Thankfully, this curved ceiling was in our plan to extend farther into the house, so we decided starting fresh would be a better decision long term and garner us the best final result. Rather than trying to mimic exactly what was already there for the second half, we could do it all from scratch at once.

You can almost see how drastic the bowing is in the header in this image.

Crank It Up!

So after building weight-supporting “false walls” on either side of the wall we wanted to remove, we could finally jack the floors back into place. With an original Detroit Pewabic tile bathroom directly above, we had to be slow and steady, hoping not to crack the tile floors as we fixed the slope. Using our laser measure, we found that the floor had sunk almost an inch in less than a 3ft span on the second floor, so it had a long way to go up!

Cal, always cracking jokes, once the heavy beam was put in place.

Now that the new beam is in place, we can finally remove the false walls that have been holding up the weight! Some final jacking has to be done on one side where there’s still some sinking evident on the second floor. We will double up the joist responsible to strengthen it and remove the bow.

Prep work for the final archway from the main entry to the kitchen. The doorway on the right and left will be filled in.

Next time for Episode 6…

We’ll finish up framing of our archways, and start our High Velocity Forced Air Mini Duct install as well as new plumbing and electrical work! Can’t wait to have running water and functioning toilets!