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I'm looking for a pair of house jacks.
I'm not sure I'm using the correct name for them.
It's the one they use to raise a house, when they build an addition below.
Used to hold up a beam when doing repairs.
Length is adjustable with a pin in the slip fit pole, and a screw to fine tune.
I've seen them around, but can't find where to get some.
Been checking in craigs list, even posted an ad.
No luck,
Home Depot has adjustable jack posts in several different height ranges.
Look for Lally Column. Home Depot has them...I've used them in several placed in my 1840s farm house cellar.
[EDIT] - sorry...I see you want to actually be adjustable...you'll want a Jack Post. Lally Column is just that...an inadjustable column.
redhawk
Dunno your situation, but if it's just temporary for repairs, bottle jacks and 4x4s do well.
Also called a Screw Jack, among other things.
I got plenty of grain bin jacks :bigsmyl2:
We used to call them "jack posts" when we sold them at our lumber yard - any building material company should carry them. As already mentioned - dependss on what your task is. For "raising" house or building to repair foundation, we used to use large bottle jacks - much better mechanical advantage for raising large heavy weight - if that is what you require, usually you can rent them at a rental place that rents construction tools.
adjustable posts won't lift much. they are for stabilizing and have limited rating and little screw advantage. when i leveled a 100 year old balloon frame house i used a recirculating ball 25 ton jack designed for lifting railroad cars during wheel replacement.
screw jack or adjustable jack post. Pretty common and economical around 8-12 tons.
I watched some guys level a house a couple times.
They put a 6" x 6" beam under 3-4 floor joists, jacked it up with decent size hydraulic jacks like they have at the auto parts store.
Then shimmed the piers with bricks or boards.
They moved around a few times doing that until it came up right.
Kind of tedious maybe, but it didn't look hard.
Leveled many old homes back in the day. We used railroad jacks along with hydraulic jacks to get things leveled up then built permanent structure under that most times. Most homes we did only had crawl spaces. I dreaded the old homes that needed an extra foundation dug and poured. It takes awhile a half a five gallon bucket at a time but was darn good money in the winter months.
I have a bunch of bottle jacks.
Maybe I'll try it this way.......
4x4 long enough to fit the jack to the beam.
Another 4x4 long enough to fit without the jack. Safety post.
Jack it up, reinforce the beam, replace the wood support pole with cement blocks.
Seems like a plan.
But I'll still be o the look out for two "Jack post"
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by abunaitoo
From what I've seen, it isn't hard, just don't try to jack it up all at once from one spot like changing a car tire.
With a few jacks-- Raise it a little, shim, let it settle, check the levels, raise a little, and so on.
I use a water level to check the limits for level and then pull a string line for the field. Laser works too but costs more than clear hose and string. Spirit level is up for interpretation.
An acquaintance used bottle jacks and 4x4s to raise the roof on his garage to add support. The 4x4 slipped off the jack and hit him smack in the middle of his face. On and off migraines for years after. The takeaway - be Careful.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazoo
You only need to be 10% smarter than the tools and materials.
My dad got from somewhere these huge screw jacks. They stand about 2.5 feet and the screw can be extended at least another foot. He had previously poured a 1' thick concrete foundation under the front of the house. Then proceeded to slowley jack up the front of the house so where it was level. Far as I know those monster jacks are still there. Then he proceeded to form and pour another 8" wall between the jacks and the outside wall of the house. This house has a basement but about 1/3rd was a half basement. meaning it was never dug out. And had been filled in over the years with cinders from when the fuel for the house was coal. Frank
FWIW, I've used a Harbor Freight 20 ton hydraulic jack to set up and level 7 shipping containers along with a 12'x20' barn style shed loaded down with 21 years of stuff. Proper cribbing is a must as with all jacking operations. Paid for it many times over.
Slim