Structural questions - to hire an engineer or not

[Dona Cardenas]

We are having to redo our kitchen flooring because of previous work that was done improperly. When the 6 x 6 ft island was installed, it was not installed with the proper supports underneath so over time there is a downward slope to it too much to be fixed by using a leveling agent before installing the new flooring. So we've reached out to a couple of people. One is a contractor with engineering type experience and the other is an engineer. Let me say, we don't want to spend unnecessary money but we do want the job fixed properly. So, first non engineer personal took a look and said he would install 8 steel shims under existing supports. 2nd person(engineer) did not see it yet but said he didn't think that would fix the issue. But of course, he doesn't do the work, just charges 350 to show up and 100/page for a report. So, what would you do?

[Eric Teran]

@Dona Cardenas you want to pay the engineer.

The shims will only fix the island to be level but not the floor. Eventually the island will slope again. It sounds like the weight of the island is adding load to the joists in the floor causing the slope. You will most likely have to sister in some new joists to beef them up. That means inserting another joist of similar size and attaching it to the existing joist with glue and nails. Before they are attached the Contractor will jack up the floor so that it is level and then sister the joist. Once everything is attached they will remove the jacks. This is the only way to properly level a floor due to age or weight issues. The engineer will be able to tell you exactly what you need to do in the report or details.