house jacking any ideas?

[homersipes]

so I know some of you have probably dealt with this before.  my neighbor has asked if I would help him jack the back half of his house.  his foundation is stone and buldging out, which was the cause.  It was built in 1903 same year as mine.  so thinking could cut basement floor and put in sauna tubes as footings for screw jacks, jack the back up at like 1/8" a week.  Once its back to level put in 8x8 posts in place of the jacks to support the house instead of letting it rest on the foundation and then work on the foundation to shim it up to the outter joists.  any suggestions?

the screw jacks are the hex shapes, sorry about the fine drawing hahaha probably worth noting, the joists that run left and right on the left side is gable end, the others are the kitchen which was an addition and the roof runs other direction, gable end is on the right side of drawing.

[mthrockmor]

This sounds like an awesome project I would love to watch with zero ability to actually pull it off myself. Something that would be on cable TV. Actually, you should do some short YouTubes on how you set up the jacks, then some photos of the house rising, if it is visible, then a before and after. I'd love to watch this project from afar.

Best of luck on it!!

boo

[homersipes]

   I have done everything else on houses except jacking, done floors, roofs, electrical, plumbing, but never jacking.  I know gotta go slow, otherwise break plaster.  A lot of people out here have done it, so I guess I can too

[Easyscor]

PM sent

[Bizman]

I wouldn't dare do that even with my own house, let alone that of a neighbour...

I've read about a new technology where they drill holes in the ground and  injecting some kind of expanding plastic into them. More here: http://www.advancedbuildersinc.com/house-raising.asp

[homersipes]

strange part is is that all the doors work, nothing seems to be messed up other than the floors being low on the back side.  seems to have pivoted on the center beam back.  I have seen several people jack up sections, some use hydraulic jacks, which I have been told is a BIG no no, and others use screw jacks so that they cant lift too much at one whack. 

[ROC]

One idea I have is that, as a builder, there is no way on earth I'll answer a question like this without actually looking at it   So many questions. 

[Bizman]

strange part is is that all the doors work, nothing seems to be messed up other than the floors being low on the back side. 

It's a long time since 1903. Who knows if the house has been that way from the beginning, the doors fitted to work despite the unevenness?

The town hall of Kuopio, Finland was built in 1882-1885. Two floors and a cellar all solid stone. However, the closest corner sank soon after the building was finished, so they just levelled the floors inside. That's how it was until about 2000 when they jacked the said corner.



I've also heard about a project where they raised the entire wooden house by about 8" (a foundation brick) with bottle jacks to get more height in the cellar. It would have been cheaper and faster to tear the house down and build a new one...

[homersipes]

doors dont really show any signs of planing on tops bottoms or sides, if they have been planed they did a perfect job, they are all square and even all the way around.  but the cracking plaster tells me that it is settling and something should be done to stop it before the bad stuff starts to happen.  could put in posts in basement to stop the settling even if we dont jack it up is one way I was thinking.  like cutting several sections out of the basement floor, digging down and putting in sauna tubes, then an 8x8 post up to floor joists and shim it up tight, should stop the settling as the tubes would act as footing pillars. 

One idea I have is that, as a builder, there is no way on earth I'll answer a question like this without actually looking at it Smiley  So many questions.

fire away, thats why I was asking for opinions before doing this, like I said I have framed and everything else, just never jacked anything up other than a pickup truck

[Bizman]

By the way, I know how to plan a good sauna, but the search for sauna tubes didn't show anything building related. So, what exactly are sauna tubes?

[homersipes]

lol I miss spelled that should be sona tubes
http://www.homedepot.com/p/SAKRETE-12-in-x-48-in-Concrete-Form-Tube-65470062/100321215?keyword=sona+tube
I have used these to hold up sheds and stuff and my neighbor is a concrete guy so he knows what mix to use for footings and what not

[Dragon]

Cardboard tubes that you fill with concrete.


You need to find the root problem to why the basement wall is failing.  

I see you put a Lam on the right side, you should put 4 on the left side too with a post under each at the wall of the "good" area so the middle doesn't sag during the lift.  


If the basement floor is in decent shape, you should be able to use 2' x 2' 1/2" steel plates under the jacks instead of going through breaking it up to pour tubes.  The basement wall should be torn down and rebuilt, installing new footer drains to keep the water from jacking the wall in the future.


My 2 cents

[homersipes]

yeah I was going to run lams under the left side as well, back to the center beam.  the foundation is an old stone foundation that has started to buldge outwards, which is noticable from the outside, there is about a 6' exposure at the back of the house which is all stone, so you can see what its doing above ground.  for a temp fix til summer can we put the jacks in place and lams, get them snugged to try and stop any further settling until summertime?

[Wayout]

Friend of mine tried this and instead of the jacks going up then went down, right through the basement floor. 

[homersipes]

hahaha yeah thats not good, thats why I was wondering about putting sona tubes through the floor 4 feet into ground to act as a permanant footing