Jacked!

While a lot of our renovations. some already done, have been on the outside of the house, most of the interior stuff is on hold until the floors are level. This includes replacing the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom, removing old wallpaper, etc. All my cooking is microwave cooking right now. We are eating a lot of take out and our BBQ is getting a workout. Dishes are a challenge as well as I have no kitchen sink so it is paper plates, bowls and bamboo cutlery. 

The centre of this house has sunk about three inches. Doorways are crooked, doors don't close, walls and ceilings are cracked and the floors are spongy. You can't walk anywhere without the floors groaning.

The living room, pre lift.

We had a structural engineer the day after we closed to give us an assessment on October 4. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. There is one section of the house that has a 27 foot span that is unsupported. Stairs were cut into the basement about 80 years ago or so. Before the only entrance to the basement was a storm door (very heavy!) 

Storm door entrance

These stairs were responsible for much of the sag in the building. The floor joists were cut and a major beam removed to make this hole. The smaller replacement beam had twisted by the time we arrived and all the jacks were rusted at the bottom. 

The basement stairs.

Structural engineers plan? $50,000 but could be DIYed according to the engineer. We knew we could do it, but did we want to do the work ourselves?

Bottom line: Solid house but the twisted beam was dangerous. 

This became our number one priority- that and the roof. While we knew we could do this our neighbour told us they had had their floors jacked relatively inexpensively and the person doing the jacking had a 5 star Google rating (seriously these things matter!) So we booked the company to do it for us and got the building permits.

The downside of booking a company to do it, you have to wait until they have time to do it ( a rainy day). More than once my husband stomped around the house, saying we should have done it ourselves because we would have it done by now, and he'd never get the bathroom in before Christmas at this rate (or words to that effect.) 

Last week, they put the first of the jacks in. No lifting, but just half the jacks. I felt so much better. I knew the house wouldn't collapse now.

This week, the rest of the jacks went in and they actually lifted the house! The house was cracking and popping like electricity was running through it my son said. My husband acknowledged that it was better that he left it to the pros, as he would have stopped the first time the house shook like an earthquake.

Lots and lots of jacks! The yellow ones determine how high and how much load each jack is carrying.

The house creaks less, floors that were spongy are solid! This is great! We still have to wait a few more weeks for them to keep lifting the jacks slowly so the house gets used to it's new shape but we can now put the floors into the bathroom.

Wallpaper rippling.

Above most of the doors both floors.

Hard to see, but this is the interior bedroom wall. 

Main floor living room. The only room that was finished nicely. 

The ceiling of the doctor's waiting room. The only thing holding it in place is the ceiling wallpaper.

Look! There is only a one inch gap now rather than a 3 inch!

The big crack on the other side of the living room entrance.

The hall on the other side of the big living room crack. 

Some of the wall on the floor.