raise my floor and install perminent lally columns.

I’ve kind of stopped on this for now. I think the floor may still need to be raised a little but but I think at some point It will be better to get a professional in on this project.

My cellar floor is mostly dirt and it does take some water in when it rains so I think I should get that all taken care of at once if I can.

There is definitely less sag in the floor where I have been raising it. They say you can safely raise 1/8” daily but I’m not in a rush. I do about that much once a week. I find that this gives me time to get accustomed to the change and decided if it is ok to stop or not. At first I see the improvement and think ok it’s done, but after walking on it and looking at it for a few days I see where it has improved and where it is still not level. I think I’m going to have to start checking it with a level so I know when its ok to stop.

Then I’ll worry about putting in the permanent columns. I found these in “This Old House” magazine. I think I’m going to use them for the footings once I get to that point.

I’m hoping this will help with the sag in the floor on the 2nd floor as well but I’m not sure.

I tightened two of the temporary columns by about 1/4 turn each on Monday. The floor already feels more solid and has less of a sag. I’m not sure it’s raised enough at this point but it will be nice when it is all done. I’m hoping this will also help correct the sag in the floor upstairs. I’ll add a photo later if I remember to snap it when I get home.

I’m beginning to wonder if this is a project I should do on my own, or if it would be better to hire a contractor. Im sure it would be cheaper if I did it myself. I just have never done anything like this before and I don’t want to do any damage. :-)

I’m talking about the floor

Old houses like this tend to have floors that sag after a while and they need reinforcement to stop that and get the floor back to where it should be. When I moved in there were some temporary columns installed. I need to finish raising them to the right height and then install some permanent columns. Kind of like in the article.