my wife and I are looking to buy a house, but theres a catch...
the exterior walls are 20+ inch thick stone from the foundation to the roofline. there are no cracks or bulges. at some point in the last almost 200 years the center supports for the floor joists started to sink into the dirt basement floor causing all 3 floors to funnel in to the center. somewhere along the way someone poured new footings in the center of the basement and installed 6 jacks to lift the floors. it helped but there is still a bad slope to the center of the house on all 3 floors. they didnt care. they renovated the house and modified the doors and baseboards to match the slope of the floor. that looks to have been at least 20 years ago, maybe a lot more, and the floors have not sagged any farther and are actually very solid. the house is fantastic and in a great area with a great school district and decent taxes.
heres the question.. if the house inspector says the exterior walls and foundation are solid, could i gut the house, floor joists and all, until it is nothing more than a stone shell with a roof, and then rebuild it from the first floor up after digging the basement floor down a few feet and installing a proper french drain and new footers? (the basement only has about 6 foot of head height and i would like to be able for get that to a foll 8' so i can finish that space later in life) ive worked on and off doing renovations and remodeling for the last 13 years ive just never done anything quite this extreme and wanted others opinions. thanks
the exterior walls are 20+ inch thick stone from the foundation to the roofline. there are no cracks or bulges. at some point in the last almost 200 years the center supports for the floor joists started to sink into the dirt basement floor causing all 3 floors to funnel in to the center. somewhere along the way someone poured new footings in the center of the basement and installed 6 jacks to lift the floors. it helped but there is still a bad slope to the center of the house on all 3 floors. they didnt care. they renovated the house and modified the doors and baseboards to match the slope of the floor. that looks to have been at least 20 years ago, maybe a lot more, and the floors have not sagged any farther and are actually very solid. the house is fantastic and in a great area with a great school district and decent taxes.
heres the question.. if the house inspector says the exterior walls and foundation are solid, could i gut the house, floor joists and all, until it is nothing more than a stone shell with a roof, and then rebuild it from the first floor up after digging the basement floor down a few feet and installing a proper french drain and new footers? (the basement only has about 6 foot of head height and i would like to be able for get that to a foll 8' so i can finish that space later in life) ive worked on and off doing renovations and remodeling for the last 13 years ive just never done anything quite this extreme and wanted others opinions. thanks