2x4 Floor Joists?!

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I just bought my 1st house and I find myself in a major dilemma. It turns out the house, which is about 70 years old with a partial basement, has 2x4 floor joists in the basement section. There was an addition made to the house, which was built properly, but after doing some research I realize I have a problem with those 2x4's. The engineer who inspected the house didn't exactly fully emphasize how big a deal this is, but did suggest that it would be possible to reinforce the existing joists with steel. Is this true? Jacking the entire house and replacing the existing joists is prohibitively expensive, and I had a contractor tell me that the ballon framing only adds to the problem. Any suggestions?