Forum Archive: Posts by: CnE

I am reaching out to the brownstoner community to help us with how to level brownstone floors. My husband and i bought a 1901 brownstone last summer and we are currently in the process of renovating each floor. Since the the top two floors are rentals we simply made cosmetic changes (i.e., new floors, baseboards, paint, new kitchen and retiling of the bathrooms). We are currently doing a gut renovation on the parlor floor and uncovered why the floors above “sagging”. The joists/beams are bowing or sagging in the middle. We have a delimma…. should we and can we repair the problem without removing the new floors above? what would it take to repair stop the sagging from increasing?

Also what type of masonry material should we be using to securing beams/joists into the parting walls (i.e., cement?)

Thanks everyone!

Does anyone know of a wood floor expert who can advise us how we can work with what we have? We are in the middle of a major renovation of a 4 family brownstone and currently working on the parlor floor. After removing layers of linoleum we uncovered beautiful parquet floors with 6 inch “slats” with mahogany/cheer inlay border. Unfortunately the floors are missing in about 10′x6′ feet worth of space. We are not looking for perfection just options for a solution on repairing and/or replacing old brownstone parquet floors.