large posts.

[jd-crpz]

I have 150 year old farm style two story house. Front is original, back half was torn off in the 70s and rebuilt. Most rooms have 16ft spans like yours with 2x10 joists. I also had flat boards in the newer sections for mid-span supports which makes no sense. I'd suggest using steel plates between the jack and the wood. Jacking joists might be okay, but moving a load bearing or exterior wall with a heavy duty jack will punch right through the wood before it lifts anything. I could not tell if there was a footing below the new concrete blocks under the encapsulation. Something needs to be under that even if flat treated 2x12s or it will eventually sink. Pouring footings in a tight crawl space is almost impossible without pulling up the floors.

[Weirddog]

Owner of a 1920’s shotgun/farm house in north Texas and I do this every couple years, the ground is always moving!

[christinahenson]

I have a 110yr old house that i am having to do this to. Its definitely a job