Getting Leveled
Last week a pair of steel columns were installed in the living room of the carriage house to push the ceiling back up to level. In order to accomplish this, the joists had to be cut through. EEK! (You cannot unbend bent joists.)
It was soon clear however that another pair of columns would be needed.
The hole in the ceiling was also doubled.
Exposing the plywood subfloor of the hallway upstairs. The floor sag is most pronounced in this area.
Last week, it was uncertain if the floor sag could be eradicated or even improved.
Today though…drum roll, please…it now seems obvious that the sag can be fully eradicated. We were able to reduce the sag by about an inch today! After the house settles a bit, we will jack up some more!
I have waited seven years for this. Seven years of concern and uncertainty. For seven years I ached for level.
And this week I might just get leveled.
Ross excited.
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Inch by Inch
Level floor = better for all.
Level floors in an old house? It’s a miracle! Or rather, lots of hard work — and lots of baby steps — to get there. Congratulations to you and your team.
I recognize that wiring a bit. I had stuff like that in my attic. A wire that goes through a ceramic tube through a small hole in the rafters. You need to replace that stuff. Have you had an electrician inspect the Coach House? You may need the entire place rewired with a new circuit breaker box. My wiring had already been replaced (the old stuff just left in place) but I did have to have the service upgraded with a new breaker box.
You can only be inconvenienced by bad plumbing, but bad wiring can kill you. (and burn down your house)
It’s called knob & tube and not replacing it while all the walls and ceilings are at least partly open would be… rather unwise. It might still be safe for lights but certainly not for large loads like heaters. The saving grace is that the wires were kept far away from anything metal or combustible by those ceramic knobs and tubes, so even if the wires were completely bare, the wiring would still be somewhat safe. The main problem spots are where the wires are connected to lights (and possibly exposed to the heat of light bulbs) and where they enter switches. That’s where the wires aren’t kept far apart and where the environment can speed up the degradation of the cloth and rubber insulation.
If you can do it without utterly destroying your house, always have it rewired! Some US insurance companies apparently even refuse to cover a house with such wiring.
Not safe for not only heaters but appliances like a refrigerator and stove, washer and dryer, new TV. If it’s got knob and tube it also has fuses instead of breakers. The first thing I did was switch out the fuse box for a breaker box.
When I first bought my house the insurance company sent over a rep and he inspected it thoroughly. He said even though the wiring had been upgraded (and he went up in the attic to inspect) he still wanted me to pull all the old wires and tubes out. I ended up with a bucket full of the ceramic tubes. The wires were just in pieces cut every few feet so easy to pull. But they were fine with everything else. I imagine it was rewired in 1949 with the renovations and the kitchen and bedroom addition. Still, when I added PV I had to upgrade again. Even if it is working perfectly, knob and tube is so old that it would be pennywise and pound foolish to just leave it. Something will eventually happen and it will be bad. My old breaker box had a breaker or two keep tripping because of the load of modern day appliances, even though I switched out the stove for a vintage gas one and replaced the water heater with a tankless. I would be reading and the lights would dim for a bit, then come back, probably from the refrigerator. Haven’t had any problems since upgrading.
BTW later I was going to switch insurance companies but The Hartford didn’t like my furnace. It’s under the house in the crawlspace and the heat just floats up. The local utility has no problem with it and says it is a workhorse that will last another 50 years but The Hartford didn’t like it. Some companies are particular about the breed of dog you have, so if you have a German Shepherd, Rottweiler or Chow you may not get insurance from them. Every company is different but I’m not getting rid of my furnace just to please The Hartford.
So glad you are getting leveled! You have been a busy boy! 🙂