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

growlery, There are a few different attachment methods used for covering steel I-Beams. I would suggest something easy. Lets say your I-Beam drops down about 12" from the sheetrock ceiling and is maybe 8" wide, measurements used are just for example. Yours may be completely different. Now you know you can't nail into steel, so what you need to do is create a nailer for your finish covering to attach to, whether sheetrock or wood. Heres' an EZ method. For argument sake, lets say the lenght of the exposed I-Beam is 12' long by 1' down off the ceiling. Using 2x3 or 2x4, construct (2) two (One for each side of the I-Beam you want to cover) small 12" high walls by 12'long (the lenght of the beam) using the 16" on center rule. In our sample here, your vertical 2x's will be about 14 1/2" long. Each wall will have a top plate (the part that you will attach over the sheetrock ceiling into the floor joists above) and a bottom plate that is a pinch lower than the bottom of the I-beam. Install (1) wall on either side of the I-beam and you have now created an EZ nailer to attach your rock or wood to. Now you've encased the beam. Always install the bottom rock or wood first to lock in the bottom of the two 2x walls, then add the sides. If you choose to cover this framing with 1x pine lets' say, drop the side pieces about 1/8 or 1/4" lower than the bottom for a more professional look. Using sheetrock as covering of course you'll need to install corner bead (metal is best- less chance of waves) on the new outside corners. I hope this information is helpful to you. It is just one of many possible ways to handle this situation. Some things to consider are any neighboring kitchen cabinet soffits above the wall cabinets. You might want to try to keep your beam cover as close as possible to the wall cabinet soffit size. And remember before closing up that beam, if applicable, you can make the bottom width of the beam cover large enough to accomadate some recessed lighting. Another way to take attention away from the beam. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If it is wood you like then use it. It will make the beam cover stand out more. If want to loose it in the ceiling, use sheetrock as it will better blend with the ceiling. The quicker you cover up that beam, the better you will feel. Good Luck. All the best, The Porch Guy See my album. Here is a link that might be useful: My Album

Suero beat me to my question. Our great room only has windows on the back of the house and there is a screened porch directly on the other side of those windows. The exposure is pretty much due West so we do get a fair amount of light. Our FP wall faces North so any windows on that wall really wouldn't bring much light in anyway. The blueprint that Paint Chips edited above is a good rendering of what I might look to do. Our window wall has a bank of 3 double hung windows with fixed transoms over them and a single door also with a fixed transom above. This maximizes the available light, especially since the porch which is 12' deep beyond the back side of those windows limits what light can get to the windows in the first place. As far as the ceilings-I don't know what kind of moldings and trim you are using but an alternative to the tray ceiling might be to trim out or coffer the ceiling. We have a coffered ceiling that gives us 9 rectangular "pockets" of drywall surrounded by heavy moldings. We painted the drywalled sections of the ceiling to match the wall color and it really pops against the trim. I wish we had some recessed lighting in there but I have resisted tearing the ceiling up so far. I'll try to get a couple of pictures up from home later.

Even a plywood can look rustic when properly placed and stained (cut bevel and wrapped around the beams). I'd suggest you have a carpenter do this. And just thoroughly clean the brick and replace the wooden piece. Brick is timeless (and heat resistant!). The brass insert isn't (replace of paint black with fire-resistant paint). And if you really don't want the brick, tile it, instead of paint. And please never hang a tv on it ;)