A question on basement jacks

[K Frame]

You don't need to worry about expansion and contraction.

A piece of vinyl flooring would be fine. You could even paint the concrete with Drylok.

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[Scout26]

This reminds me: I need to replace the pieces of galvanized tubing with proper jacks that the previous owner used to hold up the main beam in my barn

Did you buy your house from KD ??

[KD5NRH]

Did you buy your house from KD ??

Like I'd waste money on galvanized?  Hell, we rarely even put primer on anything unless the customer specifically requested it.

(Or one of the crews muffed a dimension, scabbed in a piece, and did such a good job on the welds and cleanup that a coat of paint would hide it completely.  We had a couple of guys that were good enough they couldn't even find their own repairs sometimes.)

[K Frame]

If you're really worried about cracking the basement floor, you have a couple of options for distributing the load.

1. Get a scrap piece of 1/2" plate steel, 12 to 18 inches square. You'd be looking at between 20 and 30 pounds per each piece. Put down a piece of vinyl sheet on the floor, put the plate steel on top of the vinyl, and there's your pad.


2. This might be even better if you have areas where you get standing water in the basement, and the stuff is easier to get. Get a pressure treated 4x4 and some end-cut treatment. Cut it in 1 or 2 foot lengths, and bolt them together. Put end cut treatment on the whole mess (not just the cut ends). Put the vinyl on the floor, the wood block on top, and there's your pad. You can even attach the column base to the wood with a couple of lags.

[Hawkmoon]

2. This might be even better if you have areas where you get standing water in the basement, and the stuff is easier to get. Get a pressure treated 4x4 and some end-cut treatment. Cut it in 1 or 2 foot lengths, and bolt them together. Put end cut treatment on the whole mess (not just the cut ends). Put the vinyl on the floor, the wood block on top, and there's your pad. You can even attach the column base to the wood with a couple of lags.

Not better, especially not if there's standing water. First, the green CCA (Chlorinated Copper Arsenate) pressure treatment we used to get is not longer available, and the replacement (naturally) isn't as good. Second, even CCA doesn't last as long as it's claimed. Back around 1990 my mother had a landcape timer retaining wall (two actually) built to hold back the earth flanking a walkout basement door. The timbers were claimed to last fifty years. It's now 28 years later, and the timbers are basically a memory.

In 1999 I built a landscape timber raised garden for an old friend from high school. I stopped by her house a few days ago to try to help her with a computer issue. The timbers are half gone, and the ones that remain probably won't last another year.

If water is present, the best choice is going to be concrete with an admixture -- latex or epoxy. Sakrete would be fine, mixed using latex rather than water for the mix, and using a high-strength water-cement ratio.

[K Frame]

If there's long-term standing water in a basement there are bigger problems that need to be solved first before -- such as the mold loading that's going to accompany it.

From Fistful's post, though, it seems that the water incursion is incidental, not chronic.

In that case, pressure treated 4x4s will work just fine as they will dry out.

But, there needs to be a waterproof barrier between the wood and the concrete floor, otherwise the wood will rot a LOT faster.

[KD5NRH]

If you're really worried about water, check and see if aluminum is available in your area. Obviously you'll need thicker stock, but the supplier should be able to hook you up with someone experienced in engineering for aluminum.