wannabecontractor

My house was built sometime in the 30's or 40's. The does not have any footers for the foundation and it basically was built on rock pillers on the ground. The previous owner tore out the old floors and to give the the new sub floor clearance he shoveled out about a foot of dirt and then placed concrete blocks underneath in various places and then installed new joist and plywood. Basically the house sits on blocks without any kind of footers. I've noticed 2 cracks in the tile floor in the bathroom and 1 crack in a wall in the bathroom and 1 crack in a corner of the tile in the wall around the tub. It concerns me because it seems that the house is slowly shifting or maybe sinking in certain spots. The house is roughly 12 inches off the ground. My question is. Is it possible to lift he house and put it on a block foundation? Also what can I expect to pay here in GA? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Wuzzat?

Somebody will need to figure out how much your house weighs and the spacing of the jacks. Testing the soil for stability wouldn't hurt either.

nealtw

I would start at the building department at city hall. They will tell you how deep a foundation should be and they may have min. crawlspace clearence. They may ask for a geo-engineers report on the soil conditions. I know none of this sounds like fun but if the last guy had done it right, you wouldn't have to do it.

BridgeMan

I briefly worked with a house mover in Colorado a few years ago (1999+/-) on a Habitat project. If memory serves me well, he said that he was getting around $12 to $15 a S.F., plus materials, for raising a place and putting new foundation walls under it. Price could easily be around $20 or $25 a S.F. now, even more if it's a contractor who hasn't done much similar work. The Colorado guy had all of the jacks, timbers and lift beams, so he was well equipped and familiar with what it took. I remember him liking styrofoam-block forming systems for the walls he poured, being much faster and more efficient to work with than conventional formed and poured reinforced concrete.

Call a few contractors in your area for some firm pricing.

wannabecontractor

The guy also ran the vinyl siding into the ground, I guess he was trying to keep water from getting under the house when it rains but it doesnt work good at all. I finally had to install drainage pipes so that when we get heavy rain the water doesnt pond up under the house. One year we had heavy rain for about 3 days and water was standing under the house almost into the joist. I shoveled out a ditch from the house to the ditch in the front yard so that the water could drain then the next year I intalled drainage pipes to keep the water drained. So far that has worked. I also have my gutters connected to pvc and it also drains into the front yard ditch. I'm worried that the house is either slowly sinking in some areas or settling because of not having poured footers for the blocks to sit on.

Wuzzat?

If you can find a few fixed reference heights near your house you can use one of these garden hose level kits to check the corners of your house each month or each year.

Finding out what is a normal or abnormal sinking rate for a house may be difficult. If you use other houses in the vicinity as your vertical reference points and you get a zero rate of change relative to these, you may be OK (but then, why the cracks?).

nealtw

You didn't say where you were, is this house subjected to freezing?