I own a split level home. The floor to the second story creaks and groans horribly. Also my door frames are out of square and in the closets the ceiling drywall and the wall drywall is seperating. In the basement there is a 3 wide 2" by 10" beam supported by lally columns. However, I believe that the problem is the floor josits that are attached to the beam. They used joist hangers and over time or just poor construction methods every joist hangar and joist hangs 1/2' to an inch below the beam. When I stand in the hallway above I can stand on the beam and feel the dip on either side. I know I need to jack the joists up and rehang the joist hangars. My questions are: How many joists do I jack at one time to help spread the load? and How much do you jack at one time 1/4" 1/8"? If there is anyone out there who has advice I would really appreciate it.

Sounds like the framers used lumber that was not dried or seasoned, and there was shrinkage, but an inch is a HECK of a lot of shrinkage. Is it possible that the joist hangers slipped? Were they nailed properly, with nails in every hole? Are your floors level now? If you jack that end, what about the other end? Will you be jacking an inch of slope into your floors? Can you see a grade stamp on the floor joists? If so, what does it say? If you don't understand it, post it here and we will interpret it for you.

As you can see, there are a bunch of questions, and I wouldn't rush to do any jacking until you have answers to the questions. As far as jacking techniques, I will defer to someone who has hands-on experience about the jacking procedure. Hopefully, someone will help with that.

How old is the house? Just to be clear when you say second floor - are you refering to the floor that has the 1/2" drop in the joists? By the way, that 1/2" drop sounds suspect (obviously right.. ) Look at the top of those joists, is the plywood separated from the joist there? Also look as the fasteners that attach the joist hangers to the beam, do they look like they are pulling out?

Good questions, Jay, now that makes two of us that are suspicious of the half-inch to a full inch of...what? Way too much to be shrinkage. Something is moving, and we don't know what it is yet. The answers to all our questions are vital.

Okay let me see if I can answer some of the questions. I measured each joist and the biggest "drop" is only 1/2" (looked bigger from the ground). If I can figure out how to attach pictures I will. Each hangar has 3 nails in each side going in to the beam and none of them were nailed to the joist. I do not think my floors are level now as I said I can feel the dip in the floor on either side of the beam in the hallway. The house was built in 1983, the width of the basement is 25' according to the prints, and the beam sits in the middle. I am refering to the floor directly above the basement, you can see the floor joists in the basement. If somone can tell me how to post pics It will show the stamps and the areas I am talking about.The stamp reads S-Dry ILMA 5 SPF 2. The picture would probably give a better idea how it looks. Thanks for taking time to help me.

Your grade stamp means "surfaced dry No. 2 Spruce/Pine/Fir". The "surfaced dry" part is what I was concerned about, and it is OK. If the stamp said "S-GRN" it would mean "surfaced green" and that means there could have been more shrinkage.

My guess is that shrinkage is not the problem, but I can't guess what the problem is. Did you check if your floor above is level? That's the next key piece of information. It would tell us if the joists have somehow moved down at the beam end, if the floor is higher at the outside wall than at the beam end. If the floor is level, then we have to do more guessing.

What is the beam made of? OK, I see it, it's a triple 2x10. Does it have the same grade stamp as your joists?

quote:

Originally posted by Builderbee:
I can feel the dip in the floor on either side of the beam in the hallway.

I agree with Richard in that I don't think this is shrinkage. Describe the dip a little - is the beam the high point of the dip or the low point? Does it feel like the beam itself is bowing downward or just the joists from the beam to the wall? When you were measuring the joists, was the plywood subfloor separated from the top of the joist at the beam?

Sorry it took so long to reply, had to travel for business. The highpoint in the floor is the beam. The beam looks and feels fine. How do I determine if my floor is level other than the dip on both sides of the beam? The subfloor does not gap away fromt he joists so I do not think it is shrinkage either. The more painting I do in the rooms aboe the basement the more things I find. In my sons old room the drywall on the hallway wall is pushing out from the studs. The trim on the closet and doorway sticks out showing a big gap. I really do believe that jscking the joists that hand on the beam and making them even with the bottomof the beam is the answer, I have never done it myself. I appreciate all the help.

Get yourself a carpenter's level, at least a 24-inch one, and take measurements all over the place. Make a diagram of your floor plan and keep careful records. Place the level on the floor, and lift the end that will center the bubble; then measure the distance from the high end of the level to the floor. In a perfect house it would be zero everywhere. Paricularly, do this up against the outside walls. That will give an indication of whether your joists have become sloped. Until you have that information, you won't be able to decide what the cure should be.

In addition to checking level, I think another thing I would try is to nail a scrap block of 3/4 plywood (about 2" x 4" will do) on the bottom of both ends of the floor joist (the beam end and the foundation end) and then stretch a string taut between them. Measure the gap between the string and the bottom of the joist across the length of the joist and make sure you don't have any sag. Check several joists in this fashion on BOTH sides of the beam. If there is any significant sag in the joists it could appear that the beam is humped.

Maintenance6 makes a good point, but be aware that some small amount of sag (deflection) is normal and natural in floor joists. It should not be greater than 1/360 of the span. For example, for a 12-foot span, the maximum deflection should be no more than about 3/8 inch. Usually actual deflection is somewhat less, because there seldom is the full design load of 40 pounds per square foot.

I will do both (check level and sag). Will checking the level work on carpeted surfaces? Two of the rooms have small pile carpet but the hallway and office have older shag style carpet. Will this interfer? THe bathroom is tile so no problem there. THanks for all the assistance.

Just lay the level gently on the carpet, it's the best you can do.

I am pursuing a similar issue. Did this thread go somewhere else? It seemingly died on May15th.

Otherwise I will background my issue and pursue as a new question.

Stevieroy pursue a new question as your home may be diffrent. Do not forget to provide info on the house. What type age etc.