*Jacking A Building*
Fixing a FUBAR
By: Jaden
12 October 2009

I recently took a job and a couple of the problems that needed fixing were a sag in a floor and a water leak in to the room. Upon investigation of the sag I knew something was very wrong, then after looking at the building it was very obvious. The two rooms are an addition and were collapsing and pulling away from the old structure.

Above you can see where the roof line has dropped at the joint and the same with the vinyl siding. That is never a good thing.

When I crawled underneath and culprit was quickly found. Whoever built the addition didn't put enough support posts in. There were a few, but not many.

"Look closely and what do you see?"

"Looks good huh?"

Not only did the geniouses who built this not put in enough support posts, they didn't put any underneath the joint to support the wall and they only used nails to hold the two buildings together.

I had to lift the building and then put in posts and after that was done I needed to bolt the buildings together. I took 3 of my jacks and figured that 36 tons of lifting force would be sufficient. :) The job could have been done with one jack. However, I would have created more work by having to move it around multiple times. It was easier to have 3 in 3 different places.

"In the right pic you can see the sagging joint"

"The metal plate keeps the jack from pushing in to the wood."

I raised the building just over 3.5". After putting in all of the support posts I drilled through the old carrying beam and the addition's excuse of a carrying beam and bolted the two buildings together in several places using 10"x5/8" bolts and fender washers.

So the jacking project was a success and now it's on to roof and wall repair.
Jaden

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