Broken beams in crawlspace
House was built 1860 added to over the years. Modest two stories. Carriage house and stable with residence 4ft away - eventually tied together. I've lived in it 25 years, bought it recently. I had it inspected, but it seemed they only covered themselves from any liability and added no useful information.
Recently I built up the courage to crawl under the house to fix a plumbing leak.
I noticed that the beams that were once resting on a shelf on the fireplace in the middle of the house had some time long ago suffered from a leak and rotted away from the fireplace.
These beams no longer reach the fireplace. A few feet away from the fireplace each one is held up with boulders and other big stones. The beams are very solid except the several inches that do not reach the fireplace lintel under the floor. As I mentioned this must have been like this for at least 25 years. The chimney was capped about 20 years ago - it was open on top before that, so it leaked. The chimney was inspected a year ago by a chimney service that cleaned and did some minor repairs, while stating repeatedly how well built it was.
Should I worry about the beams ?
And how would I support these beams if not trusting the boulders ?
Cast cement or cinderblock supports to add to the boulders ?
Crawl-space is not tall enough to even kneel on my knees, so it's not a pleasant work situation and I'm in an area where there are predominantly very expensive houses which precludes any contractors from wanting to work on my house. I've done all the work needed myself so far, mostly carpentry and when a repair is needed I have to mill the wood to the size used back then and the house is mostly tongue and groove wainscoting. This I don't mind, even take pride in keeping the house original, but the crawl space is not nice...
Saffle