O/T:Anyone got any experience is leveling houses?

JBMac · May 23, 2010

The old hunting cabin at the lake is sagging in places. From looking under it, it appears to be fairly simple to repair-there was not enough piers installed. It is sagging in between the existing piers. Seems like it I could use a 20 ton jack, maybe weld a steel cradle to go between the jack and joist and add more piers. There is no plaster or drywall to worry about cracking. Is this doable or leave it to an expert?

Uncle Ernie · May 23, 2010

It is a straight forward kind of job. Just go slow as it will take a while for the structure to flex back into shape. Jack a little and go away for the day. An inch or two is a long way to move in a weekend.

Truck · May 23, 2010

x 2 on the go slow part, especially if there is drywall or wall coverings in place... BTW does it have a multiplicity of layers of roof shingles on it?? That will sometimes cause sagging as the weight is surprising... Exra jacks and nearby blocking while jacking is always safer than just one jack, and spread the load on what you are lifting with steel. We used channel and plates...never allow the lift to be unassisted as you don't want a sudden drop of more than a 1/4 inch if the jack fails...

MIght want to check out some of the current stuff they block mobile homes with, pressure treated 2 x 2 pieces of 3/4 or 1 plywood as a pier base, or the elephants feet things... or are you going to do it the proper way with dug piers bleow frost line?>

noncompos · May 23, 2010

You can level a good sized house yourself if you go slow--and by slow I mean maybe just 1/2 of one turn of a screw jack every couple of weeks, if that much, to allow interior walls to slowly adjust.
What you need is good solid footing to jack on, and, as already mentioned, plenty of blocking to prevent any sudden drop if your footing or jack fails.

old · May 23, 2010

Yep done a few. If you can slide a say 6X6 beam under then jack it on both ends then block it in place you will have something that will last a long time. If you can find some of the 2X2 foot cement pads that goes a long ways in keeping your blocks from sinking over time. They made house jacks years ago just for that type of thing. They are also called bell jacks, yep I have 4 or 5 of them laying around. Shoot my big one is under a Case VAC right now

Howard H. · May 23, 2010

I helped Dad level our new house 35 years ago when I was a kid.

The contractor didn't put enough pilings under it.

Dad made some simple screw jacks from 6 inch channel iron with a 1 inch screw/nut assembly to adjust the upward pressure.

By taking it easy - one with a level up above yelling instructions to the one underneath jacking each jack up, it worked great and has been fine ever since.

Howard

Gun guru · May 23, 2010

I saw my dad do this in a rental home 30 years ago. The kitchen floor was sagging so bad that it was wrecking the linoleum floor.
Dad cut out the plywood of the kitchen floor then poured a cement pad under the sagging part then used a screw jack to level it and then put some cinder blocks to hold it up for good.
My dad hired a guy to tear down that rental home a few years ago due to it being a small dumpy home that wasnt worth anything. And the rent that was collected each month it wasnt worth keeping after insurance/taxes/BS.

Anonymous-0 · May 23, 2010

Noncompos below has it right. Half a turn every couple weeks. Without plaster you can likely increase that some. I had 1 1/4 inch sag in a drywalled house and jacked it up top level with no cracks developing in the process.

Areo

JBMac · May 23, 2010

Thanks for the advice Gents. Ran into an old timer today that my dad was friends with, he echoed your suggestions. I think I will tackle it myself. Wife is afraid the thing will collapse on me. Since the big life insurance policy doesnt pay if there is beer in system, I'll hold off until I'm out from under it!

Ron in Nebr · May 26, 2010

A year and a half ago I had an old 2story house moved onto our place by a professional housemoving company. When they were done and gone, I noticed that apparantly, although the new foundation was square and level, the old one that the house had been sitting on for 100 years wasnt...lots of doors didn't line up right, shut correctly, etc...two french doors that opened onto the sun porch were misaligned by over an inch where they latched together, for example.

I got under the house with two 20 ton hydraulic jacks that were blocked up on railroad tie peices and "tweaked" things, adding shims etc. under braces that the movers installed until everything was lined back up. Even lifted one whole corner of the house to replace a rotten sill board that the movers had missed. The doors all shut and latch just like they were originally supposed to now. It can be done, just work slowly and don't move things too much all at once. I spent more time looking at things and deciding where to lift and how much than I did actually pumping the jacks.

O/T:Anyone got any experience is leveling houses?

JBMac

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Uncle Ernie

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Truck

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noncompos

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old

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Howard H.

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Gun guru

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Anonymous-0

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JBMac

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Ron in Nebr

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