Hey all,

I have been in and out of this forum for a few years. Based on what money and projects we can do. Own a house that is 100+ years old in the northern KY/Cincinnati area. We have managed to do a lot ourselves but are still only a little more than novices. Anyway, now the next project is the kitchen. We cannot tackle anything until our floors are evened out. The room is about 13'x 14' with vinyl linoleum flooring, standard wood subfloor and only one layer of linoleum that I know of. Problem is there is about a 2-3' section that is higher than the rest of the floor maybe no more than an 1" probably less, now we have looked over every one of the joists in the basement and have come to some conclusions. I realize that in the long run we will probably have a professional come and give us an estimate but in the meantime....some advice or ideas would be appreciated.

We have one main I-beam that runs from the back to the front of the house made of three 2x8's. Those are level that we can tell. Now the floor joists which are also 2x8 are sistered together, but one is slightly higher/lower than the other(depending on how you look at it) in the very places where the floor has a ridge upstairs. The metal posts that are holding the I-beam have pieces of wood wedged between it and the post. The wedges are different sizes for each post. One would logically think that originally the floor started to sag and so they put in the posts for reenforcement but the posts were too short so they made hand made wedges or shims. It looks as if they over compensated and then just left it that way causing the joists and floor to eventually pop up.

We bought a standard jack post thinking that by jacking the floor up, removing the wedges and letting the floor back down slowly this would even things out. However my husband seems to think that this is not going to work now and we could get the I-beam to go up far enough to work the wedged wood out. We are slightly baffled as to which way to go at this point. Is it a case of bulging joists or sagging floor etc...I can provide pictures possibly if need be and any advice is appreciated and taken with a grain of salt of course.

Thanks,

Melissa