Just wondering if anyone has raised a cottage in this manner before. Mine is a pier and beam foundation. The cinder blocks sit on poured footings which are on bedrock. The beams are 2×10’s (three screwed together). I need to raise the cottage 16″ for plumbing reasons. The current piers are in pretty good shape and I was hoping to go up two additional Cinder blocks. If anyone has done this before I would love to hear the experiences (good or bad). I have 20 ton hydrolic bottle jacks for the job.
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a house mover can pick it up safely and with minimal movement for a reasonable price. i had a house picked up a year and a half or so ago, cost was under 4k.
i have "lifted" sections of a house to replace sections of joist, beams or pier but dont think i would ever try lifting an entire house. it would be and incredibly slow process to not cause damage.
Yeah, I've done similar on very small (320 sq ft) building with only 9 piers, 3 continuous beams, 9 jacks. 4 laser levels, just a 2" lift.
BUT:
questions:
Cinder block stack will NOT work if you are in a seismic zone, will work only till you have a quake
How many piers do you have, how many kids, cousins, friends, etc. willing to sit under a house and push on a jack for a few hours?
You DO need a jack at each pier AND something for the jack to sit on. Hopefully you can set the jack on the footing?
You also need a laser (or 2) for each beam doing it by hand, that way if there is a soft spot on a jack support you can have the person on that jack add a stroke or 2. Or slack off if it goes his. Laser on the MASTER jack, others must match the lift within 1/8" or so or drywall will crack, etc.
After the cousins, kids, friends have drank you beer and left, leave the lasers attached as there will be some differential settlement unless jacks are all on the footings.
Also, put a steel plate between jack and beam, otherwise you will just crush the beam above the small jackhead (hope that is not a 'jobsite word' <G>)
PS: the movers like Mark mentioned typoically have jacks controlled from a central panel. You could make something like that with a bunch of hydraulic cylinders and hoses and pump from surpluscenter, et. al. IF you REALLY want to DIY t;he job.
About $50 per cylinder and a $150 pump, $5 per valve, plus say $20 for hose per pier. $175 X # of piers for DIY job or if you have that many hyd jacks and friends/relatives.
We've used jacks lots of times over the years to raise or lower buildings. Pretty hard to give you much advise without seeing the project, but a lot depends on how the building is built, where the hinge points in floor joists system might be for instance, or how the walls (which will become a box beam of sorts as you jack) are sheathed.
But here's a couple thoughts - If you want to add 16" of height to your foundation, plan on jacking building up at least 24", install new foundation, then set building back down. The more room you have to work, the easier the job will be, but I'd want to install rebar and pour concrete into the cells of that cinder block you mentioned - in fact, I'd probably just set up some forms and pour a concrete wall, but you asked about cinder blocks, and I can see how that might work too.
The other thing I'd mention if you were sitting across the table asking is cribbing. You know what that is? So when we jack a building up we don't rely on the jacks to hold it there while we work. We use what's called cribbing. Picture 4' long pieces of 4x4, or 4x6, or 6x6 for example, stacked up kind of log cabin style, two on the ground parallel and maybe 3 feet apart, then two more on top of those perpendicular to the ones below, then two more on top of those and so on as high as you need to go. I'm sure you've seen this, or get the idea. Main point being, don't rely on the jacks to do anything but lift high enough to get another layer of cribbing in place.
Just go slow and be careful. I've had some close calls, usually after being just slightly over confident or not thinking sequentially.
foundation pictures
Thanks for the reply, here is a picture of the type of piers i am dealing with. The interior walls dont have any sheathing on them right now. Do you think that is a good thing or a bad thing?
The existing foundation doesn't look terribly stable.
As to the inside sheathing, it makes the building lighter and lessens the worries about cracks, etc, during raising, but it also reduces stiffness somewhat.
The floor structure and beams look to be substantial. And there's certainly clearance to get under there easily. Of the buildings you might attempt this on, this would be about the easiest, for its size.
I'd be a little leery of the joists pulling off the beams while raising, though, and would be inclined to add hurricane ties or some such to every 2nd-3rd joist to keep them on the beams. But it may be that current fastening (which one can't see in the pictures) is sufficient.
I've jacked some small buildings and parts of structures, and I would agree to double down on the cribbing. Don't trust jacks to hold anything for longer than needed to slip in the cribbing. Hydraulic jacks especially tend to "leak down" at unpredictable rates, plus anything balanced on a jack is unstable.
And I'd agree to think hard about hiring it out. I've had such things as a jack suddenly squirt out and hit me on the head, even when the structure was safely cribbed. If you're trying to squeek through with minimal equipment, people, and experience it's only a matter of time until something goes bad wrong.
foundation pictures
Here are a couple pics of the underside of the cottage. I hope the footings are big enough to jack off of. Eventually we would like to pour a foundation wall and winterize but its not in the budget right now. I appreciate all the tips!
Piece of cake. I wouldn't be stacking a bunch of blocks under there though. Make some real piers or at least buy some pier blocks and frame up to the beams. Use gussets. I'm not sure where you're at but that thing looks like it could come down in a puff of wind.
I definitely don't think you should try to add two more blocks of height to those stacks. They look sketchy now. You add more height you are making a questionable foundation worse.
One thing you might consider is pouring proper footings (if they aren't already) them posting up to the framing with pressure treated 4x4, 4x6 or 6x6. That would replace all the interior stacks of blocks. I would want some type of lateral shear panels included if that's what you do around the perimeter, though. A poured wall, at least in corners, would be better.
But now I'm getting way too specific without seeing the project/knowing local building standards. Whatever you do, please don't go under there with a couple bottle jacks and start lifting. What you have there looks really sketchy from the photos you posted, dangerous at best. You take the weight off one of those stacks you transfer at least part of the weight to another stack and create an angled load path, which of course is more prone to tipping. Not good.
There are two piers that need some attention but there are steel posts beside them as a temp fix. Inside the cottage everything is plumb level and true. All footings are poured directly on the bedrock (which is covered by leaves and topsoil right now). The piers that have been damaged are a result of backfill collapse so retaining it is another job. The more I think about it, the more I feel that lifting it and pouring a wall makes more sense. I just don't know the costs involved.
save a life.......
Hire a pro, the conditions shown are treacherous, at best, for someone with NO experience lifting a building.
The center beam appears to be two doubled 2x's butted together at the center supprt , a possible disaster waiting to happen,
especially for an inexperienced person such as yourself.
hire a pro.
good luck,
Geoff
Im going to second Goeffreys comment. This is not a simple process, the construction of the building makes it even more dangerous. Whats a few $k compared to risk you would be putting yourself and any other person you ask to help (it would have to be many)
SPECIALLY with the interior walls down to the studs. less stability, less holding the building together, greater chances of the box pulling apart.
Ejector Pump.
You say this is for plumbing reasons. Why not just use an ejector pump? It's done all the time. I have a house that uses one. It's been replaced once in 25 years. It should cost you less than $500. Works with toilet paper but other trash should be avoided.
Ive heard of these toilets and it did cross my mind but its the shower that poses the real problem.
Ejector pumps.
The drains all run into a tank that's 30 - 50 gallons. The pump is a submersible with a float switch in the tank. It pumps all the sewage up into the building sewer high enough to drain by gravity. Showers, sinks and toilets all go into the same tank. No problem. Alot easier than raising the house. If necessary you sink the tank into hole.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1-2-HP-Submersible-Pre-Plumbed-Sewage-Basin-System-THD1075/206475885
I too have a sewage sump pit and ejector pump
in my basement that pumps up 6 foot to the main septic drain. This sewage sump pit has a gasket sealed lid with inlet pipes plumbed into it from my 4 piece bathroom and my basement floor drain. It is not just a toilet. The tank isn't nearly 30-50 gallons the other poster states the sewage sump tank is more like 20 gallons tops but it makes little difference because the pump empties sump well before it ever comes close to being full.
These systems are common in any area that has basements and septic systems as they are the best way to plumb basement bathrooms.
https://www.zoro.com/zoeller-simplex-sewage-package-system-115v-910-0033/i/G0448953/?gdffi=047ada998cf641fa93e55ae8579df863&gdfms=F76BEA57ED1A4828832D83C9A85F246F&gclid=CLqe7cn37coCFQQEaQodSgYBGg&gclsrc=aw.ds
One does have to worry about power failures, but if you're on septic odds are that you're also on a well, so you're fairly safe so long as the septic pit is larger than the water pressure tank (but don't let anyone empty the tub during a power failure).
Cities (not just homes) pump waste water uphill every day in this country. A good plumber can put in a system that will function fine and last. For the expense and effort you are talking about, you could put in a several systems to solve the problem without the risk.
I guess the only problem with these sewage basins for me would be winterizing it. Because of the bedrock it would have to stay above grade.
Antifreeze
If you keep the toilet tanks filled with antifreeze you won't have any problems.
While the house is occupied you can still "condition" the pit as a part of the house envelope. Insulating from the ground around the pit area would no doubt help, and there may even be a submersion heater designed for this duty.
If the house is to be left unheated and "winterized" in cold weather you'd treat the pit just like a toilet or any other drain fixture -- add enough antifreeze to protect it from freezing.
Sorry, I meant that i would be unable to use it in the winter becasue of the freezing concern. The bathroom with the shower would just be for three season use. I dont think heat trace is meant for -30c weather.