I just bought a house (well, not JUST) in Southern Louisiana with the foundation piers requiring some maintenance and repair. Almost all of them (8" x 24", all brick, approx 18" tall) will require some tuck- pointing of the mortar, and the remaining ones are in bad enough shape or are leaning far enough that they will need to be demo'd and rebuilt. I also need to sister a couple of floor joists and replace one 6x6 sill beam. The house is still fairly level, with about a
3-1/2" height differential in the floors (which is considered borderline for needing leveling for these parts). While I'm at it, I'd like to level the house again, but I'm unsure of the following things:
- What should my order of operations be? It seems that I should start from the ground up--piers, sill, joists, leveling everything as I go.
- My plan to re-lay a pier is as follows: Jack and block the sill on either side of the pier, twice (the first time will likely settle a bit), until the sill is at whatever arbitrary elevation I decide it should be, knock down the existing brick, use some Type M mortar (adding a little extra cement), re-lay the brick right up to about
- To tuck-point, dig out the mortar until I get to good, hard stuff in the center 12" of the pier (enough that I have some bearing on of both of the sill beams), squeeze new mortar in with a grout bag, let it sit for 5 days, then do the outsides the same way. If the elevation at that point needs to be raised, jack and block, then use some non-shrink grout to fill in the last little bit, unless there's enough room for another brick.
- For leveling purposes, is it ever a good idea to go DOWN? I'm thinking I can minimize plaster damage and whatnot by choosing the elevation in the center, thereby moving a maximum of 1-3/4", rather than 3-1/2". The house is 80 years old, so I'm thinking that any further movement will be cyclical in nature, and just about all of the settlement has already occurred. Famous last words, right?
I know that's quite a mouthful. Thanks in advance, guys and gals.
Phil