As you know, from previous posts, the roof was in horrible condition, prior to the replacement. One of the side-effects of the status of the roof was that it leaked. No it more than leaked, at one point we had an indoor waterfall during a mild rain. As a result of the water damage that came with the leaky roof, some off the flooring needed to be pulled up so that it could be replaced.
Normally this would be an "easy" process requiring about a day's worth of work. Unfortunately, as things with this house are never normal that didn't work out that way. My Husband and brother-in-law got started on the project with a sawsall and began cutting out the 3/4 inch flooring. In the process of unearthing the flooring, we found an unfortunate problem. Here they are in no particular order:
1. The joists were of uneven sizes, and not just irregular by like a 1/2 or 1/4 of an inch between each. Some were 2x 10's, some 2x8's, and others were 2x6's. The problem was that where there were gaps the prior owners used other shims of different sizes to make the floor "level." What this means is that although the flooring was 'level' (and I use the term loosely here) when you walked on it, it was in fact completely irregular underneath with a patchwork of wood shoved in to make it "appear" level when you place a foot on the floor, or put a level down on it. Again a saftey issue, because one section of the floor was 'stronger' than another due to the width of the joist supporting the floor.
2. The joists didn't overlap across the center beam, some barely reached the center beam, and others were 'jimmied' to reach the beam. Unfortunately this is a severe saftey issue. When the joists (or the cross sections that form the platform of the flooring) don't overlap, it means that there is an uneven distribution of weight across the floor. Plus for those joists that were 'jimmied' (basically a 2x6 that didn't quite reach the beam so a 2x4 was placed on the center beam and then stretched across to meet the 2x6) could cause serious problems with the strength of the overall building basically making the entire add-on structurally uninhabitable.
3. The joists were also not shored up along the exterior walls. In non-contractor speak, when you build a "box" you want the structures that are going to support any weight to have an even distribution between them. In addition to make sure that the structure can support weight and shift, similar to Lincoln logs, you want to allow the internal framing to extend a little beyond where the actual weight will be placed. To get an image of what this is like, try and stack pens (or pencils) in a box by overlapping the edges. The more you overlap the edges, the sturdier the box, the less you overlap the edges the less sturdy... This is done for safety, but its' also done to make sure that the building or box won't shift too much under any pressure, say like an earthquake. The addition... well to put it mildly, didn't have this in place, so effectively a minor to major tremor would basically make the rear of the building twist off the frame like a clumsy belly dancer.
4. For those joists that were actually "big enough" (2x8's or larger) the previous owners did something that didn't make a whole bunch of sense... they notched from the bottom of the joists to allow for power and water to go through them. Now normally drilling a hole in the center of a joist is okay - so long as it is not in the edge of the joist. Why? Because if it is a circle, and in the 'center' of the joist (midway between the edges of the width) the weight or pressure is distributed around the hole similar to an arch and therefore the strength of the joist isn't compromised. Not it's not advisable that you do this repeatedly, as it will make the beam weaker. However the prior owners didn't do this, instead they cut square notches from the bottom of the joists, basically making the joists look like a Appalachian hillbilly. (All toothy, but mostly gaps) This means that the strongest point of the joist doesn't exist, and utlimately made the whole addition a sham.
After seeing all of this work. My husband stopped working on the addition.
