Run!
Justin, Scott, and their assistant, Brock, were in the carriage house.
An ear-piercing noise was heard and, as Justin later told me: “I was suddenly weightless! It was terrifying.”
What happened?
A Lally column in the basement had buckled and all the jacking up this past week, in an instant, fell back down to ‘normal’.
Justin was on the second floor. “The floor just gave way below me.”
Luckily, all the other columns remained in place.
But…gee willikers!
The guys replaced the Lally column with some stout wood, and the floor jacking resumed. It appears that we can fully eradicate the droop of the second-floor joists during the next few days.
Assuming, of course, that the ground does not give way to China.
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Will a sistered beam added to each of the warped beams be able to maintain the level or will the already warped beams pull the newly attached sister beams down when the columns are removed?
Is the reason you are jacking up rather than just replacing the beams that there are floors above you want to save?
Bent floor joists cannot be made straight. They need to be cut through vertically, then the two pieces can be jacked up. When this is done, a new 2x12x12 is bolted to the old joists.
It’s really hard to tear out bad joists. They are nailed to the subfloor.
Wait, a steel Lally column buckled? Was it not filled with concrete?
I would stop any jacking and get a structural expert in to look at things. Buckling usually indicates enormous forces at play.
I would think that a wood replacement would be more likely to fail than the steel column it replaced.
Our wood replacement was really…beefy.
Because of the jacking of the second floor, the basement column was supporting it usual weight plus the force of the jacks for the second floor- When I did a similar project, I added additional temporary supports under the jacks to help support the additional force and prevent causing a sag of the 1st floor.
At least his weightlessness experience wasn’t millions of dollars like Branson’s and Bezos’s masturbatory adventures…
(snicker-snicker!)
Snort
Never a dull moments! 🙂
Yikes! Glad everyone is OK — and the house is OK, too. That must have been scary.
Also: I believe I found a few typos. As always, please delete this comment after you review them.
lolly column: should be a “Lally column,” as it’s named after its inventor, John Lally. See the entry in Wikipedia on Lally columns for a little information about him. Interesting stuff.
wilikers: should have two Ls: willikers
“Assuming, of course, that the ground does not give way the China.” Should “the China” be “to China”?
All corrected! Thanks, Barb!
Oops — I missed this one: “The guys replaced the lolly column with . . .”
Also: I love the reference to “stout wood.” Lovely description, as is “the droop of the second-floor joists.” You are such a good writer.
This is a bit random given consequence of the work being done here, but I truly loved Ross’s reference to the ground giving way to China. As a kid I really believed I could dig through the earth and get to China, and I did try. I had a prized tin bandaid box, that I filled with a some small treasure and buried in a sand pile and believed it might get to China. I was about 5… but it was great to hear this.
Good luck with he incredible and cool work! I am in admiration.
I love the word lally column. It reminds me of one of MY favorite Cary Grant movies, “Mr. Blandings builds His Dream House”.. and in his lovely Cary Grantish voice he speaks of lally columns. I have watched that movie at least 10 times.
So Ross, please add a few more lally columns anywhere you would like!
Linda, I also love the movie! And I adore Cary Grant! Tragically, young people have no idea who he was! This makes me so sad.
They also do not know who Barbra Streisand is!!!!!😮😲
Or the FRITO BANDITO!!!! Lol
Luv the above references. Also over their heads: When it’s hot and you say you want to take a nestea plunge! 🙂
If the second floor dropped because a basement column failed….does that mean the ground floor is now compromised too?