Sunday, January 11, 2009

Body surfing - Part 2

As I noted in a recent post, I'm having some foundation problems. I had my house jacked and leveled in 2005 before I moved in. The contractors guarantee their work for 5 years, so they're coming out Tuesday to do an inspection. I thought I should take some photos for my own documentation before they show up.

As you might imagine, it's not the best air to breathe down there. Not much space either. In most places I had about 12 to 15 inches, but it was down to 8 to 10 in a few places.

Again, here's my immediate problem. The shims were installed at an angle. Over the years the perimeter beam has been sliding down the shims. So much so that there's now a gap between the perimeter beam and the floor joist that's under my couch. In other words, nothing is supporting this joist. The joist no longer reaches the perimeter beam, so no amount of shimming will solve the problem. What they need to install is a sister beam next to the perimeter beam to take the load of the floor. I can't imagine that being a lot of fun to install.

4 comments:

aghorn said...

I know that spelunking in Austin is fun, but this is ridiculous.

Ooh on the beam. What's to prevent the sister beam from eventually moving off of the pier as well? Is there something to do to prevent the shifting?

misterpolyhistor said...

The piers are straight and not leaning. My thought is the original beam is moving because it was shimmed at an angle. If it were supported flat under the beam, the beam wouldn't be moving. If the sister beam sits in the middle of the pier, then it'll be supported flat. Should know more tomorrow.

Cindy Bogard said...

What kind of goofball shimmies under his foundation, way back to the far reaches, dragging a camera with him?

misterpolyhistor said...

My kind of goofball. The pictures came in very handy today as we discussed the foundation problem. It also let the contractor know I did my homework, so he shouldn't try to pull anything over on me. Actually, the conversation went well. Problem was as I expected. Now, we'll see what they can do about it.