re: leveling a pier and beam house

quote:

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experts about leveling homes

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Don’t know about expert but I have done a bunch of them. Going back 40 years or so. Matter of fact, am in the process of working on my own fight now. Well, not the whole house but the original part, about 28 x 32. Pulled out the antique cypress floor joists, (28 ft long 2x8’s) replaced with new treated joists, leveled them, and am currently putting down the subfloor. There was a lot of jacking, leveling, adding new piers and a couple of additional sills.
But, in my spare time I look for a football message board to peruse.

Now THAT sounds like an expert.

My family leveled small outbuildings, camps and houses a few times. We used about a dozen jacks (mostly old bottle jacks - well greased) and a few other jacks with a few of us under the house. This was before the laser level era, so a few carpenter levels were used. We numbered the jacks so people inside would call out the jack number and how much for those of us underneath to turn at the numbered location.
Slow and steady process required patience, but we did not do serious damage because we took time. Some existing wall cracks opened and closed as we adjusted things and creaking noises were a concern.
We got pieces of marble and other stone cut-offs from a local grave stone company to use as the permanent shims. They were going to be trashed, so it was nice to repurpose the materials and we thought they served well. (I would bet that countertop companies might also be a decent source for shim material.) We also had some old aluminum sign material which we used stacked for temporary stages - until we got the stone pieces to fit correctly.
Make sure that you study your plumbing and wiring completely before doing anything. We disconnected some water and drain pipes so that we would not damage anything. Wiring came from overhead, but the ground went to...
Go slow and study often.
Get other eyes to look at everything and make comments as you go.
We were far from professionals, but got our jobs done.

Rent a quality laser, then look at your distance and review materials then. Sandwich asphalt felt I have seen or just sister another 4x4 or 6x6 to the existing pier through bolt it to the existing pier at the new height.