Garage Tilting

[nealtw]

Some of the questions that I have are.
The beam at the back of those rafters in the front section. the beam should have extra studs in both walls to support it. then the concrete pier should be right below that. That pier and extra studs is call a "barring point"
So what is or isn't there?

The front garage door should have a barring point under the corner of the building and under the studs holding up the beam over the door.
The beams under the walls are near the ground so they will have to checked for rot.
A hard poke with a screw driver, you will soon feel the difference between good and bad timber.

 

[biddlecom]

After looking it only looks like 1 sonotube is at a 45 degree angle and the rest are fine. I also noticed that there are 6x6 on the sonotubes going around the garage. Then there is a piece of rebar that goes through that 6x6 to hold the building in place. In my head im thinking I should jack the entire garage at the same time (if possible) so I can take out the old 6x6 and place new one down, then I can place the walls back on the new 6x6. Once the garage is lined back up I can make any corrections to the roof. Does that sound like a feasible beginning plan at this point in the conversation?

 

[biddlecom]

Some of the questions that I have are.
The beam at the back of those rafters in the front section. the beam should have extra studs in both walls to support it. then the concrete pier should be right below that. That pier and extra studs is call a "barring point"
So what is or isn't there?

The big rafter that has 3 2x4 on each wall for that. Im not 100% sure if there are sonotubes under that though. I will have to look when I get home.

The front garage door should have a barring point under the corner of the building and under the studs holding up the beam over the door. The beams under the walls are near the ground so they will have to checked for rot. A hard poke with a screw driver, you will soon feel the difference between good and bad timber.

Ill have to look into this as well but thats one reason I want to replace the 6x6 so I have new timber.

 

[nealtw]

At one time it was normal just to throw some timbers on the ground and build a shed or garage on them, the hope was if frost lifted it, it would be even and then settle down the same.
The idea of having a foundation below the frost line is to protect it from moving. The problem here is the frost can lift the beams as they are on the ground and that may have caused some of your problems.
That might take some out of the box thinking no matter what else is done.

 

[biddlecom]

At one time it was normal just to throw some timbers on the ground and build a shed or garage on them, the hope was if frost lifted it, it would be even and then settle down the same.
The idea of having a foundation below the frost line is to protect it from moving. The problem here is the frost can lift the beams as they are on the ground and that may have caused some of your problems.
That might take some out of the box thinking no matter what else is done.

The beams are below the frost line though. Wouldn't that prevent them from moving up or down?

 

[nealtw]

In Maine I believe the frost line is 48" below ground, that would be the level of the bottom of your footing or piers.

 

[Snoonyb]

After looking it only looks like 1 sonotube is at a 45 degree angle and the rest are fine. I also noticed that there are 6x6 on the sonotubes going around the garage. Then there is a piece of rebar that goes through that 6x6 to hold the building in place. In my head im thinking I should jack the entire garage at the same time (if possible) so I can take out the old 6x6 and place new one down, then I can place the walls back on the new 6x6. Once the garage is lined back up I can make any corrections to the roof. Does that sound like a feasible beginning plan at this point in the conversation?

Lifting the entire structure has removed "cheap" from consideration.

The quickest is a house mover.

The cheapest, and it's pretty much a push, is accumulating the cribbing, assembling them and the jacks.

The days of labor are free.

 

[biddlecom]

In Maine I believe the frost line is 48" below ground, that would be the level of the bottom of your footing or piers.

Correct. 48" is the minimum

 

[biddlecom]

So when I get home I will check the 6x6 and see what kind of shape they are in. If they are still pretty solid then it seems all I have to do is raise that one corner in order to fix that sonotube. Then straighten the garage (however that is done). Fix any roof issues I have and call it good?

Is there anything else I should check, take picks of, or measure?

 

[biddlecom]

also if the 6x6 are rotted can I just raise sections the garage one at a time and replace as I go?

 

[bud16415]

I am not a pro but I think if this was mine I wouldn’t take the roof off. The building fell off its footing and racked. Everything wants to go back to its original position. I would lift and pull it back then brace it and replace the supports. It’s not like you are lifting a 2 story brick house I would think a couple cylinders and a pump and some heave duty pullers you could pick that corner right up and rack the building back square.

When the garage door lines up you will know you are there. In fact the garage door opening is the reason it moved in the first place no shear strength at all in the front.

 

[biddlecom]

I am not a pro but I think if this was mine I wouldn’t take the roof off. The building fell off its footing and racked. Everything wants to go back to its original position. I would lift and pull it back then brace it and replace the supports. It’s not like you are lifting a 2 story brick house I would think a couple cylinders and a pump and some heave duty pullers you could pick that corner right up and rack the building back square.

When the garage door lines up you will know you are there. In fact the garage door opening is the reason it moved in the first place no shear strength at all in the front.

Yeah when I do get it aligned again I am going to strengthen the front garage door and either fill in the back garage door or strengthen it. The plan you suggest seems to be about were I want to go with this because the more I investigate the garage the more it looks like the only reason this has happened is because of that footing that gave out and the weak garage door set up.

 

[bud16415]

it’s an old structure and to me the cost of replacing the whole roof and all if I was going to go that far I would just tear the whole thing down and build a nice new pole barn garage for about the same cost and maybe less labor. To me it looks like it can be saved and made good leaving as little untouched as you can. Again I am nothing more than you are I’m a homeowner that spends a lot of time hanging out with farmers and they are always doing projects like this.

To me the thing that’s holding it from going is that little roof over the house doorway. That is not built to take much force and hasn’t crushed yet so you might not have to pull super hard on the inside to keep it moving in the right direction. It wouldn’t be too hard to go inside and estimate how much lift you will need based on the weight of what you can see.

 

[nealtw]

So when I get home I will check the 6x6 and see what kind of shape they are in. If they are still pretty solid then it seems all I have to do is raise that one corner in order to fix that sonotube. Then straighten the garage (however that is done). Fix any roof issues I have and call it good?

Is there anything else I should check, take picks of, or measure?

I want you to check the plumb on the left front so you can show Bud that is actually leaning the other way. Just hold a level on the side wall pull the level out to plumb and measure how far out it is and you have something like 1/4 in the length of the level. Or 1/4 in 4 ft

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's look instead of what we have or think we have first.

Sono tubes were not around when this garage was built, so this has been fixed before. so why did it fail again. If we don't solve that question even a whole new structure could have the same problem in a few years.

Right now my thinking is to fix this front section and it will be piece meal, we just want to make sure we know what you are going to find and how best to fix what ever.

 

[nealtw]

it’s an old structure and to me the cost of replacing the whole roof and all if I was going to go that far I would just tear the whole thing down and build a nice new pole barn garage for about the same cost and maybe less labor. To me it looks like it can be saved and made good leaving as little untouched as you can. Again I am nothing more than you are I’m a homeowner that spends a lot of time hanging out with farmers and they are always doing projects like this.

To me the thing that’s holding it from going is that little roof over the house doorway. That is not built to take much force and hasn’t crushed yet so you might not have to pull super hard on the inside to keep it moving in the right direction. It wouldn’t be too hard to go inside and estimate how much lift you will need based on the weight of what you can see.

Pole barns don't have timbers sitting on the ground.

 

[nealtw]

This is typical garage foundation, notice the wing walls come in from the corner to support the beam over the door and the two wings are tied together so the wings don't spay sideways.
So as I see it with out support for the beam over the door and the wing wall try to sag they are pushing both wing walls outward at the bottom.

Picking this thing up and straighten out everything is easy enough. I am open to suggestions on how best to solve the problem with with these two footings.

 

[Snoonyb]

Yes for #149 & #150.

 

[biddlecom]

i did the level and its 2 1/4" in order to level the level. also i tested for 6x6 and the bottoms of them are rotted. so i guess i have to replace the 6x6 which means i have to jack the entire building up or jack it up in sections? not sure how to go about that

 

[nealtw]

i did the level and its 2 1/4" in order to level the level. also i tested for 6x6 and the bottoms of them are rotted. so i guess i have to replace the 6x6 which means i have to jack the entire building up or jack it up in sections? not sure how to go about that

2 1/2" the side closest to the door and over the whole height or just the level, how long is the level. Is the top of the wall closer to the house or the other way.

 

[nealtw]

When I was ten the sill plates in our house were rotten, my dad got a bunch of 6x6 timbers and started in one corner and lifted a 3 story house with a temp wall cut off the bottom of the wall installed a beam and dropped the house back down. That summer my 14 yr old brother and I did the rest of the house. So when I say that part is childs play, believe it is.

The other problem we are going to have is figuring out what is straight, Do you have a string line and do you know how to tie one.