Can this room be saved?(#1)

[amerikat]

Absolutely positively it can. All it takes is a vision, a few bucks and some hard work.

Some background information about the room to be renovated and the property are in order here.

My brother grew tired of the rat race in NJ and decided to move to upstate NY and buy a bar. It’s a real nice piece of property just a couple of hundred feet from the Hudson River. The bar is located on the ground floor and there is an apartment too( rented). My brother and his wife live in a small apartment above the bar. The apartment could be much bigger. There is ample space that is connected to their apartment that just needs to be renovated. That’s where I come in. I have lots of construction experience and they asked me to transform the space for them. He’s my brother what could I say. I said yes.

I am not a contractor, So it’s pretty big task for me to act as the general contractor for job of this scope. I know it’s only one room and a hallway but for me it’s a rather big project. The floor is not level, it's out of level 3 1/2" over 8 feet.

Without further ado here is a pic of the dark, unheated, un electrified room that shall become the master bedroom. Notice the paneling?





I'm examining the heating register that goes nowhere. Notice the 30 Cubic yard dumpster in the window.

To be honest, the renovation is well underway and much progress has been made. I'll try to update this post weekly (and hope it isn't weakly).

I have lots of pics and would like to share them with all Du'ers .

[NMDemDist2]

1. it's a lovely window

and that's a start LOL

by all means, keep us posted :bounce:

[amerikat]

7. The windows were put in a couple of months ago.

They were not properly installed so I took them out and reinstalled them correctly.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Any room can be saved ........

.... and no doubt that one can be.

You mentioned the floor's being uneven. That's a pretty substantial difference (3-1/2" over 8'-0"). Obviously its on old building. The difference could be settling or it could be some structural failure. In either case, it would probably be best to at least know why.

Some thoughts (knowing nothing about the building) ......... It could be a minor structural failure like a cracked joist or beam. The fix is to jack everything back into place and then 'sister' a new structural part to the old one.

It could be some past 'repair' done wrong (removal of a structural member that was more important than anyone realized) if the low spot is opposite the outside wall. It could be some rot in the foundation or the sill of the outside wall if the low spot is at the outside wall. The fix is about the same as the above ... but also to replace any structure removed earlier.

It may be that there's nothing more than just settling. In any case, it should probably be corrected. And that may be a small job or a huge one. For prudence sake, it might be best to get a structural engineer out there to have a look.

At the end of the day, it may also be that you just choose to live with the slope and call it 'character' ..... but I think it would be best to at least know why.

Good luck!

And keep the pictures coming! :hi:

[amerikat]

3. It's post and beam, pegged together.

No nails in the frame at all. It's old alright mid 1800's we think. Stone foundation is in ok shape. We had a mechanical engineer look at the entire building before the purchase. He recommended some beams be replaced in the basement. Which was done.

I couldn't live with the floor being 3 1/2" out of level. The area where I am in the picture was the highest spot in the room. I cut out two layers of floor boards in that area exposing the structural members. They are massive old pine beams about 10 x 16 inches and about six feet apart. I used a laser level and shimmed the floor to level using 2 x 4's 16" on center. I insulated with fiberglass and covered the new frame with 3/4 t&g plywood. It's rock solid and the noise from below has been greatly reduced. Heres a pic of the floor framing in progress.

[NMDemDist2]

4. nice! and you HAD to level that floor n/t

[amerikat]

5. Other parts of the build are way out of level too.

Every piece of furniture looks like it's about to fall over if it isn't shimmed up. Having shims under everything make cleaning difficult. I've also noticed that area rugs on un level floor tend to slowly move downhill when you walk on them. So yes I had to fix it.

[NMDemDist2]

6. i lived in a 1920's bungelow that had fallen off it's foundation on one

corner

if you dropped a marble in the kitchen it would roll right thru the dining room and across the living room until it hit the far corner

not good!

[Warpy]

8. You need to find out why the floor's not level before you do much

renovating on that room, even hanging a new window to seal it up. Floors out of level generally mean structural problems, and 3 1/2 inches mean a significant structural problem.

Did you get lucky and find either plaster or sheetrock under those acres of gorgeous paneling?

I think that carpeting is the same that was in my fixer upper house when I bought the place. Hard to tell, the former owners had 3 dogs, 3 cats, and a couple of free flying birds.

[amerikat]

9. The floor being so out of level is due to

the post and beam construction. The post and beam sitting on the foundation is the highest point in the room. The floor beams are massive but have sagged over time. The beams are like 10 x 16" and are exposed in the room below. I can see the sag from there. They are very solid and rest on solid posts sitting on a pretty good stone foundation. I'll try to remember to get a pic of the floor beams.

[bleedingheart]

10. was there no way to use jacks to level it?

but if it is really old it might not be an option.

mr. b and I looked at a house built in 1798 and it was way out of level and needed to be pulled apart and put back together...a bit more than we wanted to do with small kids...but is was a beauty...original woodwork in the dining room....looked like something out of Williamsburg...

[amerikat]

11. Not an option in this case.

There is an operating bar/restaurant below. The engineer was satisfied that the structure was sound after some beam replacement in the basement. Other work done in the past has not cracked so I think the building has finished settling for the most part.

The structure is so old that it's hard to get any early history. We did hear that it was once a barn that housed mules for the ferry crossing or for pulling barges on the canal that is only about 1/4 Mile away. If it was built as a barn and converted to a home that may explain some things. Barns weren't built as accurately as houses.

[Longhorn]

12. It sounds like an amazing building.

I hope the bar business and remodel are a great success! :hi:

[amerikat]

13. It is amazing. To think that trees were felled and were hand

hewn into giant beams and assembled into a structure using no nails is amazing, but hey thats how all buildings were made at the time.