Bad Shit
You are standing in the 1894 bathroom, adjacent to the second-floor Sewing Room. You are looking up though the ceiling joists and into a closet on the third floor. Of note is the PVC waste line to the right. See how it cuts through a ceiling joist? This is VERY BAD. The joist now has no structural integrity. THIS IS BAD.
I have though come up with a rather clever solution, which I will reveal as work progresses.
This kind or shit drives me nuts. And this tale of woe gets worse.
In the dining room, I have been alarmed by a massive weight of the L O N G radiator under the north window causing it to sink into the floor at one end. This issue is not static but is progressing.
What is causing the issue? How can it be stopped, and reversed?
Justin and I marched down into the basement. Looking up we could see even more damage. Scary damage. The issue really needed attending to, STAT.
It was clear that a section of the oak flooring in the dining room would have to be pulled up, the rotted sub-flooring replaced as needed, and some additional structure inserted to help support the massive weight of the radiator.
Then…we noticed something. Oh. Oh! OH!
With our heads already craned up, we turned them to the right. It took a moment to even process what we were looking at.
And…FUCK!
All the damage was caused by a 2×12 joist having been…removed. To install an AC duct. A duct which was then never finished.
Justin looked at me. I looked back at him. Our four eyes registered shock and horror.
The right half of the radiator was sitting directly over an original 2×12 joist, which itself was sitting atop the foundation. It don’t get any better, structurally. As a result, the right half of the radiator was exactly where it had been placed in 1894.
But, the all-important joist had been removed under the left half of the radiator. A stupendously heavy object.
And if you combine great weight with gravity…bad things happen. What is up will go down.
All this for not just an AC duct (which was not even needed in such a location), but an unfinished duct.
Boys and girls? Do not do this kind of shit in your home!
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It’s the kind of thing that drives framers crazy as well! The thing is these kind of things are usually caught today because you can’t do anything without a permit and inspections. I have a feeling it may have been quite a bit more lax in the day this was put in. I’m curious as to the solution you come up with. Steel perhaps?
Good thing to have it fixed now (although that is an added cost). The frame will be solid again, under your care.
Discussions about decor, kitchen fittings and historical narrative really go by the wayside when we hear something like this, Ross – you really are saving the Cross House. Thank you.
I have a similar issue in our 1958 mid-century ranch.
The master bathroom is all powder blue tile, the toilet is powder blue. The entire shower surround is enclosed in powder blue tile. The floor is a white and powder blue tile design so it is rather heavy in one spot.
To add injury to a 63-year-old tile floor, is a cast iron waste pipe that runs 30 feet laterally under the floor and the pipe is suspended from the floor joists. This cast iron pipe which is attached to the two sinks, toilet, and shower is suspended diagonally across the ceiling in the basement crawlspace.
The combined weight of that plumbing and the tile shower in the corner of the bathroom has resulted in subsidence in the floor creating a crack in the tile that reaches across the floor to the shower stall. The resulting stress cracks in the wall of the shower have allowed water to get behind the wall and saturate the floor under the shower pan, adding to the weakening of the structure underneath.
63 years of this has probably warped the joists underneath so leveling the floor from below with jacks and lolly poles may cause other structural deformities.
I know I am going to have to sacrifice much of the floor tile as it is already damaged but the shower pan and wall with the plumbing are going to be a total loss.
If only the original construction crew placed support structures under that long cast iron pipe, the floor could have remained level.
We had a similar issue; our house (1886) originally had one bath on the first floor, and oddly enough, none on the second floor where all of the bedrooms are. In the 1920s a small bedroom located directly above the current kitchen became a full bath with cast iron pipes dissecting several of the floor joists/rafters. By the time we came along, this bathroom had sank around 1.5″ on one side and we had no choice but to tear out the kitchen ceiling. We expected bad, but what we found was shocking; the entire bathroom was basically hanging mid-air over the kitchen.
So Scary. And the other reader’s nightmares too. Always something… The lady is taunting you today. 🙁