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- 9 Jul 2025
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Have bought an older (70s) house that has sufferered from settlement inside the house. That has been underpinned some years ago. What we are left with is internal walls being settled at varying levels.
Downstairs is fine, that an can be levelled with a screed etc. Its the first floor that is the issue.
Depending on room, the floor is up to 70mm out from external wall -> end of room - perhaps over 4m. Mostly 50-70mm.
As we are doing a total refurb, now is the time to sort this problem and not in the future.
The main issue is we have a spine wall running the length of the house east to west, this is a standard 100mm block wall 16ft high. The north side of the house has all of its joists running into this wall. The joists are pocketed into the cavity external block wall and pocketed into the 100mm block wall.
My cousin is a carpenter and suggested instead of bringing the levels up to the external wall level, bring down the high levels of joists at the external walls to the "new" level. A lot of labour but is somewhat DIY.
The idea is as follows:
- Take a few feet of plasterboard down around the external walls at ground floor level.
- Go room by room. Support joists with acrows in room 1.
- Option A: Notch 70mm out of block directly under each joist. Knock and drop joists as we move along. Fill above with mortar etc.
- Option B: Cut all ceiling joists close to wall. Drop joists down into a bearer plate with hangers and resin anchor into the wall.
Joists are 7x2 on 300 centers, no sagging etc.
Example of issue:
Obviously this will cause issues with any stud walls upstairs. Also all radiators will have to be drained/taken off as these pipes will also drop.
Is this reasonable?
Thank you!
Downstairs is fine, that an can be levelled with a screed etc. Its the first floor that is the issue.
Depending on room, the floor is up to 70mm out from external wall -> end of room - perhaps over 4m. Mostly 50-70mm.
As we are doing a total refurb, now is the time to sort this problem and not in the future.
The main issue is we have a spine wall running the length of the house east to west, this is a standard 100mm block wall 16ft high. The north side of the house has all of its joists running into this wall. The joists are pocketed into the cavity external block wall and pocketed into the 100mm block wall.
My cousin is a carpenter and suggested instead of bringing the levels up to the external wall level, bring down the high levels of joists at the external walls to the "new" level. A lot of labour but is somewhat DIY.
The idea is as follows:
- Take a few feet of plasterboard down around the external walls at ground floor level.
- Go room by room. Support joists with acrows in room 1.
- Option A: Notch 70mm out of block directly under each joist. Knock and drop joists as we move along. Fill above with mortar etc.
- Option B: Cut all ceiling joists close to wall. Drop joists down into a bearer plate with hangers and resin anchor into the wall.
Joists are 7x2 on 300 centers, no sagging etc.
Example of issue:
Obviously this will cause issues with any stud walls upstairs. Also all radiators will have to be drained/taken off as these pipes will also drop.
Is this reasonable?
Thank you!
