Leveling FLOORS in our 100 year old Farmhouse! Fixer upper (2023)

Introduction

How to level floors in an old house! How we leveled our floors in our Farmhouse. Watch us take on the task of fixing all the low spots in our old fixer upper before we tackle the kitchen remodel.

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Video

Well hello! Welcome to the channel! This week's project is going to be a tough one.

And without further ado.

Welcome to our 100 year old crawl, space.

If.

You've ever been interested in buying a farmhouse or buying an older fixer, upper.

This will be a good video for you to watch!.

This project is going to involve leveling our house, out, leveling, the floor, joists out.

So we can move forward with future, projects, Involving the kitchen and a couple other areas inside the house.

So.

If you notice this laser beam across my face, that's, one tool were gonna use to make it a lot easier and faster to level.

This house, out.

Now, lets crawl out of this crawlspace.

And we will go over this project in more detail.

We bought this place in 2017.

And when we purchased it, we were told it was built in 1947, however, after we moved in.

We had some longtime county residents tell us that the home was actually moved here in 1947.

And there are parts of the home that are almost 100 years.

Old.

Yeah, the front side of the house.

Our house is kind of like three boxes So.

You have the front box, middle box.

And the rear box.

So..

The.

Front house was actually a shotgun farmhouse that was moved here that was moved here from the back pasture.

And they moved it here in 1947 for utility access on the road when the power and utilities came through our road.

I, guess it was cheaper back then to move a little house on a new foundation.

Then it was to run power and water that far back so that's.

Why we're doing our project today,? Luckily, the foundation that they did when they moved.

It is still structurally sound.

It hasn't flexed or cracked or dipped or sagged or anything like that.

The only problem we have in this house is the center of the floors.

They weren't I guess, correctly, supported through the spans cause they're, sixteen, foot spans.

So alot of the um, there was one room in one part of the house that had a sixteen foot with floor, joist with no support at all or anything.

So I, drew up a little board to make this project.

So right here you can see, this is the original part of the house.

This red square., These, two brown squares are additions.

These were added on in the 70's.

So.

This shotgun farmhouse right here was moved here in 47, and they did a new foundation like so where the red lines are.

And, then here are the floor joists running this way.

And this beam right here, is the one that needs to be replaced.

Is is actually a 2X4 as you'll see in the video, it's, a horizontal 2X4 that has no structural support so that's getting knocked out., And we're, actually bringing in a new beam and replacing this one right here on this side of the house.

The middle section of the house also has a 16 ft span on the floor, joists.

And.

This beam right here.

Luckily, is a sistered 2X8.

So two 2X8's running the whole length of the house and is actually, lets see.

It has a support every 8 ft in it.

So.

What we're going to do on this beam is bring in new supports and run them every 4 ft.

So.

Now, every 4 ft will have a foundation support for that load, bearing beam.

And.

Then we will jack it up as needed with bottle, jacks and get it level and then shim it out.

So.

That is the project that we are doing today.

Or.

Next couple days, We have to get this done before we can do any major renovations in the kitchen just so that we have a good foundation base to start with.

Yeah.

We've been wanting to do this for awhile, were about to renovate the kitchen and do a couple other things and take out some walls and open it up.

So.

This is one thing that we have to start with.

And.

We have to get done.

Hopefully we'll, get it done within a week, And, you guys enjoy and lets get back under there and get after it.

Right? Let's, get back?? ....Yes....You have a friend coming over to help you right? Yeah.

Yeah, I'm gonna call a buddy.....Cool....Yeah alright.

Alright, I know, this is going to be hard to get a good view down here.

But I wanted to give you a close up and show you what we're doing This beam in the center of our house had a support every 8ft with a footing on it.

So over the years.

Each 8ft section has started to sag a little bit.

So what we're doing is were going back in and right in the middle of the 8ft.

So every 4ft there will be a support now.

So.

We just put this center block in.

And we put some cribbing on top of here.

And.

What we're doing with these bottle jacks, were just slowly jacking it up on each side.

And.

This is where the laser beam comes into play.

As.

You can see on my hand, right here.

It is a laser level.

So it goes vertical and horizontal., So I, have it set behind me? So it'll always keep a fixed level.

Red line on this beam.

I'm using a tape as you can see here, We just gained by jacking it up about a 1/2 inch.

So.

It was an inch, out., So I'm going to stop there at 1/2 inch, I'm going to go through and shim the rest of the beams up And, get it kinda leveled.

And.

What we did is I cut wedges out of 2X4's.

Once I, got it into position I wanted or close I.

Just nailed these wedges under here.

And there's already wedges throughout this whole beam on the supports from where this has been done before over the years.

So, very common on an old construction.

This is actually pretty decent looking for the year.

This house was built.

So.

Let me give you a close up in here.

So.

You can see You've got your jack.

And we've just got some cribbing on top and just wedged.

It out.

to take up the place that we've gained with jacking it.

Alright.

So we finished with that side as you saw earlier we're, actually in the other side of the house under the crawl space, which luckily has a lot more room to work with This still isn't much.

But this is double what we had over on the other side., So, I still have my spider net, my hair net on.

So we don't want to run into anything unwanted down here.

But this side, we're going to replace this Horizontal, flat, 2X4.

So.

This was the original part.

They moved here in the 40's.

And.

They actually do have spacing every 4 ft.

But I think was added later, on, I think they had a 16ft span and had no bracing underneath it.

But for some reason they put these laying flat, which has no structural support, I, don't know why they room here to put them vertical as you can see.

But so what we're going to do is put some temporary cribbing up to take the weight off this, we're going to remove these 2X4's and move these shims and blocking and we're going to bring in our new beam through our crawl space, vent back here.

But.

If you want to see something cool, see how the old cabin used to be right, there, See that old beam? But.

Welcome to underneath an old, farmhouse, people!, So, Fun!, No, I'm, just kidding.

We actually do enjoy it and I encourage everybody to get what they want and what they love and make it yours., But its been a pain in the butt, but I wouldn't trade, it.

So..were going to get working Alright.

So we got the old 2X4 that was the old support beam out of the way, its cut and taken off.

And we have a couple temporary supports up now about 12 inches to the right of the footings Where.

The new beam is going to go.

You can see one here., I mean, its nothing crazy, Theres.

One back there with the jack , used a bottle, jack, theres, one up front Im, just doing half of the house at a time.

So we're going to get this beam brought in here.

Now That might be a little bit of a wrestling match to get that thing.

In., But we'll, get it pulled in Through, our crawl space, vent right back there I've got to take the vent cover out and were going to slide the beam right through there and just go straight with it all the way to the back of the house.

And we've actually got two of them.

So we're going to get the first one in, which is going on the backside.

Which I'll do second, then were going to get this second on in which is going right here and I'll get this up on the blocks Get.

It all shimmed out get some of these blocks kinda leveled and more secured, and then start supporting it and leveling this section of the floor! Alright.

So we used three 2X6's all screwed together for this project for this beam two reasons.

One.

The height restrictions in the crawlspace is so short, theres, really nothing else.

We could use, and also the access to get it in the crawlspace.

We had to go through one of our the ventilation holes and I think it was pretty much like 8inches.

So it would have been almost impossible to get anything Bigger through there, So.

This should, if you run numbers on three 2X6's, it should hold the weight perfectly, going vertical, and it should be double what we need for rating wise Alright.

We got the beams in! You, guys, wont believe what I found under here I found a helper!.......Marilla!! Hey!! What are you doing!??? Hey, Babe!!, Hey....Isn't.

This exciting!? ......So fun......Quit...this is like...date.

Day!!.

....How.

Do you feel?? .....Mad at you....Haha! Alright? Are you ready to get this beam? Under?? Yeah.

Why.

Do you sound so excited? Alright, if you're going to find a wife, if you're looking for one, find one that will get under your crawlspace with you! It, almost sounded like under covers with you....

Alright.

Lets do this.

Alright, guys, sorry, if I'm so dirty, but that was awesome.

We just got this beam in.

And as you saw Marilla got under here and helped me with it, which was awesome.

So proud of her.

She was not wanting to do it, at all, but it would have been impossible for me to do it by myself So..

She actually helped out which was awesome, definitely proud of her.

But uh, yeah.

So look, there is the new beam.

We got it up into position and it actually with her help.

It was a lot easier..not.

A lot easier, but it wasn't too bad.

So.

Now, thats its up We still have our footings every 4ft, which is perfect, So now were going to get the laser beam up.

And, get it on the beam, and then were just going to start jacking on each end, There shouldn't, be any bow on this beam at all.

So we should be able to get it almost level just from each end with the bottle jacks.

And then were just gonna come through every 4ft on the cinder blocks and shim it up where it needs to be and then that'll be finished.

So pretty pumped about that.

Alright.

So laser is set.

You can see it on the beam here., It's, really sloped down cause we haven't jacked that side up yet.

So lets get down there and jack the other end of this beam up and see how off it is.

Alright.

So we finally finished up, I've got the beam up there, I've got a support every 4 ft.

The laser level on there.

And we went from 1 inch of a slope down towards the center on the last support, right here with the jack and I got it raised up to where, I actually, Took away, 3/4 of an inch.

So now were down to about a 1/4 of an inch slope.

Which I will take that all day, on an old farmhouse.

That is not bad at all.

I, got it shimmed up, I'll show, you guys the final support and the beam and were going to get out of this crawlspace! You can see right there I got it shimmed out.

And this was the last beam right here.

So I had the ball jack and its loose right? There.

Still got to clean up, but you can see the laser right, there., Makes it so much easier, doing stuff like this.

But you can see the beam running all the way down.

It looks good! Alright....I believe its about 5, o'clock, right?, Lets, get out of here.

Alright.

So that's, another project complete and a big check mark off.

The list.

We are definitely glad that one is behind us.

So now for future, plans...

Yes...the kitchen, renovation, which were super excited to share with ya'll coming up.

We're going to be taking out a few walls, putting in new cabinets and countertops..

Yeah.

It will be a complete, live in, Gut., Demo and kitchen.

Remodel.

Not, looking forward to that part, but...so we'll film it and should be some good videos.

And it should be fun, I'm gonna try and organize it and get it planned as best as I can.

So, its maybe a week or two out so...anyway...We.

Appreciate you guys watching Please like and subscribe as usual, don't, forget to hit the alert button.

So you get notified when we post videos, which I guess our schedule now is kind of every tuesday? We're trying to follow along with that.

Schedule.

What.

Do you think Walter? Can? You say, Bye, bye?, ....Nope...Nothing!, Am, I, starting it?....Yes....I'm, starting it....So were...hold on one second..., I, wasn't, ready.....so.....just, stop it...

So.

We built this place....we built this place....feels like we built it....almost....we bought this place..

Retake...Retake!, Go!, Right, now??, Yeah.....Ok.., Take, Three....