Working in the coal mine!

Well, that's how it felt.

Alternatively, we can call this Reconstruction: The underground story!

Removing the front porch on the south side of the Bolt Hole exposed the lack of support for the sill. Something that was also obvious from the inside. someone way back had decided to dig out a portion of the crawl space under the kitchen. The sides began to collapse and they added some wide, rough cut barn board to hold back the earth. It didn't work. The boards either gave way when their support posts (nonpressure treated 4" x 4" rough cut) gave way or rotted out on their own.

We removed the rotted posts and boards on the south side, jacked up the sill, dug a hole for a pressure treated 6" x 6" which was to sit upon a concrete pad, and let the sill back down upon it. Then the boards got replaced and 6" x 6" posts put behind them to hold them in place. Next we back filled to within a few inches of the sill. (Insulative purpose. Less air behind the wall to be hung from the sill and under the porch.)

South side support post and back fill

South side retaining wall

On the north side we removed the boards to find there was even less support. What we initially thought was a concrete wall/ foundation holding up the sill was in actuality just a few loosely laid stones with mortar on the exterior. And the earth beneath those stones had collapsed into the hole.

Loose stones with mortar on the exterior...and nothing beneath them.

Further, one corner of the sill structure that once sat upon three large rocks no longer sat upon those rocks. This was the cause of the major sag in the kitchen. directly above joint.

Lack of support beneath the corner/joint.

The soil on the south side had been very loose and almost a sugar sand. That on the north side was much more solid. We dug back several feet toward the sill moving the soil to the south side and creating a nearly four foot high face to the soil on the north. In front of this face we erected a retaining wall of seven 6" x 6" timbers laid one atop the other and backed by two 6" x 6" posts and one 4" x 4" post. Atop the soil and beneath the sill we created several piers of concrete blocks. By using two 4" thick, 8" wide and 16" long blocks as the base to form a large concrete pad, even the pressure of the jacks against the sill did not press down very far before movement stopped. (In the front, we found the blocks kept sinking until we reached the level of the basement floor.)

With the aide of Mr. Gravity (he's a very serious worker),
the big rock in the corner was moved to a less obstructive position.

Retaining wall on the north side

We used these piers to jack the sill up, inserted a section of 6" x 6" beneath the joint and shimmed the hell out of the mess using pressure treated 2" x 6" and decking material (5/4" thickness). Once the pressure treated material was in place we let the jacks down and let the sill settle on the bracing.

Concrete piers and wooden shims support the joint

If it's not textbook construction or methods: it Good Enough Construction Company.