Sagging Floor Advice

[Tally]

A 22 foot microlam runs down the center of my home (in the basement) supporting the main and second floors above. The microlam is 3ply and 11 3/4" thick. The main and second level floors above are sagging in the center. A weight bearing wall sits on the main level (just above the beam) holding up the second floor. The basement beam is supported in the center by a post that is sitting on a footing. I took a level to the beam and the sag definitely originates in the basement where the beam is sagging in the center. I would say the sag is about 1". The house in only 12 years old.

I would like to level the floor. I am in the middle of a major remodel. I tried to put a screw jack under the basement Microlam in the center to see if I could flex it back up to level. With the jack I am using it is simply not strong enough to flex the beam. I seems like this method would take an awful lot of pressure to flex a beam that big.

Should I (1) get some more/stronger floor jacks and attempt it again by placing pressure under the beam in its center or (2) could I raise the beam on one of the ends and then shim under the center post when it is high enough; then lower the beam back down on its side support post. The later option though would require me to jack pretty high one side, and that concerns me. I could also (3) jack the floors up on each side of the beam and then shim between the floor joists and the beam. This would level the floors but not sagging beam.

Any advice? Thanks!

[IBM5081]

A 12-ton hydraulic jack should be sufficient. They are rentable.

Of course, all the other components in the lifting arrangement must be able to spread 24,000 pounds of force over a sufficiently wide area to avoid punching holes in the floor or the beam itself.

If that post was unable to resist sinking the footing, better engineer additional posts into the final results. Merely jacking it up only to have it sink again will be quite frustrating. You may need more footings.

[grover]

Any advice? Thanks!Don't use a car jack you pulled from a compact car! I destroyed the jack from my dad's acclaim trying to shim his house back level... It worked at first, but started splitting the sheet metal right about when we were getting close to level. Ah well, his floor is way better that it used to be at least ;)

[Tally]

I went with a 12 ton jack on a 6x6 with a metal plate under it jacking right under the microlam. So far I am at 3/4" and am not quite level.....but it is working. I am hoping the old post will hold as it is on a footing......

[Doug Firr]

Tally,

I'll make this easy like Sunday Mornin for you...

Fix Sags, Dips, And Weak Spots in your floor $19.99
http://www.squeakender.com/html/sag.html

Bring Seam Pops back flush again $9.95
http://www.squeakender.com/html/seam.html

Haven't tried the seamender...but their sagender and squeakender work great, installed them months ago and haven't heard a peep since, and my floors level again. Good Luck! :)