Structural & new construction
Structural carpentry
Beams, posts, joists, and repairs to what holds the house up.
This is the work that holds the house up: beams, posts, joists, and the rotted framing under a porch. A floor that bounces or slopes toward the middle of the room is telling you a beam, a post, or a pier has given up. In older St. Louis homes it is often a wood post set on dirt in a basement corner that rotted at the bottom.
What we are replacing, and how the load gets carried while we do it, goes in writing before the first cut. We shore first, and where the load path changes we bring in an engineer. The carpenter who crawled under the house is the one doing the repair.
The honest question is usually whether to repair the framing or rebuild the assembly. We will show you what we find and price both.
What is included
- Sagging floor and beam repair
- Joist sistering and replacement
- Post and pier replacement
- Header and beam installation
- Deck and porch structural repair
- Rot and termite damage replacement
Options
- LVL and steel beams
- Adjustable steel posts
- Treated lumber
- Engineered hardware and connectors
How the job runs
Structural carpentry, step by step.
Quote
We inspect from below, measure the sag, check the load path, and quote the repair with what we can see plus an allowance for what is hidden.
Prep
We clear and protect the work area, set temporary shoring, and open only what we need to reach the framing.
Work
We replace or reinforce the beams, joists, and posts, jacking slowly where a floor is being brought back up.
Finish
Shoring comes out, the openings close up, the debris leaves, and you get photos of what was behind the wall.
Questions
Straight answers.
My floor sags, what is wrong?
Most often a center beam that has settled, a post that has sunk or rotted at its base, or joists that were cut for plumbing decades ago. Sometimes it is termite or water damage at the sill plate. We look from the basement or crawl space first, because the cause is almost always visible from below.
Can you remove a wall to open up a room?
Yes, if we replace what it was carrying with a beam and posts that take the load down to solid bearing. That often means a new footing under a basement post. If the wall turns out to be non-bearing it is a much smaller job, and we check that before quoting it as structural work.
Do you need an engineer?
For anything that changes how load moves through the house, yes. An engineer sizes the beam and the footing, and the stamped drawing is what the inspector wants to see. For a straight like-for-like repair such as sistering a cracked joist, usually not.
How do you fix rotted joists?
If the rot is local we cut back to sound wood and sister new lumber alongside, bolted through. If the ends are gone at the sill we replace the ends and often the sill plate with treated lumber. Either way we find where the water came from first, because new wood in a wet spot rots too.
How disruptive is the work?
Less than people expect when it is reachable from the basement or crawl space, since most of it happens under your feet. Jacking a sagging floor is done slowly, usually a quarter inch at a time over days or weeks, and it can open small cracks in the drywall and plaster upstairs. We tell you that before we start rather than after.
Related
Often done together.
Framing
Structural framing for additions, new builds, and interior changes.
See details →Waterproofing & flashing
Stop water where it gets in: walls, windows, roof-to-wall joints, decks, and foundations.
See details →Decks
Composite and wood decks, covered porches, and railings built on proper footings.
See details →