O.K. guys (gals). I need advice.

Quick summary: Mom is 70-year's-old. She had a farm. The floors started getting some hills. She called a guy, he fixed it.

Mom moved. Coupla places in the floor were squeaky, couple of the boards underneath the carpet were obviously unsafe. Called the same guy. He fixed a good bit. Coupla cracks in the walls. He 'fixed' them.

Mom found a couple more places in the floor that were uneven. The guy was unavailable. She called someone else.

The female estimator, we'll call them, Laughable Contractors (LA), told Mom that she'd do all sorts of stuff (never left a proposal) -- that's not the issue here.

Laughable sent a man who had never ( he said so)bolstered (I don't know the correct terminology) a floor. He said the wood underneath was rotten. He attached new lumber. He also lifted the floors to the point that the entire house is crooked, and all the walls are cracked not only in the seams but in the middle of the walls.

The lady estimator from LA further told mom it was a result of the first guy (who had done like work previously at the farm) not doing the job right. She said the floor was 'settling', and that LA didn't cause the walls to crack.

O.K. I have a friend who does that kind of work. I told him what happened. First thing out of his mouth was, "the minute you hear crackling noises, like a July 4th sparkler, you have to stop pushing. There's only so much you can do after years of settling." He came out, he fixed some of the problems from the 2nd place. Even brought an engineer to check it out.

My friend was just doing a quick fix to ensure that no one would trip on the roller coaster floors.

Yeta nother contractorcame out and said that the damage done by LA was so severe that the floors could not be fixed by working underneath, that the work would have to be a matter of an entire new floor and walls. $40,000 to do it.

What is the process of fixing floors from the sub-basement? What are the warning signs when the lifting(?) is becoming stressful to the walls? What kind of training and knowledge does a handyman/contractor need? What is the most that can be expected when trying to correct a slight decline/incline and a weak floorboard or two? Why would a worker attach new lumber to old rotted wood? Why would it take '30 days' to settle?? Would walls continue to crack in NEW places a month after a handyman had attempted to stabilize and even floors from the sub basement?

Help. I believe mom was taken for a lot of money.

My dad went over there and put levels on the floor. It's like a roller coaster.