oh I'm so excited to watch another transformation!

That house has some history. Are you keeping the brick wall exposed or drywall in over it? Looking forward to the transformation. Hope you give us a running commentary. :))

If you live in earthquake country that probably unreinforced brick wall should come down....besides its easier to run plumbing, electric, doors and windows through a regular wall. Might it be worth making a doorway of that window?

Beautiful space! Can't wait for the transformation and the light filling the space through the brick walled opening.

Based on his picture, you have a structural problem to deal with. Even if the sagging in the pic is a lens distortion, the fact that only one doubled-up joist is carrying everything else looks worrisome. I think it warrants a closer look.

Casey

The brick wall will stay exposed. No earthquakes here, plus we don't have to run plumbing anywhere near this wall. We are adding one electrical box but we love the look of exposed conduit and will use that on this wall to make it easier. Sure, we could change the structure of this wall to make it just a doorway but I think it's really cool to respect the history of the house and keep it the way it once was. I just took a picture of the progress we've made with the windows. You can see the original cut-off rafter tails above - so cool!

@Sombreuil, you have an excellent eye! There are two sagging joists actually. Here are a couple more photos. We talked with a contractor about jacking the joist back up but I'm not sure I want to disturb it. It's been like this for 60+ years, you know? What would you do?

This is disturbing because it seems to show a section of stucco floating without support.

Another pic shows an old beam pocket in the brickwork that has had the beam removed from it, but the rafter tails are still there; if I read the layout properly, that is to the left side in the pic above?

maybe the rafter tails and stucco are just leftovers that remain in place, but stucco it wicked heavy by itself, and if those rafters are still attached to a roof, there are problems that a structural engineer will need to calculate through.

What does the exterior look like in this spot?

Casey

Correct, the beam pocket is to the left of the photo you reposted. The rafter tails and stucco are part of the original exterior - we have it all around the house. I tried to take an exterior pic but will have to try again later when the sun moves :)

Here's a note from my husband:

When the addition was added (we think in the early '50s), it definitely wasn't done properly. However, it has sagged maybe half an inch over the last 60+ years. I'm guessing the proper thing to do would be to jack up the sagging section and either add a beam or a support column, but I'm more of the opinion that if it's lasted this long it's probably got a fair amount of life left in it. What do you think? Is it worth getting an engineer's opinion and would it be worth fixing the issue? Do you think there's a real likelihood of collapse if we don't correct this?

It was that way for 60 years. You have disturbed the area, while it is all open, fix them for the next 60.

I would fix it, too. I love that you're planning on leaving the brick exposed. It's going to look great with the Chambers and those windows.

My only hesitation is that we're doing most of the work ourselves, mostly for financial reasons. I don't want to add on any expensive work and inspections (which we're not currently having) when the room has been functioning fine for decades with this issue already.

Not to put a damper on things, but that vinyl tile and/or additional layers of resilient flooring and/or the adhesive beneath could contain asbestos, and you should not be sawing into that stuff unless it is tested by a lab and confirmed to be asbestos free.

Residential floor tile removal

@kudzu9, we're 99% sure it DOES have asbestos. It's 9-inch tile from the 50's so it would be a miracle if it had none. I think the fears over asbestos, particularly in floor tile, are pretty overblown. We're taking all reasonable precautions while removing it and there are no young kids or pets in this house.

I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this issue, and it sounds like you are. I agree that vinyl asbestos tiles are a low risk material...unless you start cutting, sanding or abrading. Often, older floors had more than one layer of flooring, like seamless flooring that had a layer that might be 30-40% asbestos. We all choose our own risks. If you are not going to use protective gear, be as minimally destructive as you can when you remove it. Good luck.

A site visit by a structural engineer is not that expensive. Two years ago here in Portland ours was only $60 for an hour walking thru our project telling us what we needed to do to.

I admit I'm a bit of a Safety Sue, but there's no way I'd invest in a new kitchen just to make it pretty and not structurally sound.

Also, even though we plan to live in our house forever we can't know what the future holds. If we ever need to sell unexpectedly I'm not going to have a seller's nightmare because I cut corners, so we always get permits. When we sold a house last year we didn't know our panel had a double ganged (?) breaker and you wouldn't believe the fuss the buyers agent put up about that. The stairs from the garage to the kitchen didn't have a railing and they wanted a credit. Junk like that. I imagine selling a house with a sagging ceiling and unpermitted kitchen could be a challenge to sell.

You can pay a structural engineer. You can wait for the building inspector to shut down the job. Or you can wait and see how effective blissful ignorance is at supporting overhanging loads. (hint: not very)

You need to get eyes on this. You need to know what is involved. It would not be the first time i saw some old yahoo's work come back to haunt the new owners.

Casey