Floor Jacks

[Angry_eel]

Hi guys,

I'm sure there's some tradies/DIYers here. I live in an old house where one bit of the floor is sagging(it was put in separately to the rest of the floow by previous owners). I crawled underneath the house and took a look and came to the conclusion that the easiest and cheapest option is using a jack and leaving it there(see here: https://oldhousecrazy.com/2012/01/23/lifting-up-a-sagging-floor-diy/).

This example is major, my work is minor but I can't find floor jacks easily. I went to Bunnings and they had no idea. Any idea where I can find these jack or what other jack I can use for this sort of work?

Thanks

 

[Twizzle]

You would be better served by getting a structural engineer to look at it to determine what steps to take. That's what they are for and not necessarily and expensive option.

 

[veggiepatch1959]

Using jacks only serve as a temporary support when putting in something more permanent like brick piers.

The quoted article is just a joke. Who in their right mind would put any type of jack onto a solid concrete besser style block while supporting such a mass?

Might be a case of things that go bump in the night when the concrete block disintergrates and your house drops 50 mm.

 

[Bandwagon]

If it's just one section of floor ( no walls ) it shouldn't be all that expensive to fix it properly. Firstly though you need to determine why it's "sagged"

Given you can crawl under it I'd assume its bearers / joists supported by piers. So the failure is that one ( or more ) of those is either inadequate to begin with or has failed. If it's a pier that's dropped it's likely that it isn't supported well on the ground ( not a deep enough hole to begin with, too small, whatever ) but as a temporary fix you could jack up the bearer using a decent floor jack ( hire a truck one ) and pack the bearer/s up with fibre cement. What you really want though to jack it up is an acrow prop/s, you can hire these in various sizes, depends on what kind of height you are dealing with, whatever you do though you really want to make sure whatever is temporarily holding up the floor is f**king secure and will not move. That includes ensuring that the element you are jacking up ( the bearer) is both strong enough and in good enough condition to take the extra load you are applying to it.

If its a bearer/s that's failing, or simply inadequate in size, replace it or supplement it with another piece of timber if it's still ok, ( no rot , termites, whatever ) To determine whether it's because old mate who installed it previously has used inadequate timber, as a rough guide look at other sections of floor that haven't failed that have similar spans and compare the sizes / types of timbers used. Also look at any checks / rebates etc out of the timber that may too large and therefore affect it's strength. When replacing, take note of ant capping, and FFS make sure you aren't f**king with any plumbing / electrical cabling etc.

The most important thing is to get an understanding of why the floor has dropped, because if you don't rectify the cause, it's a waste of time. It's also worth mentioning that if you apply a temporary fix, sell the property, and your fix is discovered / fails, you could find yourself having to pay to have it rectified professionally anyhow.

Twiz's advice above is well worth considering. It may indeed be the cheapest long term option. particularly if your building / DIY skills are somewhat limited.

 

[Zadar]

Two scaffold legs and pipe, twist to suit the height you need, a solid lap board to base it on. Or a Formwork jack, any scaffolding or Formwork company in the area will have an abundance of them.