I'm trying to figure out if some solutions I've been proposed are in line with the severity of my problem. The home is 75 years old, is primarily on a perimeter foundation with interior support posts on concrete footers, and a 1/4 basement. Basically, I have two problems, per one company's contracted structural engineer:

A. Sagging support beam in foundation
B. Some amount of settling, the most severe on one side of the property.

On B, the total slope is about 1.6 inches at the worst over roughly 10 feet. In other areas, the floor sloping due to the sagging is much less, but over a shorter distance. Say 0.6 inches over five feet.

The one company is suggesting sistering the beams and adding adjustable floor jacks. Then, using an expansive foam on two sides of the property, to life and stabilize the perimeter foundation. Another company is proposing steel piers on the perimeter, with some concrete pier adjustment.

Any ideas if these problems are severe enough to warrant these solutions? There are signs of minor interior cracks, some possible window sticking, and one door that began to stick (before planing). The house is mostly lathe and plaster, so it has some give and take.

Drawing of the measurements is below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68643281@N00/6995899907/

Allowable deflection on a slab is span/250.. is the cracking at the sagging moment.. or near the walls? If at the sagging point the failure is most commonly a flexural failure in which case your reinforcing has yielded.. and you have some structural capacity left. But if the cracking is near the wall it is most like indicating a shear failure developing which is an aggressive failure.. don't play around with those.. do you have photos of the failure?

Chris appears to know what he is talking about so I welcomed him with a greenie, thanks Chris. The new beam sounds like a good start, the foam does not. Any job this big should always get at least 3 bids. This is not good at all "1.6 inches at the worst over roughly 10 feet" . In some cases I have seen house movers come out and lift the house 1/4" so the old foundation could be removed and a totally new foundation installed. In your case, they ,ight be able to do that just on the bas side of the foundation.

We have in south GA lifted entire homes and redid the foundation under them. I would get a couple more bids to see if any agree. And never do business if they are not licensed and insured.

Thanks for the responses. It seems as if my attempt at embeddeding the floor plan and measurements did not work. Allow me to clarify my situation:

The minor wall cracks appear appear to be located over the sagging point of the floor beams (the beams running perpendicular to the joists). They are recommending sistering five major beams and the installation of adjustable jacks. Since these beams are accessible via the basement and crawl space, you can see slight flexing of the beams. A structural engineer has already inspected the property and filed a draft report. He is the one that identified the sagging in the beams. The flex seems to be roughly 0.6 inches over a six foot span. (This is well over the 1 in 250 Chris cited and the 1 in 360 I've seen elsewhere). The beam and joist integrity is otherwise sound and the perimeter foundation itself is not damaged (one crack in a nonrelated area).

The worst amount of sloping is due to settling on one side of the property. (The 1.6 inches over roughly 10 feet) There is minor settling all over, which is not that uncommon in the area. The expansive foam is offered as a less expensive alternative to a steel pier solution.

I don't have a photo of a failure as there is nothing really dramatic to show. It is really all about the elevation map that is askew, and some barely visible flexing of the cross support beam (the one near the staircase seems to be the worst).

I've focused on getting quotes from licensed, experienced specialists in foundation repair. There seems to be a lack of local specialists in this field. Normally I would get multiple opinions, but I'm running out of experienced options in the area. I'm guessing I'm still less than a full foundation replacement, but it may be worthwhile to evaluate. I guess I'll have to continue my searching.

Companies that raise homes are willing to travel. Expnad your search but follow Chuck's advice.