I am remodeling my 65 year old house. The perimeter foundation is in good shape and reasonably level. The piers have settled leaving the floor lower in places and some wall cracks. The piers are poured concrete and look to be in good shape. I am looking for information and reference books on leveling the house before I do the remodel. Any information on this subject would be great.
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Taunton Press published "Renovating Old Houses" by George Nash which has quite a lot about foundation repairs and leveling floors. A revised edition is in print and you can order it from the on line bookstore.
Or available at your local Lowes.
Sounds a lot like my house. My piers are made of brick. My first project after buying my house was leveling it. I didn't want to build and remodel everything else crooked to fit it. I had no experience in this, but understand structural loading and physics well. I figured it out. I bought a couple 20 ton hydraulic jacks, and rented a few 20 ton screw jacks. I bought about 30 8' 4x4's. I just started jacking that center beam up as evenly as possible. I wish that I had my laser level then. It was a lot of work running strings and making marks all over the place. I did this 2 different times taking about 2 days each a couple weeks apart.
My house is level, or maybe a 1/4" off over the entire lenth of the house. I had to add about 4 to 6 inches to the top of each pier. I knew that if they sank before, they probably will continue sinking, so this is not the end of the job. I have since replaced one pier , and removed one. I now have a steel center beam on half of the house. I found that the footing was totally inadaquate on the old piers. The footing was maybe a couple inches wider than the bricks, probably more of a way of holding the base bricks together rather than a footing. My new footing is about 3 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet with a steel column. It was a lot of work, but it is solid now. In the next couple years I intend to replace the rest of the center beam and put two more new piers in.
If you are not strong willed, and not a bit of a risk taker I wouldn't recommend this. The house can make some scary noises, and you could kill yourself this way. If in doubt hire someone that knows.