# jack size for house levelling



## smbaylor (Feb 21, 2020)

I have a 1 1/2 story home built in the 1800's. Some idiot installed one of the jacks upside down and its missing parts. The floor above the messed up jack has about 1-2 inch gap between the floor and baseboard.

Need to buy at least a couple of new ones, but I'm not sure what size I should be buying. I've never had to mess with floor jacks before so any advice would be greatly appreciated.


How far apart should I have the jacks? trying to figure out about how many I should be buying to get the house all nice and releveled.


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

smbaylor said:


> I have a 1 1/2 story home built in the 1800's. Some idiot installed one of the jacks upside down and its missing parts. The floor above the messed up jack has about 1-2 inch gap between the floor and baseboard.
> 
> Need to buy at least a couple of new ones, but I'm not sure what size I should be buying. I've never had to mess with floor jacks before so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> ...


Can you post some pictures of the structure you are looking at.


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

A couple of traditional house lifting screw jacks should do it.


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## HandyAndyInNC (Jun 4, 2018)

I have a couple of 50 ton hydraulic jacks I used for lifting when I had to level some floors in this house. I picked them up for a farm supply store of all places. But remember, you are not lifting the entire house at once. Only a very small portion. I've some lift a section with a 4 ton hydraulic jack. That is a little too small for my preference. I would rather have a jack that I know with lift without struggling.


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## HandyAndyInNC (Jun 4, 2018)

If you are referring to the jack post, then you get the height figured out, and purchase one that is slightly shorter than the max span. Jack posts are adjustable with pins and a screw top, or bottom. There really is no top or bottom on a jack post.


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## smbaylor (Feb 21, 2020)

Nealtw said:


> Can you post some pictures of the structure you are looking at.



Here are pics of the house and of the gap


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

Ayuh,...... I've jacked alota buildings, a 12 ton hyd. jack is what I use most of the time,....

It's gonna take some _Time_ for that crack to go away,......
House leveling is usually a long _S l o w_ process,.....

I replaced the foundation on one side of this house,....
When I set the house back down on the new level foundation, it took 5 years for the 5" hump in the middle to settle down onto the foundation,.....

At the other side of things,.....
Back in 2000 I jacked our 24'x 24' lodge up 2', slipped in a steel foundation, 'n set it back down, in one day, with only 2 helpers, 1 of which wasn't much help,....
We did it with 8, 3 ton wagon jacks,......
Needless to say, it was pretty spooky crawlin' under it that way,.....


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## HandyAndyInNC (Jun 4, 2018)

That looks like the top of the block foundation. Like there are no joists spanning over top of it. What does it look like from the basement. That is what we needed to see in the pictures. Not the house itself. Need something that we can see a reference against.


I put a couple steel I beams under this house. I do not want it to ever have issues again. The cause of this was human error. They cut out the two support posts that were in the basement at the mid-point of of the span of the 12x12 beams that went from the front to the back of the house. They removed them to put in a furnace way back in the 20's or 30's. And of course, things will begin to sag because gravity next takes a day off.


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

smbaylor said:


> Here are pics of the house and of the gap


The structure under the floor where you jacks are and the joist system. :biggrin2:


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## smbaylor (Feb 21, 2020)

These are the two good ones that we dont need to adjust


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## smbaylor (Feb 21, 2020)

This is the messed up one, thats in the spot where the floor isn't level


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

I would use a 20 ton hydraulic jack and a 4x4 right beside that. Lift it 1/8" a day until it is just a little high and then put plywood square on top the old one and set it down.


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## HandyAndyInNC (Jun 4, 2018)

You can visit any welding shop to pick up some quarter or half inch plates about 6 inches square, or even rectangle. There is a plate under that jack already. But if you disturb it, you will want to replace the footing under the jack post. I would replace it with a new one so that you can have the adjustable screw at the top where it is easier to adjust.
Like others have stated, take it slow and be patient. You cannot raise the structure much each week/month. Maybe 2 - 3 millimeters each time.


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

HandyAndyInNC said:


> You can visit any welding shop to pick up some quarter or half inch plates about 6 inches square, or even rectangle. There is a plate under that jack already. But if you disturb it, you will want to replace the footing under the jack post. I would replace it with a new one so that you can have the adjustable screw at the top where it is easier to adjust.
> Like others have stated, take it slow and be patient. You cannot raise the structure much each week/month. Maybe 2 - 3 millimeters each time.


 If that post is on a footing that sank, there may be a void under the floor, I would be afraid of putting the load on the slab there. 

I should have mentioned about spreading the load under the hydraulic jack too.


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## ChuckTin (Nov 17, 2014)

Don't know your complete circumstances but I'd be jacking up that beam on both left a right side, remove the "bad" jack/post and cut out at least a 24"x24"x8" section of the floor slab - with CARE for any buried utilities! - pour a concrete footing pad, use hi pressure concrete, and reinstall a new jack post once the concrete has cured (week to 10 days). With a new post in place then you can begin to lift the beam, say a half rotation of the lever/day. Yeah I know, time. But time will serve you well here.


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Bondo said:


> Ayuh,...... I've jacked alota buildings, a 12 ton hyd. jack is what I use most of the time,....
> 
> It's gonna take some _Time_ for that crack to go away,......
> House leveling is usually a long _S l o w_ process,.....
> ...


I know this is an old post, but I have a question... I recently purchased the house I was renting and basically, there's about uh.. an inch gap, along the baseboards where my stairs are.... Looks like the old landlords or someone in the past took out some supports to put stairs to the basement years ago.... how long would it take to fix that gap?!


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Shayna said:


> I know this is an old post, but I have a question... I recently purchased the house I was renting and basically, there's about uh.. an inch gap, along the baseboards where my stairs are.... Looks like the old landlords or someone in the past took out some supports to put stairs to the basement years ago.... how long would it take to fix that gap?!


We would need much more info about the structure in the basement around the stairs.


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Okay, I will upload a few pics that will hopefully help. I just reached out to an engineering company near me, but Im pretty strapped for cash right now and feeling really overwhelmed with this issue, heh


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Excuse the absolute disaster... Im in the middle of organizing, starting a business and a single mom of a 3 year old, lol... 🤦🏽‍♀️


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Nealtw said:


> We would need much more info about the structure in the basement around the stairs.


The house is 29 ft from front to back, the joist goes east-west, in the middle of the basement and is 11 1/4 feet from the outside wall. The stairs are in the SW corner of the basement and the beginning of the stairs is 12ft from the W wall and right against the S wall


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Shayna said:


> Excuse the absolute disaster... Im in the middle of organizing, starting a business and a single mom of a 3 year old, lol... 🤦🏽‍♀️


Is this the area where the gap is above.


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Nealtw said:


> We would need much more info about the structure in the basement around the stairs.











































This is the space... these stairs are directly above the others... and there is a photo of the wall on the oppsite of this, where you can see the wall is.. buckling?


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

The gap is on the outer wall, but also, the floor is my living room has recently had a noticable drop, the entire length of the house, and it is about 5 ft to the north of that spot that you circled. The drop in the floor is along the southern side of the joist 😬


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Nealtw said:


> Is this the area where the gap is above.
> View attachment 691998


So that spot is dorectly under where the red carpeted stairs ends
























This is the drop that I noticed sometime since, id say the beginning of winter... it goes the entire length of the house..


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Can you draw a sketch of the layout of the main floor and show the stair cases up and down?


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Nealtw said:


> Can you draw a sketch of the layout of the main floor and show the stair cases up and down?


I will try my best, give me a brief moment. Thank you so much, btw


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Shayna said:


> I will try my best, give me a brief moment. Thank you so much, btw


i hope this makes sense


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Shayna said:


> i hope this makes sense


Well done thank you .
Is this where the floor is sagging?


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Nealtw said:


> Well done thank you .
> Is this where the floor is sagging?


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

I think I understand now what you are asking now.. so basically what you highlighted is likely the lowest point


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Shayna said:


> I think I understand now what you are asking now.. so basically what you highlighted is likely the lowest point


Yes, is there a beam or wall right under what you marked as the start of the slope?


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

I think I understand now what you are asking now.. so basically what you highlighted is likely the lowest


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Yes, a beam


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## Shayna (9 mo ago)

Nealtw said:


> Yes, is there a beam or wall right under what you marked as the start of the slope?


It's like 5 or 6 boards all together, and theyre supported by two OLD wood logs? I'm not sure what they're called, basically looks like a tree trunk, lol


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Shayna said:


> It's like 5 or 6 boards all together, and theyre supported by two OLD wood logs? I'm not sure what they're called, basically looks like a tree trunk, lol


Can you measure the width, height of that beam and how far between the posts?


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