Background
House built in 1920, I purchased in 2006.
Lathe and plaster walls and ceiling, hardwood floor.
28' x 30' 840sqft
crawl space is maybe 18"
Single story
When we bought the house we knew it would be a fix it up and ran into financial issues and just recently are at that point to do the fixing up. The foundation needs fixed before I move onto everything else. It is a concrete foundation not stone, so I'm not sure if it was concrete from day 1 or replaced at some point.
There are 2x8 floor joists that span 30' and spaced 2', single pieces and they are truly 8".
There is an old brick chimney in the middle of the house that is disconnected in the attic. The center of the house is the high point and the floor drops 4" in each corner of the house and about 2.5" to the exterior walls between the corners (so the corners sag the most). The one exception is there is a spot that drops 3" within about 3' in the middle (front to back) of the house. Under the house in this spot it goes from having a support to not having any support on the next joist, so they span all 30' without middle support.
My thought is to take 4x6 timbers across the front, middle and back of the house and level the place. My thought is every 4' use a floor jack with the 4x6.
My biggest concern is how to do the footings? I can tear up the floor inside the house, get an auger, go down 3', pour concrete, etc but that's a massive undertaking and I'm not sure it's necessary. I live in Missouri and the soil is extremely dense clay. Because of the lack of space in the crawl space I would have hand tools is all if I don't rip up the floor.
Could I take a 16" x 8" x 4" concrete block rated at 1,900 PSI, use a floor jack with a 4" x 4" base and space them every 4', lift/level the house without putting a big footing under it?
I can manage enough to dig out maybe 6" of dirt for each footing to get the soil level for the pad but there just isn't room to do much more than that.
It's a 1 story house, joists are spaced 2' which is why I was thinking every 4' with the jacks/footings.
Is this a viable solution or without a deep footing am I just asking for trouble?
Putting in a lot of jacks though to disperse the weight and being 1 story and low traffic, the logical part of my brain says it's plenty strong. That and I can check every few months especially early on and adjust those jacks as needed. I'm not looking for another 100 years on the house, but why not another 20?
Pricing everything looks like well under $1,000 for material as long as I don't bust any windows or plumbing.
Foundation company came out and refused to fix the foundation this way or with steel or anything. The only way they'd do it was with hydraulics down to bedrock and was going to run me $40,000. With an 840sqft home that's almost 100 years old, that kinda money makes no sense. I'll knock down the house and build a new one.
thoughts? Suggestions? I'm sure someone has done something similar and can lend some advice.
House built in 1920, I purchased in 2006.
Lathe and plaster walls and ceiling, hardwood floor.
28' x 30' 840sqft
crawl space is maybe 18"
Single story
When we bought the house we knew it would be a fix it up and ran into financial issues and just recently are at that point to do the fixing up. The foundation needs fixed before I move onto everything else. It is a concrete foundation not stone, so I'm not sure if it was concrete from day 1 or replaced at some point.
There are 2x8 floor joists that span 30' and spaced 2', single pieces and they are truly 8".
There is an old brick chimney in the middle of the house that is disconnected in the attic. The center of the house is the high point and the floor drops 4" in each corner of the house and about 2.5" to the exterior walls between the corners (so the corners sag the most). The one exception is there is a spot that drops 3" within about 3' in the middle (front to back) of the house. Under the house in this spot it goes from having a support to not having any support on the next joist, so they span all 30' without middle support.
My thought is to take 4x6 timbers across the front, middle and back of the house and level the place. My thought is every 4' use a floor jack with the 4x6.
My biggest concern is how to do the footings? I can tear up the floor inside the house, get an auger, go down 3', pour concrete, etc but that's a massive undertaking and I'm not sure it's necessary. I live in Missouri and the soil is extremely dense clay. Because of the lack of space in the crawl space I would have hand tools is all if I don't rip up the floor.
Could I take a 16" x 8" x 4" concrete block rated at 1,900 PSI, use a floor jack with a 4" x 4" base and space them every 4', lift/level the house without putting a big footing under it?
I can manage enough to dig out maybe 6" of dirt for each footing to get the soil level for the pad but there just isn't room to do much more than that.
It's a 1 story house, joists are spaced 2' which is why I was thinking every 4' with the jacks/footings.
Is this a viable solution or without a deep footing am I just asking for trouble?
Putting in a lot of jacks though to disperse the weight and being 1 story and low traffic, the logical part of my brain says it's plenty strong. That and I can check every few months especially early on and adjust those jacks as needed. I'm not looking for another 100 years on the house, but why not another 20?
Pricing everything looks like well under $1,000 for material as long as I don't bust any windows or plumbing.
Foundation company came out and refused to fix the foundation this way or with steel or anything. The only way they'd do it was with hydraulics down to bedrock and was going to run me $40,000. With an 840sqft home that's almost 100 years old, that kinda money makes no sense. I'll knock down the house and build a new one.
thoughts? Suggestions? I'm sure someone has done something similar and can lend some advice.