If your floors sag, bounce, or slope, the fix isn't a new floor — it's what's holding it up. We install adjustable steel support jacks on concrete footings, sister rotted joists, and replace failing girders where they've given out.
A licensed local crew — usually out in 24 to 72 hours. Written scope, fixed price, no pressure.
Structural support work is where the two eras of Davidson diverge most dramatically, and it is also where the wrong contractor can do the most lasting damage. On a pre-1900 core house near Davidson College, the structural support scope is a delicate multi-day operation involving temporary shoring under a hand-hewn heart-pine girder, new poured pier footings alongside failing original stone or brick piers, Grip-Tite adjustable steel posts sized to carry transferred load, laminated LVL sister beams matched to hand-hewn originals, and incremental jacking spread over three-plus days to let the framing move without cracking 130-year-old plaster upstairs. On a 1998 Davidson Village or 2001 River Run house, the same category of work is a two-day sistering pass with Tiger SmartJack support under an undersized mid-span girder, standard pressure-treated 2x10 or 2x12 sisters, and no plaster-crack concern because the house has drywall. Same category. Different job.
A month back I did a full structural support job on an 1889 two-story on Concord Rd. The dining-room floor had been getting progressively bouncier over three years, and by the time the owner called me, the pine boards near the china cabinet had visible deflection you could see from six feet away. Under the house: the hand-hewn 8x10 heart-pine girder that ran the length of the dining room had lost about 40 percent of its cross-section to fungal decay in the pocket where it rested on a stone pier — a slow-motion failure that had been building for probably 15 years as the pier wicked ground moisture up into the girder pocket without anyone noticing. Two adjacent piers had walked out of plumb from seasonal clay expansion over the same period. The fix was a five-day job: Tiger SmartJack temporary shoring on day one, two new poured pier footings alongside the failing originals on day two, two Grip-Tite adjustable steel posts installed on the new footings on day three, laminated LVL sister beam bolted to the sound sections of the original heart pine on days three and four, incremental jacking over days four and five with quarter-turn adjustments spaced hours apart. Plaster upstairs did not crack. Owner walked across the dining room after we were done and said it felt like a different house.
Modern-Davidson structural support jobs run the standard playbook — sister-joist passes on undersized bays in Davidson Village or River Run master bedrooms, Tiger SmartJack support with a poured footing under a mid-span girder that a builder specified thin, occasional supplemental beam installation on a longer span. Two-day jobs typically, no permit unless we cut into subfloor. No plaster to worry about — the drywall systems in the newer stock handle the incremental movement without complaint. Historic District Commission review is not triggered on any interior structural work in my experience, historic-core or modern. Free on-site inspection everywhere in Davidson, fixed written quote with photo documentation of the failure and the planned repair, and honest sequencing that respects the physical realities of the era you actually own.
Pre-1900 core structural sequence: day one is inspection and structural mapping. I probe every girder pocket with a moisture meter and an ice pick to identify decay depth, measure every pier for plumb with a laser or plumb bob to quantify shift, evaluate every joist for sagging or soft spots. On a typical 1,200 to 1,800 SF pre-1900 core house, that mapping runs two to three hours because you are belly-crawling through 22 to 30 inch clearance the entire time. Then I write the repair scope: which piers need shim-and-reset, which need new footings with adjustable posts alongside, which girders need sistering, which joists need supplemental support. Mecklenburg building permit is pulled at this point — I file through CityInspect.charlottenc.gov and schedule inspections for the completion points.
Execution runs three to five days minimum on a girder-and-pier repair. Day two: temporary shoring with Tiger SmartJacks positioned to carry load off the failing components. Day three: new poured pier footings at 24-inch by 24-inch by 12-inch depth to hit undisturbed clay below the 6 to 8 inch Mecklenburg freeze line, hardware set for Grip-Tite adjustable steel posts. Day four: laminated LVL sister beam prep and installation — sized per the original hand-hewn girder dimensions, through-bolted to sound sections of the original with 1/2-inch galvanized carriage bolts every 16 inches, hangers where the original is compromised. Day five: incremental jacking on the Grip-Tite posts, quarter-turn adjustments spaced hours apart, continuous monitoring of the plaster upstairs for hairline movement. Rushing that jacking sequence is how you crack an owner's dining-room ceiling. On a 130-year-old plaster-on-wood-lath finish, cracks are expensive to repair and sometimes require historic plaster restoration specialists rather than standard drywall crews.
Modern-Davidson jobs run the standard playbook in two days. Sister-joist pass on an undersized bay: pressure-treated 2x10 or 2x12 sisters bolted through the originals with structural screws every 16 inches, construction adhesive along the interface for load-sharing, no permit unless we cut into subfloor. Girder support with Tiger SmartJack on a poured footing: 20-inch by 20-inch by 10-inch pad below the 12-inch code depth, adjustable post positioned mid-span, incremental jacking is faster because drywall handles the movement without complaint. Rim-joist sistering on newer stock is straightforward — 2x8 pressure-treated bolted through the original rim. Historic District Commission not triggered on any interior work. HOA architectural committees in Davidson Village, River Run, and St. Alban's Square do not review interior structural work in my experience.
Pre-1900 core structural repair hardware: Grip-Tite adjustable steel posts (18,000-pound rating, adjustable head for incremental load transfer) installed on new 24-inch by 24-inch by 12-inch poured concrete pier footings poured against undisturbed clay to hit below 6 to 8 inch Mecklenburg freeze depth. Tiger SmartJack for temporary shoring during install — I typically stage two to four SmartJacks across the affected span to distribute load safely while the permanent supports go in. Laminated LVL sister beams are sized per original hand-hewn heart-pine girder dimensions — a 3-1/2 by 9-1/2 LVL cleanly sisters a 3x8 heart pine in most cases, occasionally doubled if the span is over 14 feet or the load transfer analysis calls for it. Through-bolting hardware is 1/2-inch galvanized carriage bolts with washers every 16 inches along the sister-original interface, with hangers where the original heart pine has structural decay that prevents bolting into sound wood.
Soft-fired 1880s brick piers that are spalling but not yet failing structurally get a masonry restoration mortar wrap to slow the moisture cycle rather than wholesale replacement — original brick is part of the historic character and Davidson HDC prefers restoration over replacement on visible piers, so preserving original brick with restoration mortar keeps the option open for future scope. Stone piers that have shifted get shim-and-reset with hydraulic bottle jacks and cedar shims where the shift is minor. Any pier with structural failure that cannot be safely stabilized in place gets a new poured footing alongside with load transferred onto a Grip-Tite adjustable steel post — the historic pier stays in place for visual character but no longer carries structural load.
Modern-Davidson repair hardware: pressure-treated 2x10 or 2x12 sister joists depending on original dimension, GRK RSS structural screws or Simpson SDS-25612 for sister attachment (structural screws hold better than lag bolts on modern framing and drive faster), construction adhesive along the sister-original interface. Tiger SmartJack with adjustable head on a 20-inch by 20-inch by 10-inch poured footing for girder support mid-span. Rim-joist sister is 2x8 pressure-treated bolted with 3/8-inch through-bolts every 24 inches to the original rim.
Yes — Davidson is a regular structural support route. Free on-site inspection anywhere in Davidson, fixed written quote before we touch anything.
Davidson structural support work has to distinguish between pre-1900 historic-core repairs — hand-hewn heart-pine girder decay in stone or brick pier pockets requiring multi-day incremental jacking to protect plaster upstairs — and modern Davidson Village or River Run repairs that run the same dimensional-lumber sistering playbook as any Ballantyne or Cornelius newer-construction job.
28036. All Mecklenburg County addresses covered.
Three reasons and they all compound. First, crawl clearance is 22 to 30 inches versus 36 to 42 inches in Davidson Village — every task takes longer at belly-crawl pace than upright pace. Second, the pre-1900 core repair sequence involves incremental jacking spread over multiple days to let the framing move without cracking the plaster upstairs; drywall in Davidson Village handles the movement without complaint so the jacking is faster. Third, the pre-1900 core repair typically involves multiple related components — a failing pier plus a decayed girder plus a couple of leaning adjacent piers — all interdependent, while a Davidson Village repair is usually one isolated component (an undersized girder mid-span, a bouncy joist bay). Same category of work, roughly triple the labor factor on the pre-1900 core. That is why I quote them as distinct scopes and why Mecklenburg building permits are pulled on the historic-core work but often not needed on the modern repair.
No, and taking them out is a bad idea structurally and often not allowed by Davidson HDC if the piers are visible from any exterior access point. What you do is stabilize any pier that has actually shifted — shim-and-reset with hydraulic bottle jacks and cedar shims where the shift is minor, or install a new poured footing alongside with load transferred onto a Grip-Tite adjustable steel post where the shift is major or the pier is failing structurally. The original stone pier stays in place and continues to do what it has done for 130 years — hold up the house — with the modern support carrying whatever load the historic pier can no longer safely bear. On my recent Concord Rd job I stabilized four leaning stone piers this way and left every one of them in place. HDC review was not triggered because none of the work was visible from the exterior.
For a straightforward sister-joist pass on an undersized bay, no engineering input needed — the fix is standard pressure-treated 2x10 or 2x12 sisters through-bolted to the originals with construction adhesive for load-sharing. Two-day job, no permit unless we cut into subfloor. If the whole master-bedroom floor system is underspec (all the joists are sagging, not just one bay), then a supplemental beam mid-span with Tiger SmartJack support on a poured footing is the fix and I bring in engineering input to size the beam correctly. On a typical Davidson Village or River Run house from the 1998-to-2005 build era, the joist bay sistering pass handles the problem — the framing meets code but does not feel solid under dynamic load, and the sisters add the perceived stiffness without changing the underlying structural design.
Yes if the scope involves sistering joists, replacing a girder, installing new pier footings with adjustable posts, or patching subfloor — Mecklenburg building permit filed through CityInspect.charlottenc.gov. I pull the permit as part of scope and schedule inspections at the completion points. Simple shim-and-reset work on a leaning pier or Tiger SmartJack support without new footings is generally not permit-triggering. Historic District Commission review is not typically triggered on interior structural work regardless of scope — HDC cares about exterior visible modifications, not what happens under the house. On modern-Davidson jobs (Davidson Village, River Run, St. Alban's Square) the permit trigger is the same but HDC review is not applicable — those neighborhoods are outside the overlay. Whether you own a pre-1900 historic-core house or a 1998 Davidson Village house, the permit sequencing gets handled by us as part of the fixed written scope.
Free on-site Davidson inspection. Fixed written quote. Call (980) 227-1769 or book below.