Hello Fam,
Purchased a home in an area where there was practically zero inventory. Had to settle for a 100 year old home. The home has settled over the years naturally.
most of the rooms on the second floor are not level, including my office.
What are your recommendations for making a level workspace? I.e desk and more importantly chair not being on some sort of slant, unlevel position.
Desks are fairly easy. If doing by diy your first option is to take measurements and cut the legs so that they land evenly up top. Second option is to use adjustable feet to level out the desk.
If going buying a solution look for the option to use adjustable feet to level out the desk. Second way is to use wedges to bring up the uneven sides.
Chairs … well are the difficult one especially if they are the rolling type. I don’t have a solution for those. A fixed leg chair might get away with some furniture pads but it’s not going to feel right.
Ideally you’d want to pull up the floors if possible and adjust the beams to a new level. If your looking at a concrete floor there is a product out there that adds a skim coat to the floor that when dry level’s out the floor. Saves from having to dig it up and pour a new slab!
Yea I got many more expenses than expected moving in. I think pulling up slabs is overly expensive
It’s a natural wood floor. The rolling chair is the primary issue
I can only imagine. I was just putting it out there is all!
Good luck with the new place!
Depends what you are after:
level workspace is simply a business grade desk with independently adjustable feet that you can level
level floor: lift the house off the foundation rafters and slide in shims
I’ve don with with 6x 20 ton bottle jacks
You can imagine everyone’s surprise when suddenly all the cabinets and doors inside perfectly aligned
My desk has adjustable legs I got that worked out. Trying to figure out how to stabilize my chair without making structural modifications to the house
Can yo change out the casters or delete them at all? Locking casters or a peg / screw into small blocks of wood to keep from rolling everywhere!
Put a low or medium pile rug under the chair
then it won’t roll off
How is the fundation ? On what kind of ground is the building build. ? How are the suport beams for the floors ?
This is not somthing to think to easy about its a hunderd year old house. Maintanence is important.
I think if it where foundation the problem it would be more then only the 2nd floor. But if i where you i would check the beams of that floor.
U should find the source why the floors aren’t level. Its your house better be safe then sorry
I’ve helped Wendell do this a couple times it’s easier and less expensive than you think and it’s a permanent investment in your home
It also gives you a chance to inspect for termite damage and shoddy workmanship early
Fix the foundation first. Make sure it is sound.
I did have two steel columns reinforce the bottom floor. I was told the second floor is safe and you’d only have to do something if you “can’t live with it”
What’d you end up doing? Pull up floors and throw some floorboards down
we used telescoping floor jacks and we jacked them up using a bottle jack, once its at the appropriate level we placed another telescoping floor jack at the appropriate height and some wood to make it exact
I can’t speak for the guy’s technique or advice as I didn’t watch the whole video, these are just the telescoping jacks we used
Ah yes, but this is the second floor and the stairs arent supporting anything so its based on some old school code.
double check the walls aren’t bowing or out of level. it’s weird if 2f has problems but 1f is fine
have you considered square wheels?
it should mitigate the rolling issue.
It’s just a thought, but perhaps get something like this, so you can gauge what the levels are doing.
If you didn’t want to do that, at least get a marble and a flat sheet of any material you have to hand.
If you went for the laser, mark out the highs and lows, if you were lucky for instance, it would be high near the door and low near a window / where your desk is. You could do something like this:
It’s most likely that the slope is in the direction of the joists, that are at 90 degrees to the floor boards that you walk on.
It would be handy if you had a floor plan or photos, I’m making a lot of assumptions without knowing if it’s a masonry build, though I’m guessing as you’re in the US, it’s more likely a stick build (timber).
It might be good to do all of the whole first floor and see if the levels are off for both the back and front of the house, using the laser and pencil marking the wall to move a fixed datum.
Hope that helps!
walls seem fine, no evidence of cracks in the walls or anything, but something to keep an eye on. . We have stairs that arent supporting the second floor in any way, thats part of the problem. The house is hardwood throughout so it gets into a shitty situation pulling all that up for the mechanical engineer to see whats up for a long term fix, or a contractor for a short term solution without this being a money pit. The engineer noted that the house isnt going to fall on itself. its just old and settled.
Yea, its the second floor.
I’d kick off the work soon, but I have a 1.5 week old in the house now.
