Nikitag - thanks for the info. I am really looking forward to hearing how it turns out. It's not in the budget for us now, but I am convinced it will be a good move down the road.
~D
Posts: 3 | Location: Seattle/England | Registered: 20 May 2007
Just curious how your house lift is going,and what the contact info is for Rockwinn Custom Homes. I wasn't able to find their info anywhere. I live in the Phinney Ridge area of Seattle and just (finally) got the building permit from the city. I'm lifting my house about 2 1/2ft to finish out an unfinished, currently 6ft high ceiling height basement. I'm going to be my own general and would love any info or contacts you might have! Thanks so much! Janette andersonjanette@comcast.net
Hi Janette - unfortunately our project is not going smoothly and we're way behind schedule. Right after the house was lifted there was 3 wks of absolutely no one on the job site, and for two of those weeks there was no communication from the contractor. There are problems with the new foundation that need engineering fixes. That's about as far as things have gotten. We're hoping that things get better....soon.
Nikitag
Posts: 12 | Location: Seattle WA | Registered: 05 January 2006
Wow, sorry to hear things aren't going so well! I can appreciate your frustration with a timeline . . . it took me over 10 months and 10K to the city of Seattle to get a simple variance and building permit to do my project. I wish you luck and let me know if you'd reccommend (or tell me "don't go!") to anyone you deal with during your project! Thanks, Janette
I would love any info, advice, suggestions as well. Our house is currently the lowest in the neighborhood and sits on a steep hillside. The front hill is about 80 degrees (a bear to mow!), the driveway is 45 degrees (luckily not much snow or ice around here or it would be unusable). I'm not exaggerating, the roof is level with the street. I can't imagine what they were thinking when they built it (or what we were thinking when we bought it 15 years ago, except that we were much younger, it was very cheap, and we didn't scare easily enough). Raising the house and adding a full-height daylight basement (and adding fill dirt between the house and the street to give us a more level front yard) would greatly improve the resale-ability as well as adding square footage. (Last time we put it on the market, people drove up, took one look at the hill and drove away). It's 1500 square feet on a crawlspace (crawlspace varies from 3-5' depending on which end of the house you're on). We're looking to raise it around a total of 6'. The attached 2-car carport is on a slab, so I imagine the roof would have to be cut at that point or something. I know prices will vary, but I'm just trying to find out if this idea is even feasible and get a ballpark idea of how much it might cost. The front hill has always had a problem with erosion and we'll eventually have to invest in a multi-retaining wall system (not cheap) which we would not have to do if we raised the house. We have also thought about creating a small basement efficiency apartment at the same time (we live near a college) to rent out for some extra monthly income to help cover some of the cost of this. We would finish out the basement area (including the apartment) ourselves; so right now, I'm only looking at the expense to raise/lower the house, adjust the foundation accordingly (It's supported by piers.), pour a concrete floor and anything else that is needed to make it a rough basement including adjusting the utility connections to account for the new height. (Fill dirt is relatively cheap in this area and can sometimes even be gotten for free--or rather for the cost of the dump truck rental). I've included a few image links to photos at the end of this post to give you a better idea of what we're up against. One is looking up the hill from our carport after a freak ice storm caused a lot of tree damage in our neighborhood. The other is taken standing about half way up the driveway looking back down at the house. The third gives you a better view of the carport area (which was cut off in the other photo).
Thanks for your time!
quote:
Originally posted by donr: 1100 feet that is an easy one i raised one21 feet the primary thing is footings first good planning plenty of blocking material one man directing design plan under stand water gas and power also has to move if you are serious contact me i can give you details on howtoo
My advice would be to tear it down, Construct a new foundation, and either build a new home or purchase a pre-fab unit and have it set into place. You have to much going wrong with the lot to invest in raising a home on a hill. The cost of raising a home is first. 2nd is the cost of digging out the origional foundation if its not strong enough to support the added weight of the new walls and the cost. 3rd, the time it takes is a lot. 5.The risk involved as the home is sitting on piers made of wood, any heavy rains can cause this dunnage to shift, you can guess the rest of the outcome. 6th All the brick siding would need to come off which is more cost.
Then you get into the up grades in the house. Older homes do not lift real well. You will have lots of plaster cracks shifting of walls etc. Even with the best people doing the job. This means you will be spending more money (assuming the jacking works out)on interior renovations. By time you figure out the cost of this type of project, the time it will take. Your better off tearing down and starting fresh.
Posts: 1091 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
Sorry, I should have specified that the piers are cinder block resting on cement (about 7' on center), some are thicker than others. I don't know how deep the cement part of the foundation is. The piers go around the perimeter of the house and in a line down the center lengthwise. The floor joists are 2x8 and 16" on center, except for the center support down the length of the house which appears to be three 2 x 10's sandwiched together. The house hasn't settled much at all since it was built (1964) and the area is basically one big sand bar, so it seems like the current foundation is pretty stable for the current weight.
Would ALL the brick siding need to be removed? Is this something handy homeowners could do themselves?
Even if I tear down the house, I still have the same bad lot to rebuild on. If I spend money on a total demolition, new foundation, changes to the lot, PLUS the cost of a new home, I would never be able to recoup my investment.
I'm just trying to figure out if this is a $50,000 kind of job or a $100,000+ kind of job :-)
There's only one house mover in our area and I do plan to have him come out and look at the job, but since he doesn't have much competition, I'd kinda like to have some idea of what something like this should cost.
quote:
Originally posted by The Home Care Club LLC: My advice would be to tear it down, Construct a new foundation, and either build a new home or purchase a pre-fab unit and have it set into place. You have to much going wrong with the lot to invest in raising a home on a hill. The cost of raising a home is first. 2nd is the cost of digging out the origional foundation if its not strong enough to support the added weight of the new walls and the cost. 3rd, the time it takes is a lot. 5.The risk involved as the home is sitting on piers made of wood, any heavy rains can cause this dunnage to shift, you can guess the rest of the outcome. 6th All the brick siding would need to come off which is more cost.
Then you get into the up grades in the house. Older homes do not lift real well. You will have lots of plaster cracks shifting of walls etc. Even with the best people doing the job. This means you will be spending more money (assuming the jacking works out)on interior renovations. By time you figure out the cost of this type of project, the time it will take. Your better off tearing down and starting fresh.
Try close to $150,000 Plus job. Yes all the brick would need to be removed as its being held up by the foundation Not the walls. Yes the brick removal can be done by homeowners but your attempting to do a project that experianced contractors do will take you five times longer and will end up costing you more in the long run if you find out you should have someone else do this. This is not a handy person type of project. You may save a few bucks here and there, but at the end of the day the few bucks saved will end up being minor in comparison to the entire project cost. Get a structural engineer that has experiance in this type of project. Not the person that does the work first to see if this is something you can do.
Posts: 1091 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
Our house lift/basement project is finally coming along nicely. We fired the first contractor and are working with a contractor that actually has a full crew on site 5 days a week. There have even been a couple guys out on a couple Saturdays! We've seen more progress in the last 2 weeks then we saw with the first contractor in 3 months! We still have a ways to go but could possibly be moving back in very soon. I'll post pics next week when the roof and siding are done. Our house was originally built in 1911 and has been added on to several times, we affectionately call it a Frankenstein house. The house lifter didn't have any problems lifting it and we have only a few small cracks in the drywall, only on seams. Will be easy to fix. I would be wary of lifing a house on a steep slope though, especailly if there are erosion problems.
Nikitag
Posts: 12 | Location: Seattle WA | Registered: 05 January 2006
Nikitag, Is there any chance you can post or email pictures (wrabbit@dslextreme.com) I own a house in Seattle (Greenlake/Greenwood area) that, like yours was built 1910 with post and pier.
Information on the contractor good and bad is also appreciated. It is amazing how varied they can be. We had our foundation posts completely replaced. Bids ran from 11,000 USD to dig up and replace one corner (a patch) to what we ended up with; not much more than that for the entire house.
A basement addition would greatly increase the salability in my neighborhood, and more importantly add useful space whilst preserving the character of the house.. I'd definitely like to see the job.
Thanks for the updates.
~~D
Posts: 3 | Location: Seattle/England | Registered: 20 May 2007
I am another person in Seattle getting ready to lift my house to increase the headroom in our basement. We live in West Seattle and have been dying to increase the headroom since we bought this house. We are in the very early stages. We have a guy coming out next week from Robbins & Company (located in Burien, WA) to look at our house and start the process so we are way off from actual construction. I was wondering if anyone knows anything good or bad about this company. I am hoping this is not the contractor Nikitag was having problems with. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks! Rach
Posts: 1 | Location: Seattle, WA | Registered: 22 September 2007
Got a rough estimate for the lifting & brick removal ($10,000-12,000) and for the basement ($25,000). It was pretty obvious that the basement guy wasn't really interested in the job so I think he quoted me high on purpose. [If it seems low to you, it's probably because we live in the Southeast and our city has one of the lowest cost-of-living indexes in the U.S.]
The contractor says he knows another basement guy I can talk to, so getting a second quote on that is my next step.
Will post more if his quote is a good bit lower (and we move on to looking at other issues). Still a long long way to go before any decision is made. Even if it turns out to be cost effective, the city might not be willing to issue a permit.
Thanks to everyone for their input, keep it coming!
quote:
Originally posted by emergencyfanf: I would love any info, advice, suggestions as well. Our house is currently the lowest in the neighborhood and sits on a steep hillside. The front hill is about 80 degrees (a bear to mow!), the driveway is 45 degrees (luckily not much snow or ice around here or it would be unusable). I'm not exaggerating, the roof is level with the street. I can't imagine what they were thinking when they built it (or what we were thinking when we bought it 15 years ago, except that we were much younger, it was very cheap, and we didn't scare easily enough). Raising the house and adding a full-height daylight basement (and adding fill dirt between the house and the street to give us a more level front yard) would greatly improve the resale-ability as well as adding square footage. (Last time we put it on the market, people drove up, took one look at the hill and drove away). It's 1500 square feet on a crawlspace (crawlspace varies from 3-5' depending on which end of the house you're on). We're looking to raise it around a total of 6'. The attached 2-car carport is on a slab, so I imagine the roof would have to be cut at that point or something. I know prices will vary, but I'm just trying to find out if this idea is even feasible and get a ballpark idea of how much it might cost. The front hill has always had a problem with erosion and we'll eventually have to invest in a multi-retaining wall system (not cheap) which we would not have to do if we raised the house. We have also thought about creating a small basement efficiency apartment at the same time (we live near a college) to rent out for some extra monthly income to help cover some of the cost of this. We would finish out the basement area (including the apartment) ourselves; so right now, I'm only looking at the expense to raise/lower the house, adjust the foundation accordingly (It's supported by piers.), pour a concrete floor and anything else that is needed to make it a rough basement including adjusting the utility connections to account for the new height. (Fill dirt is relatively cheap in this area and can sometimes even be gotten for free--or rather for the cost of the dump truck rental). I've included a few image links to photos at the end of this post to give you a better idea of what we're up against. One is looking up the hill from our carport after a freak ice storm caused a lot of tree damage in our neighborhood. The other is taken standing about half way up the driveway looking back down at the house. The third gives you a better view of the carport area (which was cut off in the other photo).
Thanks for your time!
quote:
Originally posted by donr: 1100 feet that is an easy one i raised one21 feet the primary thing is footings first good planning plenty of blocking material one man directing design plan under stand water gas and power also has to move if you are serious contact me i can give you details on howtoo
We have a 950sqft house in Ballard that also sits on post and pier foundation and are thinking of raising the house a little, dig a full basement and get a proper foundation installed. So, we'd love to hear how things turn out and would be interested to hear your overall experience with contractors, unexpected problems, remodeling stress and rough budget for this type of thing. (cheezit2000@gmail.com) Thanks in advance!
Glad to hear things are going much better with the new contractor.
Cheers, Johan cheezit2000@gmail.com
Posts: 1 | Location: Seattle, WA | Registered: 08 October 2007
Well, it looks like that I'm not alone. I have a house that was built in 1999 and just received by first estimate for foundation repair, $31,500, for a 1800 sq ft brick house built with the traditional crawlspace.
I happen to sit on top of a mountain with solid rock not too far from the surface and considering going the basement addtion route since I would be spending the money anyway.
First, thanks for all of the information. Just wondering if this job was completed, if you are satisfied with the results and if you have any further guidance for others approaching this project?
Ryan
quote:
Originally posted by Nikitag: Our house lift/basement project is finally coming along nicely. We fired the first contractor and are working with a contractor that actually has a full crew on site 5 days a week. There have even been a couple guys out on a couple Saturdays! We've seen more progress in the last 2 weeks then we saw with the first contractor in 3 months! We still have a ways to go but could possibly be moving back in very soon. I'll post pics next week when the roof and siding are done. Our house was originally built in 1911 and has been added on to several times, we affectionately call it a Frankenstein house. The house lifter didn't have any problems lifting it and we have only a few small cracks in the drywall, only on seams. Will be easy to fix. I would be wary of lifing a house on a steep slope though, especailly if there are erosion problems.
Posts: 3 | Location: Seattle, WA | Registered: 06 May 2007
The majority of the job is completed. We're just waiting for drywall and then finishing touches. We love having the new space!! It almost dbls the useful space of our house. The ceilings are 8 1/2 ft, there's lots of light from the three large windows. The dbl french doors that lead out to the back yard let in tons of light as well. We did in slab radiant heat which is a true luxury. I would truly recommend th project to anyone looking to get more room out of a house on a small lot. Can someone tell me how to attach pics in this blog?
Nikitag
Posts: 12 | Location: Seattle WA | Registered: 05 January 2006
I beleve that you can link to a picture using the second icon from the right on the compose message window. In other words, you have to post the picture to a site on the internet that allows posting pictures and then you embed a URL in your message to that location.
