I have most of the joists exposed now. The joists are 2 foot O.C. The first one (from left to right) is cracked, has been "sistered" with 1x4's on both sides, also had lumber added on top of joist to attempt to correct the sag in the joist. The second one has cracked and twisted, has about 5 different pieces of wood affixed where repair was attempted. The third is broken, but has another 2x6 nailed to it. The whole thing flexes about 2 inches when you step on it. The next 4 have various repairs tried, but are completely broken, have pulled away from the girder, only thing holding them up is the nails in the subfloor, and about a half inch setting on girder. To complicate things further, the main ductwork for the furnace runs parallel to the girder, and will interfere with whatever fix I do. I have had my furnace man in, we are looking at re-routing the ductwork, and I have a structural engineer willing to take a look and offer advice. I love this old house and it is certainly presenting a challenge and an opportunity to learn! I just don't think there's anything there that is worth trying to save. If I try it and it doesn't work, then all that time and $ would be wasted and I'd have to start over and replace it all anyway. I am leaning towards a repair with new lumber, and modern construction.

Wow, that sounds like a hell of a mess!

Someone's about to fall through that floor. Sounds like no parties at Katydid's place for a while :-(

This house, if I remember, is circa 1840 right? ...are the timbers sawn or hewn? You say the joists pulled away from the girder. By girder are you talking center of the building or exterior wall? Is the exterior wall bowing out? That will want to be brought back in if possible (you probably know that anyway).

Those joist repairs sound pretty lousy...did you say 1X4 sistered to one of them (head shaking)? Sounds like you had a hack in there before you, which definately makes it harder for you now.

Are you in any historic area of town?

Do you want exposed original beams/joists? Do the floorboards have character?

If you keep the original framing, you could save money and time in not re-doing / drywalling a new celing. (But you said the furnace ducts are there...not exactly something to show off... perhaps the ducts can be re-routed in the wall or some other area like a closet?)

I'm sure it's tempting to rip it all out, but that may not be the cheapest in the long run. Any broken joists can be replaced w/ reclaimed stuff sawn to size...

Fun fun

Still like to see some pics on this post...so we can better advise and hopefully save you some trouble.