Support System

In the last house post, I showed some pictures of the house up on jacks.  That setup only lasted for a couple of days though - they rebuilt the north wall frame and sill on top of the foundation and set the house back down all in one day.  Over the course of the next week they inserted new steel support beams and posts in the basement to change where the house distributed its weight.  In the process of doing this they leveled out the floors and the house as a whole.  The difference between the old supports and the new ones is noticeable right away throughout the house - not only is it more level but it just feels much more *solid*.  The floors and stairs don't really creak when you walk around anymore, and the house doesn't shake when you run the laundry or step too heavily.   The slight downside is that because the house had been slouching for so long a few parts had a tough time adjusting to the new leveling.  We have cracks in the walls all over the house now.  Some are tiny and barely visible but some look a lot worse.  Contractor Larry assured us that the cracks are all normal and expected and can be easily patched up later on.

See pictures of the new frame, support beams, and wall cracks after the jump.

Repaired sill and frame, north wall near front of house

Repaired sill and frame, north wall near back of house

New support beam and pole in the basement

Support pole sitting on the new footing in the basement

This is at the top of the stairs on the second floor, facing towards the front of the house.  These cracks are much more noticeable now than when I took this picture, but stopped getting bigger a few days after the final support beams were put in place.

Cracks above the door inside the front bedroom, on the other side of the wall from the clock in the previous picture.