Can Basement Floor Jacks Be Moved?

Floor Jacks

• Floor jacks work like the jacks you use to lift up your car to fix a flat tire. By turning a crank or pumping a lever, you initiate a force that drives the shaft of the jack upward. Floor jacks are designed to work as support systems for floors in the same way that you would use a pillar, beams or truss network to support a floor. Basement floor jacks constitute those jacks stored in a basement that support the first floor of a building.

Floor Jacks for Repair

• A primary purpose of floor jacks lies in providing support for home repairs. For instance, assume one of the support beams holding up your living room floor breaks. To replace this beam, you need a temporary solution for holding up the weight of the floor while you work on the installation. Placing a floor jack alongside the beam you plan on replacing provides this solution. You should always place a floor jack on a piece of wood to create a solid, level surface when using it temporarily.

Structural Floor Jacks

• Some floor jacks, particularly those used in basements, become structural elements of a building. You can use permanently installed floor jacks as primary weight support systems for floors. Builders also use permanently installed floor jacks to level uneven floors. This entails placing the jack under a portion of the floor that dips and using it to raise that portion of the floor until even with the rest of the surface. When using floor jacks, builders often encase them in concrete to add additional support. Or, you can rest them on top of concrete bases.

Moving Floor Jacks

• Whether or not you can safely move a floor jack comes down to the purpose of the jack and the manner in which you use it. When using a jack to make repairs, you can move it once you finish with the repairs. If a jack serves the purpose of leveling a floor but provides no weight support, you can move it as long as you don’t mind an uneven floor surface. You should never move a jack that provides actual structural support and load-bearing capacity in a home without first consulting a structural engineer or builder -- doing so could threaten the structural integrity of your home.