Recent project pictures

Here's some pictures of my latest project. The living room floor had quite a bit of bounce. The floor joists are 3"x5" and span 15'. They are all notched to fit in the joist pocket on the sill plate and some of the them were beginning to split. I had to dig out under the house just so I could fit to work under there and then dug down about 2' and poured a 18"x18" pad 6" thick. I cut down and rewelded the columns. It looks longer in the picture, but it's only a 5' or 6' span between the columns. I'm going to take out the center column under the joint and cut it shorter so I can put in a 4"x6"x24" pillow block. Should've done it that way the first time but didn't think about till after I put the column in. What you can't see is the 30' length I did in the first addition which is accessed through a 3' hole in the wall to left off the picture. Including the holes for the concrete, I took out over 5 cu. yards of dirt in dish pans and 2 gallon plant containers. It got dumped on the tarp and drug out with the tractor. I have one more pad to pour, two more columns to cut and set, and then clean out all the concrete blocks and wood from setting the beam.

Wow Ed, you have done a lot of work by hand!.. hope that beam is thick enough.. makes me think of that movie "The Great Escape" when they dug that tunnel, Charles Bronson, STeve Mcqueen and many others..

Thanks for sharing, oh btw where do you live? I live in Texas.

Will

Man, that looks like a lot of work!

I feel your pain, I've done similar things. Not a fun job but much cheaper than having a contractor do it. I dug out a full basement under an old house I bought in 1978 using a shovel and and an old corn elevator out the coal chute it took me two years to git er done. Fortunately it was a partial basement and a small foot print using floor jacks and concrete blocks.

The beam is 4"x6". I'm in southern New Jersey.

Looks like you are doing a great job of restoration on the structure. I see you are shiming the joist to compensate for variances in thickness, etc. As I posted earlier, You are blessed with a moisture free crawlspace. Here in the NE the sills would be shot and the joist dryrotted, especially in the morticed pockets.
Nice looking work. The Acg.

That house must been built without any permits or inspection, I have never seen a floor with so little support. I have a bigger joist in my attack that goes clear across the house, have no idea what it does but not going to remove it.
Walt

I don't think there were any permits or inspections required 150 years ago. When I bought the house 6 years ago, there was no bounce in the floors at all. After I pulled up the carpet, I found that the previous owner layed a 1/2" plywood subfloor on top of the 2" pine. I pulled up the plywood and the floor got worse over time. The man who built the house probably never expected a room full off furniture, and a piano, and bookshelves, and a TV.

Good, sturdy, lasting improvement. That type work highlights new wear points in and on the body.

Shallow crawl spaces and summertime attics under a low-pitched roof.

Why, I remember the time that I...

The beam is 3X5? The joists look like they are 2 X 8 or 10. Which? You have the beam held up on 8 foot centers and it's 15 feet long. That looks to hold. If the joists are 2 X 10 on 16" centers it should be good. Course how long is the span.
My Great room ceiling (floor for up stairs) 2 X 10 on 16" centers with the span being about 25 feet. Inspector just passed it.

Looks good.
Don't you just love crawling around under there?
Spiders and centipedes and bugs. Oh my!
I bought a house about 20 years ago that the floors were sagging just terribly on. Wasn't a bad house otherwise. So I crawled under there and did a similar job and then sold the house for about $30K more than I paid for it. Made like $500/hr except it put me in a 37% tax bracket that year and most of my profit went to taxes. Grrr
The house I currently own was built with 2x10 floor joists 2' OC and a 17' span. Needless to say it bounced and sagged. I added TGI joists and made a good floor out of it again.
Needless to say it wasn't much fun living here then.

Looks like a tight fit but it's looking real good. Good job!

I remember crawling under my old house with very little room. For some reason every time I came out from under the house I got a heck of a head ache.

Watch out for snakes under there!

The joists are a full 3"x5" and used to span 15'. I added the 4"x6" that's sitting on the columns, which cut the span of the joists down to 7 1/2'. The 4"x6" spans about 5' or 6' between columns.