1800s Home Needed Sloping Floors Repaired, Exeter, NH
Challenge
A homeowner in Exeter, New Hampshire, recently purchased their home from their mother-in-law. The home was built in 1811 and their family has lived in this home for around 90 years. The homeowner wanted to preserve the home for further family members to continue owning this home. They have taken the responsibility of starting to update and reinforce the home.
Since purchasing the home the new homeowner had noticed that floors on the main level appear to be sloping. The sloping was noticeable at both ends of the home but it was worse toward the front of the home. The homeowner decided to call Erickson Foundation Solutions for a free inspection. Our Design Specialist Liam completed a full inspection of the basement and main level of the home. He created a hand drawing of the floor system and the layout of the basement, complete with accurate measurements of the size of the basement and distances between beams, and what kind of supports they have. Once Liam had all the basic size measurements down he used a laser level to gauge how much the beams or floors have settled. Liam found that the beams toward the front of the home had settled 5" and the beams toward the back of the home have settled about 1". Liam noticed in the basement there were three types of supports in the basement, they were brick, wooden, and temporary supports and they all seemed to be settling. Liam recommended installing SmartJacks into the basement to replace the old support posts.
Solution
Liam design a system using SmartJacks that would be able to support the load of the home's floor system. 10 SmartJacks will be secured to the beams throughout the basement to prevent the main level from sloping and settling anymore. Liam created a digital drawing of the system that will be installed that he will pass on to the production crew so they can have a picture representing where they were installing the SmartJacks.
Our production team arrived at the home with Liam's drawing in hand. The team began by mapping out where each SmartJack will be installed. The team then started chipping out small sections of concrete where we will install our big footings for our supports. Once the team chipped out all of the concrete that they needed, the team then installed engineered fill and 10 footings and made sure to level them. Engineered fill will ensure that the dirt beneath the footings cannot wash out due to water. Once the footings were leveled, the team then cut 10 galvanized steel beams to size so they would fit just below the wooden beams. After all the steel beams were set in the footings, the team then secured our adjustable top brackets to the top of the steel support. Then they secured the other end of the bracket to the wooden beam above. Once all of the brackets were secured to the steel beam and the flooring system our crew can slowly start tightening the brackets to start lifting the floor back up to its original position. Using levels, the team tightened the brackets until the slope was eliminated and the floors were level. The floors at the front of the home were lifted about 5" and the back was lifted around 1".
The homeowner was very pleased with the SmartJacks being installed.
Project Summary
Products Installed: SmartJacks
Design Specialist: Liam Fitzpatrick
Production Crew: Tyler Oslizlo
