I lifted my house BUT

Im hoping someone out there has been down the road Im on right now, I could use some advise. I jacked up my house 27 inches. I replaced a block wall and I increased the basement height from 6'-7" to almost 9 feet. In the process of lifting the house shifted 4 inches out of square. How do I get it back?? I dont want to damage all the work I just finished.

Hire a profesional to straighten out the house and set it accurately.

Are you sure your new walls are adequate for the new, increased height? A professional may not touch it because of the wall height and non-compliance with either codes or accepted standards.

Do you have adequate anchor bolts installed before you get it set?

This may be a real dumb question but are you sure its the house thats out of square?

I increased the block size from 8 inch to 12 inch. Filled solid, durawall, with straps ready to go. The house is 3/4 of an inch above its foundation right now. The house is level and the foundation is level. I believe the house slipped out of square as it was raised, because my buddy didnt want to wait for more guys and jack up all 11 point loads at the same time. By the time I got home it was to late. So right now I am looking into using a 20,000 lb winch and an excavator to shift the house back. One corner of the house is correct, I thought it would be a point to pivot on. Any Ideas??

It is obvious you do not have a permit or the inspector was incompetent. Increasing the block size from 8" to 12" did nothing for the wall strength where it was needed.

The main purpose of the wall is to retain the soil outside the basement. Making the wall higher made it weaker for horizontal soil loads. If there was no soil, you could probably support the house with 6" block (that is what they use for 15 to 20 story apartment buildings).

You might want to have a professional look at the job and offer suggestions or "bless" it in case you want to sell it in the future.

Hello Mike:
I have raised a couple of houses; very touchy, scarry business. You may consider grounding the one corner that is square and then tie a cable across from corner to corner (the longest measurement), put a come along or steam boat buckle in the line and pull it back in square. When the corner opposite the grounded corner is over the foundation you can let it down and then the rest of the house. Please procede with caution and post back to let us know how it turned out. Maybe even some pictures.
Glenn

The 12 inch was for one wall and it was increased for lateral load. The hydrostatic pressure is minimal. I have a permit, and I am not the only person with a 9' basement. But thanks for not answering my question.

Thanks for the advise Glenn.

But thanks for not answering my question.

Click to expand...

.......gave me a good chuckle this moring....anyway, I agree with Glen, I would get the straight/square side down and use whatever method is best to push/pull the other side to square and drop it down.Depending on access and a keen operator, a person can lean a large old tire against the one corner (if allowable without damaging exterior) and give it a small nudge with a Cat and hold it in place until you can drop the side down.Come along method is great and practical, just depending on your time and what is best for ones application. Let us know how it goes and good luck!

Mike -

Thank you for acknowledging my attempt to help you.

You may not be the only person with a 9' high wall, but I would imagine there are few like yours (8"&12" backwards).

I hope the wall withstands what you are trying to do and in the future. Don't forget the anchor bolts and required reinforcement for the added height that the inspector approved even though it is not based on hydrostatic pressure. - It is a function of soil pressure, lateral support and wall height.

Good luck on the project and future efforts to sell.

Hello Mudmixer:
I think there has been a misunderstanding or two about Mike. He said in his first post, "I replaced one wall". then on 3-21 he said, "I increased the wall size from 8" to 12", filled solid, Durawall and straps are ready".
Now, I don't know about where you live but in Western Kentucky, Durawall means a fiberglass reinforced plaster product, mostly used in coal mines. They simply stack the concrete blocks up with them dry and trowell the Durawall onto the joints, on one side. I have heard miners say they tried to take a wall down where Durawall was used only on the surface of the joints and they couldn't salvage the blocks.
I think Mike is on a good path; it just scares me to talk about hooking a piece of equipment of any kind to the house, whereas, the come-along or large turnbuckle will move things slowly and give a chance to monitor the results as he goes.
Glenn

Filling the wall solid does increase the wall strength a little. The real benfit is if you use vertical steel. The "Durawall" he mentioned, I assumed, was "Dur O Wal" which is a generic term for the horizontal masonry joint reinforcement that ties block together(generally for shrinkage and crack control, but not for strength - runs in the wrong direction), but does not realy increase the lateral load reistance for wall.

IF the outside grade is never raised and IF there are no other loads applied it might meet code IF the soil is ideal. That is a lot of IFS. This also assumes the wall in question is either perpendicular to the first floor joists or blocked between the joists every 2' (I think the some new code say something rediculous like every 2' for the entire floor - ????? - strange). It must also have adequate anchor bolts so the house floor can brace the wall, but unfortunately, the bolts will not be there.

I wanted to point out the problem with putting lateral load on a basement wall. An external anchor would be the best to use to bring it over.

I hope the grader of the basement is not raised up since it will increase the loads beyond what is there now. Usually, the backfill behind a basement wall is not very good, especially when it gets wet.

Hey Wienerwater,

I was able to use adjustable posts and 2, 20 ton jacks to set the house back to its original position. It took about 2 hours. We used greased steel plates & steel pins under each steel beams I set the a post at each end of the center steel beam on a 45 degree angle. The center steel beam is permanant and flush mounted to the subfloor. It locks the house together. I took my grinder and cut in the top of the post to accept the steel beam. I used angle iron to keep the bottle jack at 45 degrees. The blocking was agaist the outer walls. As soon as we pumped the jacks the house started to moved. It was the coolest experience of my life. The house now sits on its new foundation. Although Mudmixer thinks Im not on the ball, I feel pretty good with the results. The bottom line is all the walls are solid with durawall, the grade is low, the footing drains work, and the architect who helped me thru this project recommended the front wall to be replaced with 12 inch block, so I went along with it. If my house cracks, shifts, leaks, bows, I will admit to this being a mistake, only time will tell.