Sagging in the flooring of your house can be quite an aggravating thing as it requires visiting the basement of the house. The major problem is not identifying the problem, but the real dilemma is figuring out ways to tackle it especially if you have never worked with heavy-duty machines. However, with the right steps, anybody can jack up the floor of their house from the basement.
Every house structure consists of floor joists in the basement that support the structure. A sag means a problem with one of the floor joists in the basement. So, to handle and fix the sagging floor of your house, you need to pay a visit to the basement and check out the floor joists.
It seems like the type of task fit for professionals and experts, but do not fret. From my personal experience, you only need to be mindful of a few things. Lucky for you, I have stated all of those precautions in the article below along with step by step guide on how to fix this issue.
How To Jack Up Floor From Basement
With the below-stated step-by-step guide, you will be able to jack up the floor of your house from the basement very conveniently.
What You Will Need?
The first order of business is collecting all of the tools that you will need for the procedure and placing them on your work table. You are going to need a couple of hydraulic floor jacks, pieces of lumber, your screwdriver, a wrench, a thread and a couple of nails. You are also going to need a measuring tape to make sure the entire process is accurate and precise.
First Step
Now that all your tools and gizmos are in a single spot, take them with you to the basement. Inspect the entire basement to figure out which areas are sagging. This is just to make sure that you know which areas you will need to work on. Now that you have pinpointed the problematic areas, take your thread, and the nails. Pound some nails 2 inches below the joists on each wall of the basement. Now tie the thread on all of the nails, in a single continuation.
Second Step
Once the thread is in its place, you will notice that the distance from joists to the thread will not be even throughout the basement, and this is where your measuring tape will shine. Take the measuring tape and hold it on the joists and measure down to the thread. Make sure to measure the areas on the sides of the sagging as they will help in determining just how much you need to jack up the floor.
Third Step
Once you have the calculations, it is time to bring in the big guns i.e., your floor jacks and lumber pieces. Before placing the floor jack on the floor, make sure to clean the area to get rid of any debris or litter. Now place your floor jack on the ground, you do not need to place it directly under the problematic area. As we will be using multiple hydraulic floor jacks, there are two ways of handling the issue. You can either place the jacks right under the area that you want to jack up and with the help of lumber on top of the jack, simply lift the joists. The second method is by placing the floor jacks on the right and left sides of the area, placing the lumber horizontally on them and then lifting. You can use concrete blocks under your jacks if the joists are at a heightened position. We will be using the second method today.
Fourth Step
Take your hydraulic floor jacks and place them on the ground on the right and left sides of the area that you want to jack up. Now take the lumber piece and place it horizontally on the lifting pad of the floor jacks. You can use screws to make sure that the lumber does not budge from its place. Once the lumber is secure under the floor joists, take the wrench and start lifting both of the hydraulic floor jacks. A critical step here is to make sure that you give both of the machines small twists. In addition to that, ensure that you give them both the same amount of twists so that the lumber is lifted equally from both sides.
Fifth Step
Once you are satisfied with the height, take your measuring tape and do another round of calculations. You will see a clear difference between the measurement from the sagging area before and after the jacking up. Leave the hydraulic floor jacks in their place, and as it is in the basement of the house, you do not have to worry about someone knocking them over. This is all you needed to do to jack up the floor from the basement.
Conclusion
Going to the basement seems very dreadful whether it is to grab something or to check the flooring of the house. But, when it comes to jacking up the floor, there is no other way than to move to the basement. However, the process above is quite simple so you will be done in a maximum of half an hour, and will not have to spend hours down there.
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