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Jacking up older home to level

| Posted in Construction Techniques on March 6, 2002 05:11am

*
I recently purchased an older home – built in 1922. The settling over the years has left some sections of the home low by 1-2″. The foundation appears to be in good shape and seems to be done moving, so I am not interested in messing with that. My question is whether it is possible (or, more importantly, advisable) to jack up the low sections from the foundation and shim the sill plate to level. I have good access via a basement and crawl space to the top of the foundation.

Does anyone have suggestions on 1) whether I should attempt to raise the low sections, and/or 2) how to best tackle the job?

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  1. Mad_Dog | Feb 28, 2002 05:33am | #1

    *
    I won't try to explain the whole process but will offer some tips-

    -Make sure you're applying the load to strong, solid foundation elements, and spreading it out appropriately.

    -Don't try to accomplish it too fast. I would raise it maybe 1/4-1/2" at a time, and allow a week or two between intervals.

    -Make sure you won't pull on mechanicals, it would be bad for you to find out too late that a plumbing run won't move with you, or break electric cable/conduit.

    -keep your eye on plaster/drywall/tile work upstairs, and make sure your windows and doors stay operational or you may make things worse for yourself.

    Good luck

    1. piffin_ | Feb 28, 2002 06:13am | #2

      *1) whether I should attempt to raise the low sections,What is your goal?Is there a significant problem in functionality?or do you just need something to do?It can certainly be done by someone who knows what they are doing but it is not a job for the uninitiated and it can lead to lots of unanticipated expenses.Short answer - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

      1. bungalow_jeff | Feb 28, 2002 03:39pm | #3

        *Old house, wavy floors. Adjust any loose/tight doors and call it character.

        1. Tim_Mooney | Feb 28, 2002 09:54pm | #4

          *I have seen several that I walked away from,that I have not done .I buy repos and thats where I've seen them. I've seen some pretty good looking old houses with floors 3 inches out. the thing is they are give a ways. Very tempting.Although I do have this experience. I bought 2 houses that Walmart had moved to a newer subdivision to make room for their expansion. I bought 5 lots and two houses in one deal. The house mover bought them first, after he moved them thinking it was a good deal. He used his own money and ran out of it. So they set there for several years till he was on the verge of going broke over his moving business. The point is this; I sold one of them done , but it was a drafty house. I sold the other up on jacks. The guy poured a cement floor and had the mover set the house down over it. The plates didnt hit the floor and he thinks they never did settle down to the slab. Again ,drafty as all get out and very hard to heat and cool. We think both houses never settled on the slab.The mover fixed the one that was fixed , so I had no control. But I note that neither house was willing to move back normal. Also there is no telling how bad they were left to sit. I dont have that knowledge either. In a bad scenario they might have been sit up a foot out. The one on blocks looked like it was pretty bad.

          1. piffin_ | Mar 01, 2002 03:58am | #5

            *I've done a lot of this but it's definitely not for ametures and full of good and bad. Nobody online can tell if this is a good idea for this house.

          2. Tim_Mooney | Mar 01, 2002 04:27pm | #6

            *I think Piffin is against messing with this job. I respect that as he has experience. But we are here to learn aren't we ? Piffin, you want to share some information ? I thought thats why we are here.

          3. Tim_Mooney | Mar 01, 2002 09:32pm | #7

            *If you start jacking on the house, doors and lock strike plates can move. Doors may not close and may see daylight on some. Drywall will crack as with wall paper with it.Windows that dont have room to move can break. Entry doors can be misalighned with the problem of the threshold. Hard floors can crack especially ceramic tile. I think what Piffin was thinking is that it would be easier to leave it alone and you sound like this is not your trade. I guess I wouldnt do it either unless the price of the house is jepardized by leaving it. I had to come back after I thought about it and give piffin fair due. But I would like for someone to tell about it that has done it quite a bit. I dont have the experince in knowing that you can actually move the house where you need it after my experience above. If I had that knowledge ,it might help me on one down the road. The ones I have looked at were bad . Yours is not,so it sounds. I have probably walked away from 12 of them. Piffin ,Im just trying to make my self more knowledgeable, so please dont take offense.

          4. kkearney | Mar 01, 2002 11:22pm | #8

            *prussing, Tim,I agree with piffin that this is a good way to screw up a house or yourself. Each house is differnt but I usually set up robolaser on a tripod so I can shoot 3 different spots. Find the high spot and try to set house to this level. We have 5 20 ton jacks and some 12 tons. Set the jacks on cribbing with a metal plate between the ram and sill. Everybody jacks real slow at the same time so the house goes up as a unit. It is more important that the house planes out than if it is level. Remember that a falling house is a dynamic load and can do alot of damage falling a few inches, if nothing else it gives a bad case of the puckers.Watch your fingers.KK

          5. piffin_ | Mar 02, 2002 03:44am | #9

            *I'v e got four screw jacks, three 20s and a couple fifties.More important, I've got a LOT of patience and an eye for structural load paths.Jacks need to be set in the right place to avoid tearing a house apart. Lots of the old ones that need jacking have some unique framing. The first question asked above went to whether the poster should even do it. An inch or so is hardly worth the risk and trouble, much of the time. You can end up replacing lots of plaster. If a whole house remodel is in the works - then fine, but if the owner just wants a perfectly true house, he might be better off getting a new one.I hesitate to give advice how to do it online because there are too many folks who would try it when they have no business doing so and hurt themselves or sombody else. If a DIY messes up a door installation - no big deal. But if he drops a house on somebody...If you are certain of having solid points to jack from, the slow is right. Sometimes we get one to a point where it seems like it doesn't want to go any further and let it steep overnight. Next day the set is gone and it's ready to go again. (Always place solid shims when leaving the job. Jacks can bleed off and cribbing can settle in.) Slow work will avoid some wall and plaster damage too. I keep walking through the house to see what is happening - reading the walls, looking at the casings, using the level and laser too. Open all the windows - tension can build and exploding glass can travel aways. Openning the doors can be handy too.I can remember having one house a third of it up in the air on jacks and cribs while we formed a new foundation. Owner decided to come up and stay the weekend in it and inspect the work. That night we had a ferocious windstorm and his master bedroom was the corner right over where we were working (too bad these photos are all packed away on Kodak paper instead of digital)His face was a little ashen the next morning. He said he could feel the three story house being humped up by the wind a couple times. We lifted that corner of the house three and a half inches. It needed five to be level but we started pushing against a three fireplace chimney that we didn't want to replace so we compromised. One and a half inches isn't all that noticeable but we re leveled all the floors later anyway.

          6. Tim_Mooney | Mar 02, 2002 05:08pm | #10

            *Good story Piffin. Sounds like cool work to me. fun.

          7. als_ | Mar 03, 2002 05:04pm | #11

            *Gypcrete can work wonders for an out of level floor and you don't have to deal with the spiders in the crawl space. New home is no guaranty of a level floor!

          8. Doug_Shaw | Mar 04, 2002 06:15pm | #12

            *I've done this a couple of times on the "fixer-uppers" that I tend to buy. On one house built around the 20s, the centre supports (4x6) had the bottom 12" rotted away. This resulted in a sag of about 6" in the centre of the house. After pouring concrete footings and using a combination of tele-posts and a 5 ton hydraulic jack I managed to re-level the house. I was careful to lift only about a 1/16" a day at most. It soon just became part of my morning routine to turn the jacks. The whole process took almost 6 months and about an average 1 minute each day. The only damage was one small 4 foot crack in the old lathe and plaster walls of the 1 1/2 story house. Total cost of this job, if I remember correctly was 3 $40.00 teleleposts and the loss of my trucks jack for 1/2 a year. The real estate agents told me that this fix added at least $20,000 to the value of the home. One word of caution, and that is to have a good hunt for electrical cables, water and gas pipes, etc. that may become stressed by this operation.

          9. prussing_ | Mar 05, 2002 08:23pm | #13

            *Thanks for all the advice. I think it is something I'll leave until I get into a major remodel on the upstairs in a few years. The house is perfectly functional right now and most people wouldn't notice the out of level condition unless they line up the various casings with their eyes like I tend to do. (Or if, like the previous owners, they try to place anything on rollers in the living room.) When I tackle the remodel I'll be more setup to deal with any resulting problems.I appreciate everyone pitching in advice. I generally don't get in over my head and think this would be within my skills with some careful thought ahead of time - or I'd learn a lot....

          10. piffin_ | Mar 06, 2002 05:11am | #14

            *Not bad, I've taken the liberty of saving your image for examples of eyebrow windows.Nice friendly, balanced, approach. Do those eyebrows look into an upper room or skylight the first floor rooms? I'm betting the former.

          11. user-44383 | Mar 24, 2002 05:37pm | #15

            The eyebrow windows are one of the best features of the house.  Unfortunately, they look into an empty space behind the walls for the room upstairs.  This is something I want to change with a remodel.

            Thanks again for your comments.

          12. jjwalters | Mar 24, 2002 08:04pm | #16

            I kinda agree with Piffin.

            1. The guy could cause more damage than good or kill himself if he gets goofy.

             2 There are guys that will come in and do the job for him. I think it is a good idea to share the dangers of a job along with the advise. There are fast carpenters who care..... there are slow carpenters who care more.....there are half fast carpenters who could care less......

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