Leveling FLOORS in our 100 year old Farmhouse! Fixer upper 

Nothing about that floor looks 100 years old. 1947 is more realistic.

Thank you, I'm 70 years old and my house was built in 1947. I used your video to put support under the house for addition of walk in the and 50 gallon hot water tank. Speaking of cleanliness once I picked up all the garbage left by plumbers and electricians over the years mine is just as clean. Did I mention I am a female

That's the cleanest crawl space I've ever seen. Looks about like a new house underneath.

I'm face to face with this situation. On a friend's home. He is looking at me with shaking head as I explain air vents being used to bring in beams. I showed him this remarkable filmed video, and now his head is nodding with a different attitude that should get his floor shored back up with no arguments. Thanks for all the time you sacrificed video shooting a job as difficult as this one is. Working in crawl spaces is an experience even professionals wish were avoidable. Big round of cheers to the wife she is a special gal. Mine would have waited till I got under house and drove off to her parents house. Lol

I have never in 40 years of trading as an historical building renovation, refurbishment, and repairs, specialist engineer, seen such beautiful working conditions under a building of any age. From this I can only assume you work in a clean safe environment at all times. Good work Geeze 👊🏼👊🏼

Doin' work! That may be the cleanest crawl space I've ever seen.

I am just a homeowner that has built a few homes and rebuilt a 1927 home which needed extensive rebuilding of joists that were over spanned and undersized. We tore out living room floor for access to work and discovered the 2X6 joists spanning 32 ft were 2 rough cut 20 ft long 2X6 and were supported mid span by a long row of sandstone blocks that had cracked and settled over 90 years, some of the joist were sitting on native soil/sand. We jacked rim joist up from inside, replaced 2x 6 joists with 2X8 speced out by structural architect. But first we removed the row of sandstone blocks, leveled and temp supported structure and poured a bomber concrete footer after digging out crawl space to minimum 18 inch code, we have termites. Built a 3X6 pressure treated stud wall on the long footer with separation from wood and concrete as per code. Installed a nice hickory floor on top and insulated R19 between bays and installed vapor barrier under insulation. I am about to level a 1910 church I just bought and no way will I use hollow cinder blocks as they can catastrophically crack as they have little strength. I will use laser or water level to figure out where the sagging 10X12" beam needs to go, use screw or hydraulic jacks with blocks to temp level, pour concrete footers hopefully to bedrock which is a foot to 18 inches down and use post and beam with thick burly simpson style connectors and adhere to code or better. I suggest your fix is good for a temp fix, but you might consider a more permanent solution. If it was a 2 story structure, the cinderblocks would be very dangerous and a hazard to be under the home. I hope others watching will understand that using cinderblocks as structural piers is not a good solution, especially if you double stack without wood in-between them as they will crack under load better to mix up concrete and form concrete piers with large posts.

People like you make this country great. Thank you for your way of see life and for the videos.

If you're going to use bottle jacks, always put a 1/4" thick metal plate between the top of the jack and your lifting crib. Otherwise you lose lift due to the jack crushing into the cribbing and risk crib blowout and dropping the load. Experience says so. I use 10t screw jacks instead. No risk of a hydraulic seal blowout. Keep up the good work. Old house renovation is a daily adventure.

Thats the best !00 yo farm house floor joists i ever saw

Thanks for posting this. My husband and I recently purchased a home that is 122 years old this year...we need all the floors leveled and I can't find anyone local to do it so I'm going to have to do it myself...oh, joy....this video helps! I look forward to seeing more.

Absolutely amazing. You are going through the same thing I am right now. My house was put at it's current location (on 2.53 acres) in 1936 but the house is much older. it sure is coming along great. Best thing is that I purchased it with cash so no mortgage payment or rent.

Very nice outcome. Thought it was very cool that your wife helped(even though she looked like she wasnt happy but did it anyway). Like myself my wife helps me with alot of things like this. All our children are grown so its just she and I. Great to see husband and wife working together. As it should be. Congratulations and thank y'all as this is my next project. ❤

Well done guys my wife and I have been building a house together for 4 years , and while some times difficult when you see the end result of your hard work it is so rewarding.

Just came across your channel, and I must say, it almost brings a tear to my eye to see a young clean cut couple take on a project of this magnitude, and do it right! You two can do an awful lot of upgrades, just do your research and use common sense, GREAT JOB! America needs more young couples like you.....

Thanks so much ! I have a family vacation home that was built in the 1920s … balloon frame … with a crawl space !! So I just went through what you’re doing . I had to build a wall underneath it to get rid of the bouncy floor where you walk !!! Absolutely nothing is 16 on center !!!😃

Shoot, son, I am the wife, and I'm the only one who's going to be doing work and cleaning up in our 100 yr old crawlspace. I couldn't even pay my husband to do renovations, maintenance, or repairs. His logic, though, is that he doesn't know what to do, so he'd rather pay someone else or leave the work to me. I understand where he's coming from, and I enjoy doing the work that I know how to complete. Sometimes, all I need is his strength, and that works out because he doesn't have to think too much.

You guys were awesome. You’re fortunate to have a wife that can and will help you with that type work. Thanks for sharing. 👊🏼

And always be positive every single day because for what you built he is proud of you too

You guys make such a fantastic team. It's a delight to watch you work. 😊

Thank you for posting. I am about to repair a failing joist in my 50+ year old home and your tips on shimming will come in handy.

She’s a badass for jumping in on this project, diffidently a keeper!

Congrats to both of you guys! You inspire me to keep going with my projects around my old house which I loved.

What a wonderful and wholesome plan you both have! Congrats! Good future ahead.

3 weeks later of peeling deteriorated insulation, kicking dirt and dust clouds, I keep getting inspired by how clean and well lit your work area is, as I start jacking up parts of the perimeter, I watch your video over and over, and I’m shocked by how much more depth I get.. Hope the rest of your projects are going well. I’ll be lucky to close up the crawl space this summer 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Great work! Love watching stuff like this.

in going to be inheriting a house in the future and this is the first thing I need to do to it before I start the renovation. Plan on going room by room. It was my childhood home which I plan to make some much needed improvements and get it wife approved.

nice work. we got ours and it was definitely a fixer upper. massive oak beams underneath some with the bark still on and nothing like modern joists just beam after beam crossing each other. think i've been to the dump 10 times but we cleared out the crawlspace and made it nicer and dry. added framing for insulation and steel supports for all the 6x6's in there. floors pretty solid. still have things to do but progress. well done on yours, that beam going across is beautiful

So helpful! Even the video showing HOW you got that support beam under there. Thank you!

Just bought my first house and I'm going through a similar process. Thanks for sharing your methodology! Looks like the laser level is going to be a necessity for me, too.

Love the demonstration. Unloading of a structure by jacking is crucial when repairing or replacing members. There are folks hammering shims and beams into place. I would caution against the use of those types of shims due to the amount of shrinkage that will occur and minimum bearing area requirements for setting a wooden beam on concrete. The biggest challenge is that the material properties of wood differ in every direction possible and the shrinkage will not be uniform. It loosens, one small area ends up carrying all the load, high local concentration of stresses, crushing (beam or CMU), loss of a support point, and a little extra bounce. Check your local codes for minimum bearing area requirements. Do not allow anyone to make repair or remove structure if they have not investigated the interior to determine what is above the location (aka structure along load path). If they have not investigated and jacked, some will be banging all day trying to squeeze that beam into place.

It was do nice that your Wife helped you. I had to replace 6 foot lolly columns in my 100 year old house. The columns rusted from the inside out. I dug footers. With rebar n high strength concrete. The base of the columns just rusted away to nothing. Luckily there were huge boulders under each column. But I rested each column on a concrete pad from the bolder to 4 inches above ground on the basement floor so they're not in the ground but above ground bolted to the concrete. I also learned they have (saddle plates) wrapping around the main support joists (wood support beam) bolted to the lolly columns. Enjoy your house Pal.

Thanks for your video. My sister and her husband just got a house (older house) in TX and they have to level the floor. This video is perfect. Thanks again.

Wow for as old as it is the crawl space is very clean!!

Good job! That's a lot of work. My house was built in 1912, I'm doing the same kind of stuff.

Owner of a 1920’s shotgun/farm house in north Texas and I do this every couple years, the ground is always moving!

I just jacked my center girder beam, 3-2x8's sistered siting on cinderblock piers of 4 to 5 feet apart. I needed 50 ton jacks, bought off Amazon, 20 tons were not enough, brand new defective cheap Torrin jacks from HDepot, only advantage was they are short. The 50 ton are 10 inch minimum height. For temporary footing, dug into dirt 3 inches, and laid in 5 layers of 3/4 plywood squares 2x2 feet. Easily held the weight, but did press the plywood into the dirt a ways. For the shims cut full cover boards over cinderblocks, no wedges, trimmed to proper thickness with table saw. jacked on both sides of the pier shimmed to proper height, move to the next pier. This took us 2 people about 5 hours of work time. House built in 1973, the ground is somewhat sandy. one way to tell your main girder is straight, eyeball along its length. And check the door frames. A lot of 2nd story bedroom doors, you can tell by looking at the tops of the doors. We jacked each pier seperately and it was ok. Other issue I have is first floor bathroom joists have sagged so need a new shorter girder of maybe 12 feet and 2 piers severla feet in on both ends of new girder. We have slate entrance foyer held fine and upper story bathroom tile floors, nothing cracked. Honestly was concerned, but it is like a reinforced slab, hard to crack. These jacks worked and are not too expensive. I bought two. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CS6KCOS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like the laser level. Now I need one of those. I have 100yr old house I just started to renovate. It's been vacant over 9yrs.

Wow!!! Great video and explanation!!! I have a home that we’re looking at flipping and the floors are sagging throughout the home, and was looking forward to hiring a company, but this video gives me more insight on how to do it myself!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!!

I appreciate what you just showed us I'm 80 and I'm crawling underneath the crawl space to relevel the joycees and they're replacing rotten ones. I never thought about placing them

You guys make a great team! great job, thank you for sharing

love the video! i just bought a house that was built in 1890 one of the original 6 lots in my town! the floor sags in the middle of the main support area. foundation is good! but def alot of work lol good thing im good with drywall electrical and sweating pipes. i am remodeling it atm and in the 80's they added a garage bathroom and laundryroom before that it was a outhouse that was used!

Great work! Your crawl space looks so clean. I’m getting ready to work on mine. The floor joists are large logs that were flattened on top. They are notched into a big 10” by 8” hand-hewn beam. The house was built in 1847 and there is not much room in the crawl space. It is also not anywhere as clean as yours!

Great job buddy,fun to see your wife helping you

This is amazing man just got a 94yo house myself gonna be doing the same thing next month! Love it😁

Thank you. I'm a pretty handy person. I just bought a house where the middle of the floor is noticeably lower, and I was terrified of the cost to hire a contractor. Because of your video, I will be able to do this to my house myself.

Thanks for the video, just bought a 100 year old house and I will be under it doing a lot of leveling. lots of good info.

I have a fieldstone foundation farmhouse that was built in the 1910's, and I'm dealing with this issue. The difference is there is no "crawlspace" to speak of. They literally built the house with only bout 8" of space between the subfloor and the ground. It does have a root cellar and for the most part everything is structurally sound. The house and foundation have maintained perfect homeostasis with the ground and it hasn't moved at all. The issue is for me that to level the house, I have to do it from above and go in with a saw - cut up the old subflooring to reveal the joists and start leveling from there. Since I don't have $120,000 for a complete remodel i'll be doing all the work myself. Thanks for the video!

I’m doing this for a 50 year old 2100 sq ft house by myself … it’s a slow process… thx for the video it’s encouraging

Saving this video! We bought an 80 year old farmhouse that needs some crawlspace work too! Not looking forward to it. I'm just glad we have a little more height to start underneath than what I see in the video. #claustrophobic

You guys are super cute together! Great video on how to level a sagging floor. I am taking your advice on my own sagging floor issues on a flip my wife and I are doing in Indiana. Cute kid you have too!

Great stuff here! One suggestion while under and in the air , consider placing a tar paper matt between each support stone base and the wooden sills You place on top of them. This will avoid any condensation which always gathers between stone and wood surface intersections often causing even treated woods to rott in time. Thanks for this excellent video! You've both done a real great job to be proud of!❤

I have a 110yr old house that i am having to do this to. Its definitely a job

Typically most people put the level on the floor of the crawlspace. With all the irregularities in the floor it may be impossible to find a true level spot. Suggestions right here. Find the high spot of the floor and put the level on that and project from there. This will make all floors true level. When I saw you do this you passed the litmus test right away. Thanks for the video.

I have this same issue. Good job man. I’m gonna try and tackle this before I do my floor tile.

We just bought a 130 yr. old farmhouse, and we will be encapsulating and putting in more floor support soon. Loved the vid! We are just starting up in our RU-vid journey documenting our farmhouse too! I will def. be buying a laser!

ive got an 100 yr. old farnhouse in NC, thanks for this it reassures my dicisions on what to do, yours is alot better shape than mine, mine has 100 years of phone wires tv cables dead animals rat poision, ect

We just bought a house and on some of the paperwork it says the house was built in 1987, but when I research the house it was built in the 1880s. Its clear this house is verrrry old and had some shoddy house flipper work done to it in the 80's.

I poured new footers and made new beam with 3*2x8 mid span of 24 foot wide house under 12 foot 2x8 floor overlapping the center beam. That was a real PITA job

I have 150 year old farm style two story house. Front is original, back half was torn off in the 70s and rebuilt. Most rooms have 16ft spans like yours with 2x10 joists. I also had flat boards in the newer sections for mid-span supports which makes no sense. I'd suggest using steel plates between the jack and the wood. Jacking joists might be okay, but moving a load bearing or exterior wall with a heavy duty jack will punch right through the wood before it lifts anything. I could not tell if there was a footing below the new concrete blocks under the encapsulation. Something needs to be under that even if flat treated 2x12s or it will eventually sink. Pouring footings in a tight crawl space is almost impossible without pulling up the floors.

Good job, it's a reward for us to be able to do it

Great job 👍

May I ask why you guys didn’t use steel plates to shim. Wood compresses over time. We leveled our main beam and used 1/4 inch thick steel shims (4x4 in inches).

Thanks - Great video ! You people are just such a nice family! We just bought a farmhouse and have to do exactly the same process. Very helpfull !

I actually work at Powerlift Foundation Repair out of Oklahoma. Everywhere really. And I would like to say the second stringer you built was perfect. That is exactly what we use. Tripled 2x6s

Thanks for the hints! Gotta do similar on a 100+ yo house myself!

I have a floor leveling project but I have a couple of complications, one there's a chimney in the center of the house that kind of ties everything together vertically and two I have some settling in the land towards the rear of the house in general which caused the concrete foundation around the perimeter to sag as well...

That's the cleanest crawl space I've ever seen, that place must be in immaculate condition. That crawl space is cleaner than my living room! 🤣🤣

Make sure your leveling doesn't change your plumbing Pitch for your sewer pipes , this could lead to a shittie Situation

Thanks guys! Great video, I have a low place in my living room so I will be using your advice!!

Nails are preferred for nailing the three 2x6's together, because they have more sheer strength, then screws. If you have used, say, sheetrock screws, you have made a mistake because they do not have the sheer strength to construct a beam, and you need to get under there and add some nails into the beams, both sides. There are more expensive screws, that you can also use. They are fairly common anymore.

Cute little family :)

OMG, what a beautiful kid. You should bring him/her in at the beginning. Want to see the angle again.

Let's see more projects with you and your wife. Me and my wife bought our farm house in 2017 too it was moved here in the 40's and it's my first crawl space

My house was built in 1926 and is sitting on sawmill rough cut lumber. I have to do the exact same thing, in addition to replacing flooring, replacing rim joists and level a corner of the house. I wish I had as much crawl space as ya'll do! I've had to use a folding shovel and dig a trench to get to where I needed to work before. I'm not claustrophobic, I just have a fear of getting stuck! I've learned that 4'x8' was not a start of measurement when this house was built!!! Floor joists are 25", 26" and 27" apart. No subfloor and decking either, just tongue and groove pine flooring nailed directly to the floor joists. I love working on an old house.

Nice job, y'all should be proud of yourselves!! My man...your a lucky one to have a wife that will crawl under there with ya is like finding a diamond in the rough💯👊😁

This house you are working under is like a brand new house compared to the nightmare I'm working under.

Holy heck I wish my house was so clean! Built in 1882 with box walls (think like a thick picket fence instead of studs) and a 16" brick foundation with partial basement added later. I've got a porch that the previous owner closed up. Now it has settled from the added weight and no way to get under it. I'm trying to dig it out, get a jack in there, and raise it up before laying cement. Might see about blocks instead if that is a reasonable thing to do.

Great video!

Great work. Thanks for this

Excellent job, dude. Well done

Very cool. I don't see what keeps the cinder blocks from sinking into the dirt over time. There does not appear to be a footer under each cinder block. That is my main concern.

Gotta love them old low crawls

My wife and I are in a very similar position with our sagging floor (in our newly purchased house). High-quality video with great footage. Don't listen to all the Morons/bots in the comments section. God Bless

I have to show my wife this video, I’m a one man show in my crawl space.

Thanks so MUCH for this video. I was thinking I had to dig out areas for footers to level the floor. Your video makes it possible for me to accomplish this project. Thanks again

Shes doing it. Enthusiasm for some in a small dark place is nill. The dred on her face when she asked if a friend is coming over to help said it all.

Your wife is a champ lol I hope you cleaned the house or took her to a nice supper for the help! Lol

Have worked in tighter crawl spaces. Leveled many floors over the years.

thank you for this video it was considerable help and taught me alot. also good job on the video.

good helper i need one just like her to help me do my retrofit in my 70-year-old house in California.

after a recent hurricane, my house was shifted and thrown way off. so I had it leveled. they did a terrible job, so I will have to relevel it myself .this video was very helpful

Good work. I am about to do the same thing. Very inspiring. Thanks.

Nice helper! All I found under my house was some petrified rats.

Awesome job

Super helpful! Thanks so much!

Yeah that is clean.

U guys are awsome !!

Team work 👍

Good lord.... that crawl space is so small. Wow I envy your determination 😁✌🏻