dpb wrote:
gore wrote:
I have a home built in 1848. It has a stone foundation that has sunk
and has been sunk for several decades (I can tell this by the way the
previous owners who remolded in the 60's just made the baseboards
(snip)
Obviously there is a failure below the foundation itself at this point
owing to some fundamental problem. Finding cause of and curing that
problem is the first step, then either raising the house (or at least
stabilizing it if aren't going to address the existing sag), then create
a stable sub-base and rebuild the foundation.

Looked at a house of roughly same vintage in VA once upon a
time--similarly, the owners had invested a ton of money in all the
cosmetic fixups and it looked wonderful--except the foundations were in
similar shape as this and the whole thing was going to have to be redone
to save it...

--

I saw several similar houses when I was house-shopping a couple 3 years
ago. Upstairs all remodeled and fancy, but go in the basement and see
2x6 joists, a forest of jackpoles, and dirt running down through the
cracks in the foundation. And the upstairs work was obviously done by a
pro. What sort of an idiot sticks lipstick on a pig like that? And this
wasn't mid-1800s houses, this was 1950s places.

Methinks banks should make people getting home improvement loans take a
class or pass a test or something, just so the bank has something to
repossess if needed. Something along the lines of 'Foundation, Framing,
Roof, HVAC/Plumbing/Wiring. Then, and only then, worry about the cosmetics.'

--
aem sends....