Raising a house - tips or tricks?
 

We bought a 1910 heritage home that needs a LOT of TLC, but we're going to
bring it back to fomer glories. First step is raising it approx 2 feet to
get more headroom in the basement (currently only 6 feet).

Have never done it before - any tips or tricks?

TIA - R.

Wow. That's kind of a big deal, is the more usable basement going to be
worth the money and effort ? Here's a pictorial history from some
fellow who did it.

http://www.k2ah.com/house/jackinghouse.html

Assuming the house is frame, not brick ?

I sympathize, half my basement has a ceiling suitable for trolls, the
other half gives me about 3" clearance.

R. wrote:
We bought a 1910 heritage home that needs a LOT of TLC, but we're
going to
bring it back to fomer glories. First step is raising it approx 2
feet to
get more headroom in the basement (currently only 6 feet).

Have never done it before - any tips or tricks?

TIA - R.

Don't do it yourself, hire someone who has both the tools and the
knowledge.

Harry K

"R." wrote in message
news:8%G1e.815604$Xk.463927@pd7tw3no...
We bought a 1910 heritage home that needs a LOT of TLC, but we're going to
bring it back to fomer glories. First step is raising it approx 2 feet to get
more headroom in the basement (currently only 6 feet).

Have never done it before - any tips or tricks?

TIA - R.

This is Turtle.

I would suggest getting a real house lifting company to lift it with a beam and
jack system that lift it all at one time. If you don't lift everything all at
one time you can split the house in two pieces.

I had my mother in law's house lifted 3 feet and had 6 steel beams lifting all
at one time. We had no trouble at all. Using Bottle jacks and wood beams is
history now.

TURTLE

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:31:30 -0600, someone wrote:

I had my mother in law's house lifted 3 feet and had 6 steel beams lifting all
at one time. We had no trouble at all. Using Bottle jacks and wood beams is
history now.

Recently, local fellas had a house jacked up to do foundation work.
They were underneath when the house shifted to the side, the jacks
tipped over, one man was killed. It was a father & son doing the
work, I think it was the Dad that died (not that either one would be
okay).


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

The verdict seems to be the same - don't do it yourself!

Fortunately we've already made that decision. We have two firms here in
Vancouver, BC who specialize in doing this so I assume it happens frequently
enough that, while a bit out of the norm it's still a relatively routine
process. And we're fortunate that I have a friend who is a retired
structural engineer so I can get some tips from him. We already have a
perimeter foundation in place so that makes things a bit easier than the
fellow who had the photos made in the other posting.

Any other tips or tricks?

Thanx - R.

"v" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:31:30 -0600, someone wrote:

I had my mother in law's house lifted 3 feet and had 6 steel beams lifting all
at one time. We had no trouble at all. Using Bottle jacks and wood beams is
history now.

Recently, local fellas had a house jacked up to do foundation work.
They were underneath when the house shifted to the side, the jacks
tipped over, one man was killed. It was a father & son doing the
work, I think it was the Dad that died (not that either one would be
okay).


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

This is Turtle.

I can't believe it is still ok to raise these house with the bottle jacks and
wood beam because of being under it all the time while raising it. These steel
beam and computor systems has about 30 something jacks hooked to the 6 or so
beams and all raise the house at one time. each jack raises 1/4'' at a time and
all go up and then starts over with another 1/4" raise again of all 30 something
jacks. The system took about 3 hours to lift the 1,800 sq. ft. house up 3 foot.

I feel sorry for the house lifter that lost his lift doing this.

TURTLE