Structural Issues
have been looking into a rahab property, that upon further inspection has some structural issues. The home was built in the early 1900’s and has a Michigan stone foundation/basement. Well sometime in the history of this home there were two additions. A room and bath on one side and a room and laundry on the other. When they added on, they removed part of the foundation at the additions to gain crawl space entry into the add on, they added adjustable support columns at those locations and along the main support beam for the home. Well the home has sagged at those locations and it is noticeable from the outside as well as in. I am just wondering has anyone dug into something like this and if so what where the cost associated with correction.
anyone?
to hire it done will be expensive. i have done the work myself with jacks. i will no longer do rehabbs. with that much str. work. the best way to tackle this problem is, if your not doing it yourself, contact people in your area that does the work and get estimates. then you will have and idea of what your up against. also if your rehabbing to resale, a home that old may have finiancing issues for the new buyers. this could make it difficult to resale......good luck.......km
Unless you are experienced with such properties it is best to stay away from them.
If you do proceed then bring in a structural engineer
($250.00 or so) to tell you the proper way to fix it.
Based upon his / her design, get estimates from such.
I have fixed such, they are not difficult, just a pain.
Basically requiring footers and piers to be installed,
at at times a girder or so.
NC
i have some minor eperience with structural issues, such as floor joists, and a main i beam, but this will be the first time i have dealt with raising part of a house, it appears to be sagging where the addition and the orginal structure meet. i was thinking a steal i beam under the joists with a couple adjustable jacks, should do it, it has sagged about 3-5 inches, i understand to only jack it about 1/8 of an inch every few days. if anyone has had any eperience with something like this, i would appreciate the info. thanks
"If you do proceed then bring in a structural engineer
($250.00 or so) to tell you the proper way to fix it. "
i agree with NC_Yank.
[addsig]
where do you find a structural engineer, every one i have called said they do commercial. how did you find yours, also if you could recommend one, in the mid michigan area, that would be great.
heres the deal i have. i can buy this house for $35,000 to $40,000. i have estimated roughly $10,000 in repairs/updates, fmv after the rehab is $90,000 to $104,900, i am thinking $90,000. the repair/update cost doesnt include the foundation/structural issues. the foundation/structural issue, could be the unforseen money pit. worst case scenario, replace entire foundation and massive drywall repair. would this still be worth it?
No. I delt with the same problem on a house but I had it inspected before I offered. It sagged about 6in. The estimate was upwards of 50k. According to the Engineer the estimate takes into consideration the land around it, how level the ground is, and how deep they have to go to fix it. The second house I did had the same problem In the corrner only it was about 3in. I did the work myself. What I did was is I went to home depot and got two hydraulic jacks I think they were about 90 bucks. I also bought 1 1/2 ft post base tubing all it is a tube of card board, 2-8ft 4x4, 3500psi concrete, and re-bar.
Start at the corner with the problem and dig it out so that you can get 1 jack under it. once you have the jack in place dig about 6 ft way from the corner on each side. make sure you rase the foundation about a 1-2 inches higher then needed. Thenabout 4ft from the corner on each side your going to want to put your suports. i dug down till the ground was the hardest. Then I made up the stantions. I took the 1 1/2 ft tubbing and I filled it with concret, re-bar and the 4x4 at the length i needed it. I cut the re-bar and the tubing the same length. Put the 4x4 centered in the tubing and the re-bar around it and fill it with concreat. Make 3 of these one for the corner and 2 for the sides. once there cured place them were you want them then lower the house down on to them once you have done that leave about 24hrs to allow the house to settle the stantions check to make sure its level. Then to sucure the stantions better I filled the hole 3/4 of the way with concrete then dirt on top. Make sure you account for the settlement of the stantions after you put the weights of the house on it. estimate for 2-3 in deppending on how firm the soil is.
It took me about 3 day and when I was done I had a buddy the engineer at $450.00 a pop come out and look at it. He was inpressed.
Make sure you take pictures of everything from start to finish and keep them for your records. The whole thing ran me about 1k after everything was said and done. hope this helps.
Just look the yellow pages, contact the building department, contact an I-joist supplier and ask who they use etc.
The problem with going ahead and attempting to fix the problem PRIOR to contacting an engineer
could result in a waste of time and money.
It's ridiculous to do your own structural design work unless you 1) understand where the load points are this house and again 2) have such designs evaluated prior to doing the work.
There are many variables involved other then just digging down to where you think the ground is the hardest, as one poster put it.
You also need to check with the building department about any necessary inspection since this is a structural issue.
NC_Yank