Expert Q
Question:
I have a one and a half story house that's about 70 years old. The kitchen floor and dining room floor sag towards each other and the lowest point of the sag is at the doorway that joins the 2 rooms. It sags because whoever put the furnace in this house thought it would be a great idea to cut a notch out of a double floor joist to run a furnace pipe. I've read some books about jacking up the floor, replacing the joists and redoing the floor. Is this something I can do myself or should I call in the pros?
Answer:
You can certainly do it yourself but structural integrity becomes something you'll have to consider. My idea would be to not replace the joist but to put a beam across under the section that was cut out and introduce a jack post. If that's too inconvenient because of the furnace, I'd put in a longer beam and a jack post at each end. Jacks can be rented to do the lifting because the tele-posts just have not been engineered for that.
Answered By: Ren Molnar
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