Solutions for Sagging Floors That Don't Work in Minnesota and Wisconsin (And One That Does!)

Your house is suffering from sagging floors and you know something needs to be done before the problem gets worth. So, being the savvy shopper you are, you begin to research all of the different options to help raise your floors and put your home back in balance. With so many different options you begin to feel overwhelmed. This is a serious problem and you want to make sure the right decision is made. We’d like to help you sort through all the clutter to find the lasting solutions that solves the real problem, the soil.

Let’s begin by looking at the cheap and easy option, adding additional shimming. In order to use this option the girder is temporarily lifted in order to push shims between the column and the girder. Your house is now lifted to where you think you want it, but with this very temporary fix you will find yourself repairing damages over and over. The shims are not able to support a heavy load and after time you’ll have to keep adding to your pile of shims to maintain the position you want your house in.

How about Concrete Columns? You’ve seen it done before and concrete seems strong. In order to do this concrete footings are poured throughout your crawl space. When the concrete footings cure, concrete blocks would be stacked on top of the footings, often with mortar between the blocks. When the mortar cures, shims are placed between the highest concrete block and the girder. It sounds like a solid solution, but it is quite time consuming, and on top of that this solution is not adjustable. As time passes, the concrete columns also settle into the soil, which will then cause you to begin adding additional shims and eventually even adding new concrete columns. If you can’t trust the current columns under your house, why add new ones?

How about a do-it-yourself option that can be picked up at a local hardware store? Light Duty Jack Posts have been a popular option that we often see under sagging floors. This type of support just requires a concrete block to be laid on top of the soil and the a light duty jack post is placed on top of it. This jack post is then tightened to fit against the girder.While these light duty jack posts are not vulnerable to rot and can be quickly installed, they are not good for much else. As their name suggests, they can hold very little weight. They are also difficult to adjust and don’t address the most important problem, the weak foundation solids below.

Now that you’ve crossed all of those “solutions” off your list, we’d like to introduce you to the one solution that works every time, the SmartJack. The SmartJack is the steel support system we use in crawl spaces to stabilize and level girders and floor joists. This system has been laboratory tested to support loads over 60,000 pounds, making it ideal to stabilize sagging floors, walls sitting atop those floors, and additional loads from the home. This is also the only solution that addresses the real problem, the soil. In order to address this problem and install the smart jacks we excavate a cube of soil at each SmartJack installation point. The hole gets filled with concrete or engineered fill of tightly-compacted crushed stone. The custom designed structural footing is put into place and made level atop the engineered fill. Following this, a high strength, galvanized steel column is cut to fit your crawl space. This column and components are put together and attached to the girder. The SmartJack system is then tightened into place. This lifts the girder and floor joists into immediate stabilization and lifting of the floors and walls can be completed.

Using SmartJacks provides the opportunity to lift floors and walls back to their original position. The engineered footing helps fix the problem in the soil by transferring the load beyond the affected soil. This permanent solution fixes the root of the problem in your crawl space while allowing for easy adjustments. For added protection, this solution can even be installed with a zinc-plated structural steel girder to ensure the system will never be susceptible to wood rot, mold, or moisture. If you want to know more about permanently stabilizing your home just provide us with your information. We’ll send one of our design specialists out to your home for a free no-obligation estimate to help with your sagging floors.