Found out that an addition to our home was never permitted, before we bought. Unfortunately the footing is 20″ deep and our area requires 42″.
Would it be possible to dig down and put block under the poured rat wall to reach 42″ deep?
Not bearing a lot of weight, but inspector requiring 42 footing.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
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Replies
An inspector is requiring that you make an existing foundation meet code? how do you know its 20", and why is an inspector telling you to make an existing foundation meet code?
And inspector is telling him to make an UNPERMITTED foundation meet code, vs requiring him to tear down the entire unpermitted structure. The inspector is being kind.
no, he is saying the addition was done prior to him purchasing the home, or am i reading this wrong? if this is the case (addition done prior to purchase) i can not see how a citiy official can tell me to do ANYTHING to my house.
He said "an addition to our
He said "an addition to our home was never permitted". Now I would read this to mean that the addition was built without pulling a permit. When he bought the house he bought whatever such problems were present at the time of sale -- selling the house is not a Get Out of Jail Free card. He can, of course, go back and attempt to recover his costs from the seller, but that's beyond iffy in most situations.
not a get out of jail
but for damn sure its not a let a city offical come and tell me that i am required to do something to my house if no other work is being done, or even if im trying to sell.
there is absolutly no reason or authority for the inspector to require anything of the home owner.
Don't know about where you live, but around here you can get into a fair amount of trouble for doing unpermitted work. And if any unpermitted work is discovered you can't sell the house until it's corrected to the building dept's satisfaction.
If permits can't be enforced why would anyone get them?
Probably one could get away with some sort of pilings every few feet, vs a full 42" foundation under the entire length. But you'd need to negotiate this with your inspector -- you're over a barrel.
Considered pilings. Great idea. Room is 15'x20' and just one story.
The addition is hard to access (in city) and it's winter time, would block pilings be as good as a pour?
And how many pilings would you put in?
Whatever you do, at this stage, would have to be professionally engineered, especially something other than the "normal" full-sized foundation. It's hard to predict what you could "get away with".
Tell us the whole story. Are you trying to add a 2nd floor to the existing addition, etc..
Why is the inspector there in the first place unless you are adding something now ?
It does help to have a few details, as there are hundreds of options.
If I hand dig down and under rat wall, could blocks underneath hold up? skim coat conrete on exterior??
Hard to get in back yard and have to hand dig. Less concrete using blocks.
What's the frost depths where you are? The footings will definitely need to go down to frost depth.
42"
from his original post
Have a look at helical piers
http://www.myfoundationrepairs.com/helical-piers
Find someone local who does this type of work to have a look and quote the repair. A lot easier and quicker than digging down for concrete.
Helical piers will do the job quickly, won't tear things up too badly and are cost effective. I'm a very experienced GC but when my own house sagged on one side I hired another contractor to install helical piers. They install 8 along one side of the house then pumped grout into the void they created by jacking the foundation. Cost me $20,000.00 but was money well spent considering that one of the piers had to go down over 20' before it hit bearing soil.
The foundation has not sunk an inch in 3o years, it's just that the rat wall is 24" deep, not 42.
it doesnt matter if it sunk
why is the inspector telling you to address the foundation depth?
there are no normal circumstances for a city official to tell anyone to retro fix a 3 year old foundation... spill the beans or stop trolling.
spill beans or stop trolling...
right on, methinks the OP is trying a quick flip and the unpermitted work got caught in the 2nd sale?
yeah, not much worse than "flippers".