New foundation, old house
- Thread starter Begreen
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Help Support House Repair Talk:
I too, want to thank you for all the information. I have a similar situation here in Washington as well. However, my house is in considerable disrepair due to a lack of foundation. It is actually sitting on concrete posts, so there is a lot of cracking in the walls and framing . It's about a 100 year old house, rebuilt in the 50's after a fire. (Grandpa bought her for $2,000!) For years we jacked up the house and put in new blocks to try to level it, but that hasn't been done in probably 20 years. So now we are getting to the point where we either have to tear it all down, or give it a major overhaul, i.e. lifting it, pouring a foundation, and completely gutting the house and rebuilding it from the inside out. Frankly, I'm leaning towards just tearing it down, but would love any suggestions out there.
Hard to say LJ, this is a tough decision. If the house has good bones, it may be worth saving, especially if it has such great memories and history. Does it have unique period trim and detailing? If a rebuild, it will take a lot of work and probably at least $100K, but it can be worth it. Our friends tore their house down to the studs inside and out and reclad it with shingles, insulated it well, and new electric, and sheetrock. Their heating bills for that old house are now exceptionally low and it looks great. It takes a tremendous amount of work and sweat equity to pull this off or a large budget, but with the right house it can be worth it. If the house was nothing to start with and has serious problems, then sadly it may be better to start over.
I am glad I found this forum, because this is something I am about to have done to a 1930 Sears Home I bought. I think I going to raise the basement ceiling height it another 3ft, but that's not the main reason I want to have this done. The main reason is because whoever decided to install a new furnance and drainage system cut right through the main support beam in 3 locations.
, some people shouldn't be allowed to own houses, especially the ones Sears use to build.Yes, don't you love contractors that come in with no structural regard for the house. What a bummer. I'm a little confused about the final goal todomi. Can't that main beam be replaced without completely raising the house? If the primary goal is to add significant height to the basement, this is the right process. But if it's just to replace the main beam(s) I would think you wouldn't have to go to such extremes.
BTW, progress update. I finally got tired of contractors saying they would show up and then not showing up. We needed to get the house siding restored. So my son and I tackled the project. It took about 9 days of steady work to add, patch and replace the beveled siding. Looks great now and we're ready to paint in two weeks. Although I've never done siding before, the results look great. I would wager my mitered joins on the long runs look better than most.
The last exterior detail is the porch stairs. They were large (8 ft wide) before we raised the house. Now about 32" higher they would be massive. So we are going to put in a wide 6 step stair that will come down to a 6 x 8 landing. Then the landing will have two 3 ft wide steps on both sides that bring one down to the ground-level gravel path around the house. The stairs will be craftsman style with side walls clad in beveled siding. That will be the final touch.
And as to the energy retrofits, they've paid off nicely. The heat pump worked well. We had an unusually cold spell in January but I used the woodstove as our supplementary heat instead of the electric resistance coils. This winter our average heating bills were under $60/month. And the floors were so much more comfortable with the newly insulated crawlspace below.
BTW, progress update. I finally got tired of contractors saying they would show up and then not showing up. We needed to get the house siding restored. So my son and I tackled the project. It took about 9 days of steady work to add, patch and replace the beveled siding. Looks great now and we're ready to paint in two weeks. Although I've never done siding before, the results look great. I would wager my mitered joins on the long runs look better than most.
The last exterior detail is the porch stairs. They were large (8 ft wide) before we raised the house. Now about 32" higher they would be massive. So we are going to put in a wide 6 step stair that will come down to a 6 x 8 landing. Then the landing will have two 3 ft wide steps on both sides that bring one down to the ground-level gravel path around the house. The stairs will be craftsman style with side walls clad in beveled siding. That will be the final touch.
And as to the energy retrofits, they've paid off nicely. The heat pump worked well. We had an unusually cold spell in January but I used the woodstove as our supplementary heat instead of the electric resistance coils. This winter our average heating bills were under $60/month. And the floors were so much more comfortable with the newly insulated crawlspace below.
I was going to see if I could flitch another beam together, I am not sure I can do it that way because the location of the stairs. A Structural Engineer, I know suggested using a steel plate under the location of the cuts, but that would still require the use of floor jacks. I want to get rid of the use of floor jacks completely. I really hope there is another way, I will see the Structural Engineer tomorrow. I really didn't mention any other option with him, but I think he didn't realize my desire to get rid of the floor jacks, the last time we talked about this. He even surveyed the damage, what he suggested was a quick fix. I don't want a quick fix, I want it to look like those hacks were never here. I am also planning to add a 2 car garage and addition living space to the property, it may even be attached. Depending on how the architectural drawings turn-out. The addition won't have a basement, however. It will be slab on grade, for the garage area. Believe me, if there was an easy way to fix this without permanent use of floor jacks, let me know? I would rather not have to go to this extreme, but I am 6'-4" and the basement current joist height is like 6'-0". I plan to stay here at least 10 years or more. Another question, when you had this done, did you have to completely empty your house of all it's contents: furniture, appliances and etc.?
Also, I was thinking of going geo-thermal, a heat pump doesn't work well in the colder climates, like Ohio.
