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cooldyood

Tilting pillar

10 years ago

My 1937 house has a one-room addition in the rear which is supported by cinder block pillars. One pillar has been tilting ever so slightly (image below), but it has tilted several inches in the past year.

May be unrelated but my yard has a slight decline, and at the end of the yard is another steep decline. The pillar is tilting sideways though.

What do you suggest to fix this? One thought has been to lift the addition with a jack, push the pillar back in place and then release the jack.

What do you suggest?

Comments (13)

  • 10 years ago

    Completely agree with kudzu9!! That is scary!

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Yikes. I wonder if those block pillars are just sitting on the dirt...

    Even if you could jack the addition, and had the herculean strength to push that pillar up straight, it would tilt back over right away. There is a not adequate support underneath of it to keep everything properly supported.

  • 10 years ago

    @sambah006 The pillars have somewhat of a foundation, although perhaps not adequate, as per kudzu9 and HandyMac.

  • 10 years ago

    We had pillars like that under our porch that had been converted to a laundry room. They weren't tilting, but there were plenty of other problems with it (low ceiling, inadequate insulation). So we tore it out and replaced it with a proper crawl space + room above. We enlarged it too while we were at it.

  • PRO
    10 years ago

    I'd try jack, push, and release first.

  • 10 years ago
    Hopefully, while you're not standing under it :-)
  • 10 years ago

    How would only ONE pillar move? Would that mean that the bottom of the pillar shifted? Because wouldn't the addition be attached to the pillar at the top?

    Otherwise if the entire addition was shifting, wouldn't all of the pillars shift? Or at least the outer two?

    I admit my ignorance here. :)

  • 10 years ago
    That support looks so sketchy, that I'd be willing to bet that the timbers were just set on top of those without any attachment. My guess is that the inadequate footing on the side that is leaning has subsided and the full weight of the addition is actually being supported only by the pillar on the other side. Since the leaning pillar is not supporting any significant weight, it will probably continue to lean. Moving it back upright is not going to fix the fundamental fault with the construction.
  • 10 years ago

    Yes, but it survived long enough for the first guy to have no problems, and maybe even the guy who bought the house from him. Now the new owner is left holding the bag.


  • 10 years ago
    It's like the leaning tower of Pisa...they finally had to shore that up too :-)
  • 10 years ago

    You need to determine if there is actually a footing a pier under there. I'm guessing no, but maybe you will get lucky and some idiot just replaced the rotting posts with cinderblocks.

    New piers would require bracing, jacking, excavation, forms, concrete pours, and basically time and multiple visits. If your ground can support it then your best bet would be to use a diamond pier system to replace those pillars. You could have the job 100% complete in a day then.

  • 10 years ago

    Not only does it have to be determined that there is a footing there, it has to be of adequate size to support the weight and it has to start below the frost line.