Monday Night Countdown

[digitaldiscipline]

Any of you who watch the show referenced in the title during football season will get the eventual reference. . .

Folks arrived yesterday, kicked around Ybor, and then, as angel_sil indicated, the Gothopia Moon Base Alpha contingents became permanent Happy Hour patrons at TBBC. What she glossed over was the twitch-inducing Muppets-and-Ashanti version of The Wizard of Oz that was playing on the big screen while we ate.

K was feeling unwell, so we came home and promptly crashed. Up and at 'em this morning, the womenfolk tackled gardening while the menfolk struck out in search of The Right Tool For The Job (in this case, a pair of 12 ton hydraulic lifts to get the ass-end of the utility room on the level with the rest of GMBAN - a feat of about an inch and a half). Three Home Depots later, we were successful. Not sure if "inability to find store with right tool available for rent" qualified us for Drive Of Shame status or not, but, meh.

Also procured fixtures to cast illumination in the central hallway. K & Dad laid down for a much-needed nap (Mom snoozed on the couch), I poked around WoW for a bit, and then Mom and I did a bit more gardening (including planting PFC Walter Wallace's marker in the northeast corner of the front yard).

"806 E Hamilton - you've been JACKED UP!" [with apologies to Tom Jackson]

Comments

What a coincidence...

[ex-requiella957.livejournal.com]

We also went to Home Depot today and got some similar stuff--in our case, it was 3 house jacks that we're going to put under our main beam in the basement. We want to get rid of the cracks in the walls. I'm just hoping we know what we're doing...any advice would be much appreciated!! Hope your hydraulic lifts do the trick.

Re: What a coincidence...

[etcet.livejournal.com]

the trick to keep your plaster from cracking is to lift evenly - if you can pump all three jacks at the same time, that's best.

make sure you've got something sturdy under the jack, and something sturdy to push against (and with).

ours worked like a charm, and the utility room no longer slopes noticeably (it was something like an inch and a half of drop in five feet - this is going to be torn right off the ass-end of the house when i put the addition on, because it's not up to the standard of the rest of the dwelling, which is dead level despite being ninety years old.

Re: What a coincidence...

[ex-requiella957.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the input. Our house is 93 years old, but it's not as level as yours. We've got sag in the middle, and there are many cracks in the plaster throughout the house. We were going to put the jacks on the concrete floor of the basement, under the main beam. When you say to use something sturdy to push against, what type of thing did you use? Ours will be in the middle of the floor.

Re: What a coincidence...

[etcet.livejournal.com]

a concrete floor is plenty stable. i presume you're going to be using a full-height house jack (screw-type?), which will go against one of the joists in the low spots. obviously, you want to put the jack agaist good wood at the top end, not something prone to squishing or, worse, disintegrating. if you need to sister any of the joist(s), do that first, obviously.

whereas in my case, i had to put down bricks & pavers, because underneath my house is sandy soil, and then replace the rented jack with a 4" wooden fence post cut to length on top of a concrete paving stone.

Re: What a coincidence...

[ex-requiella957.livejournal.com]

Good advice. It sounds like you know what you're doing! Thanks again. :)

Re: What a coincidence...

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Be aware that by jacking things up ocne they've settled into a particular position, you may create new cracks. If things are better supported, of course, you can patch both new and old and they shouldn't come back, but there will be some new stuff that shows up when you move things.