Structural Repair

Saving a 1772 Farmhouse: the Structural Repairs — Jackson Springs

More than one person had told the owner of this 1772 farmhouse that the kind thing to do was tear it down. From the yard it did not look that bad. Under the floor it did: termites had eaten the sills hollow under the kitchen gable and the back corner, the girder carrying the living room had failed, a pier was gone, and the addition's roof had been framed without a ridge that could carry it. The floors sagged toward the middle of the house and the trim had pulled away from the walls.

We do not tear a house like that down. We get an engineer. Harrison (Bare Engineering www.bareeng.com) walked it with us, and their sealed drawings called out exactly what the house needed: a new footing and block stem wall under the kitchen gable, a new drop girder under the living room, numbered pier footings under every bearing point that had failed, the termite-damaged sections of sill and floor framing cut out and rebuilt, and a new roof system for the addition with a real ridge beam and hangers.

Then we did the work in the order the house could take it. Temporary shoring first, under every joist and rafter that was about to lose its support. The old girder came out and the new one went in on bottle jacks. The sills came next: cut out the hollow timbers, set new built-up sill beams on jacks and bracing, and build the piers underneath, each on a poured footing with its rebar mat, numbered to match the engineer's sheet. The addition's ridge beam went up with the tractor and the rafters were tied to it properly. When the jacks came out, the floors were flat and the house was standing on its own legs for the first time in decades.

With the structure sound, we used the open floors and walls to run the new plumbing, electrical and heat-pump rough-in and to insulate, so the house was tight and ready for its rooms. That is the job we were hired for: make a 250-year-old house safe to invest in.

The structure, done · 4 photos

Now that we've installed a new ridge beam and sistered all the existing ceiling framing, we removed scaffolding, and the open floor plan can be realized.

Town Jackson Springs (Montgomery County, just over the Moore County line)Completed 2022Category Structural & Repair · HistoricDetails New footing and 8 in. CMU stem wall under the kitchen gable · New ridge beam and rafter hardware in the addition's roof · Temporary shoring throughout

The work

Assess and engineer. Floors opened, framing measured, and an engineer brought in before anything was cut. Sealed drawings became the scope, so the owner and the county inspector both knew exactly what was being built.

Shore before you cut. Temporary posts under every joist and rafter about to lose support. Nothing comes out of an old house until something else is carrying the load.

Replace the girder. The failed living-room girder was cut out in sections and a new drop girder set on bottle jacks, then lowered onto new block piers.

Rebuild the sills. Termite-eaten sills under the kitchen gable and the back corner were cut out, new built-up sill beams jacked into place, and the floor framing above repaired.

Footings and piers. Each pier got its own poured footing with a rebar mat, formed and squared under the house and poured by wheelbarrow. Block piers went up on the footings; the stem wall went in under the kitchen gable.

Re-frame the addition roof. A new ridge beam lifted in with the tractor, rafters hung and tied to it with proper hardware, and the gable sheathed on its new sill.

Rough-in while it is open. New plumbing, electrical and heat-pump ductwork run through the open framing, then insulation, so nothing has to be torn back out later.

Before, During, After

Before

A back bedroom. The floor had dropped enough that the window trim had pulled away from the wall.

The long front room. Every joist under this floor was carried by a girder that had given up.

Looking through the main house toward the back door. The fall in the floor is visible from here.

Inside the addition. The rafters had spread and the ceiling joists were doing the roof's job.

The front porch and the two-story main block. Peeling paint and a dropped porch floor were the least of it.

The north side: the addition in red, the main house in white, and the back corner that had settled.

The hall toward the bathroom with the partitions gone. Everything downstairs was going to be rebuilt on new structure.

During

What came out from under the house: hand-hewn sills and girders eaten hollow by termites.

Temporary shoring under the living room before the old girder was cut out.

The end of the old girder on a bottle jack. The outer shell was all that was holding.

Temporary posts under every rafter and joist in the addition while the roof structure was rebuilt.

Looking down the length of the addition through the shoring.

The new drop girder going in under the living room, lifted into place on bottle jacks.

New girder set. The floor above stopped moving the same day.

The engineer's drawing with the new piers numbered. Every footing we poured matches a number on this sheet.

The kitchen gable wall: rotted sills, a failed pier, and siding that was mostly paint.

Under the kitchen window. The sill had been sitting on a field stone and the ground for a long time.

Helping remove the old "foundation" so we can put new footings in place.

Gotta love the way they did joints with mortise and tenon and wood dowels

We affectionately refer to this process as house Tetris. The process where we stabilize existing framing so that we can adjust the foundation below.

Old sill timbers set aside. The hollow one was carrying a corner of the house.

Forming a new footing for a pier under the house, where the engineer called for it.

Existing foundations that needed to be replaced.

The base of an old post, rotted through, resting on a stone.

Building scaffolding to allow us to work on the new ridge beam

Installing new rafters on a poorly framed roof.

How the old rafters were tied to the walls.

How the new ones are: hangers, ties, and a ridge beam sized to carry the roof.

The new ridge beam staged in the yard with the main house behind it.

Lifting the ridge beam into the addition with the tractor.

Setting the ridge beam through the gable.

Preparing for foundation repair on existing addition that had excessive termite damage.

Suspending existing framing so we can place old foundation stone as part of the new masonry wall. A little touch of style with a nod to craftsmen of old.

During photo: Saving a 1772 Farmhouse: the Structural Repairs — Jackson Springs

A pier footing with its rebar mat, ready to pour.

Footing number five with temporary framing still holding the corner of the house in the air until we can get the new foundation finished. The jack stays until the block cures.

Numbering footings for clear communication between us and subcontractors.

Pour day, in the rain. The concrete for interior footings, came in by a wheelbarrow through the front door.

Termite-eaten sill under the back corner of the main house.

The old sill beside the new one that replaced it.

The back corner opened up: the rotted sill removed and the floor framing exposed for repair.

The new sill beam bearing on a rebuilt stone-and-block pier.

With a new foundation, we are reframing the gable wall wall.

Original wallpaper found behind the plaster, left in place behind the new framing.

Reframing the bathroom floor on new foundation piers

Opening up kitchen flooring to allow for plumbing and HVAC ductwork to be installed. We had to remove a lot of the existing stuff to get plastic down between the duct and the raw dirt.

New block piers under the original girders.

A block pier replacing stacked stone under a hand-hewn girder.

After

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