Estimates on Cost for Repairing Foundation

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ashloren

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Wondering what contractors on this forum would estimate (ballpark, obviously) for the cost of repairing the foundation in the house I live in.

It's located in Portland, OR and was constructed in 1979.

It's on telephone pole-like stilts over a steep hillside near a railroad track and the poles are driven into the ground with concrete pilings, I believe.

Anyhow, the wood started to rot and the entire house has shifted so much that most of the doors do not close or fit in the door frames at all anymore. There are also large cracks in the walls, particularly around the door frames throughout both levels of the house.

I have included some photos to help visualize the house and the current situation.

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Welcome to the site.
Expensive is the only word that comes to mind.
I think you need a contractor that knows this stuff and an engineer to make sure he does it right.
If this is common construction where you are there must be people in the business.
 
Thanks for the welcome and reply.

Yeah, I figure it will be an expensive project to undertake. To make matters worse, my roommate who owns the house doesn't have the funds to start on it at this time but trying to help motivate him a bit.

I'm not sure this type of construction is typical in my area, never seen houses like the ones on this street anywhere else in the city. But I wouldn't say I've been all over Portland, so it may just be lack of experiences. Seems unique even for here.
 
First off :welcome: to House Repair Talk!

I would contact a Geotechnical Engineering consultant and have them write a scope of work, then contact construction companies and bid the work out. That way you have a level playing field and everyone is bidding the same fix to this project. I wouldn't wait to long to make this project move forward.
 
Looks like one helluva house. Must be beautiful on the deck. Obviously a bigger project than most of what comes here, but some answers or intelligent questions can be posed.
 
Agreed. Expensive to shore it up and restore it to stability. He could take a 2nd on his house .... but it might not qualify in its current dilapidated state. It looks like you need to get on this ASAP. Oh, one other issue .... you will need permits. I would be worried the City might condemn the structure because it could be deemed unsafe. Your engineers might run away screaming like little girls when they see it.

HOUSE 1.jpg
 
Yeah, I had the same thought about the city condemning the place if anything draws their attention to it.

Problem is, my friend doesn't have the money to do anything about it at the moment...trying to convince him of how serious this is and I constantly joke about the house falling off this ****ing cliff it's on to try and drive the point home, but he doesn't seem to take it seriously.
 
I have no idea how to fix that or how much it will cost beyond a lot. I don’t think it will fail today or tomorrow or even next week but it will continue to fail. It could be catastrophic or it would most likely be a slow beginning that would eventually end in a catastrophic failure. Something like a earthquake could hurry that along.

The cost of repair would defiantly be way less being proactive compared to reactive. One problem if you want to call it a problem will be when it was built there were far different levels of regulation regarding building this way. Most likely they wouldn’t allow that structure today at all or if they did the footing structure required would be massive and not poles. Based on that I agree when he goes to get permits and such he will be opening a can of worms.

Good luck it’s a really interesting structure for sure.
 
It is not impossible to fix this. I have worked on projects like this from time to time. A contractor will not be cheap. First thing I would do is research as much as you can about repairs to this. You will pretty much rebuild the entire support structure while the house is on top.

I would look into the homeowners policy and see if this is something that is covered.
 

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