I have an 1895 field-stone house in which the kitchen and the room above it both have sloping floors. I measured the kitchen and the slope was nearly 3 inches corner to corner difference. Judging by some other work that has been done it appears as though the floors have been like this for quite some time. Would it be best to try to level the floor by jacking it inside the crawl space? (the rest of the basement is 6.5' high, except under the rooms in question, where there is a crawl space) The other option I was thinking of is perhaps installing radiant floor heat in the kitchen. Could you pour some sort of concrete over the heating tubes and level the floor that way? Would this be too heavy for the floor to support it? The exterior of the house doesn't have any real major cracks in the stone walls that would make me think that part of the house is falling off, so I think this problem is confined to the framework inside only.
Answer:
Before I jacked anything in that house, I'd want an architectural engineer too have a close look at it because any movement in there is going to create plaster cracks that you've never imagined could appear. It may also very well knock the daylights out of the whole structure's integrity. By the sound of it, the house is occupiable so its worth the cost of a professional's time and effort to advise you. This cannot be done with any degree of credibility at a distance. Once you're into this big of a job you might even consider lifting the whole house so you can get 8 feet of height down there. Its safer and more logical than trying to dig that area down.
