Q. This week: My house is about 70 years old and the floors on the first story shake when someone walks on them. The problem, I think, is that the floor joists are too narrow. They're only 7.5 ...

For smaller areas of repair, you can reduce the size of the new floor joists by one size. If you have a 2-by-10 joist, you can use a 2-by-8, or if a 2-by-8 joist, use a 2-by-6.

Sistering every joist to create one level takes precision. All-new subflooring and flooring is a lot of material to purchase. Finally the fallout of adjusting the trim and stairs takes time and skill.

Q: I found a bit of a nightmare beneath wet, well-rotted clapboards. My concern is weather-proofing the corner adjacent to the chimney properly. A: That's not a lot of information, but your ...

Q: Our 35-year-old house has a 7-foot cantilevered deck on the top floor -- about 25 feet above ground level. The untreated fir joists feel solid but have large black areas on the sides ...

Tim, my neighbor discovered that many of his outdoor deck floor joists are rotting. The rot is along the top where the decking attaches to them. It’s treated lumber rated for outdoor exposure.

Q: We have a bathroom on the ground floor, and we're replacing parts of the subfloor because they have dry rot. The subfloor is above concrete. Do you recommend putting insulation between the ...

At this point, our demo budget was through the roof. Change order after change order meant we needed to adjust our finishes spending later in the project. We were able to just sister the basement ...

Grange Master Wayne Crawford, 63, of Newport, fell about eight feet into a hole under the kitchen of former Bottle Run Grange 1301 in Old Lycoming Twp., just north of Williamsport.