7 February 2016
So it's pretty clear to me that we need a solid foundation to start from. Not much else matters at this point. I have tried to think through various options and this is what I came up with.
Not an option: Bulldoze the house and build a new modern house.
Not an option: Pay someone to restore the house. I doubt that I could crowd source $250,000.
Option 1: Bulldoze the house and build a new one that looks exactly like the old one. I personally would be okay with this idea, and in a way prefer it. But my wife has a point, and that is it simply wouldn't be an old house any more. And it's not a very green thing to do. We decided (my wife convinced me) that we want an old house, not a house that has the charm of an old house.
Option 2: Rebuild the entire house in a different spot on the property. We would have a new foundation and all structural members of the floor would be new. We would use as much of the original flooring, exterior siding and trim, interior bead-board and trim, and wall framing as we could salvage. I abandoned this idea because the thought of the amount of work involved with dismantling and then reassembling everything from the first floor up seemed hugely daunting and expensive. To match the existing house the new foundation would have to have something like 15 corners and 3 new chimneys with 7 fireplaces. And because it's likely that half the materials would be damaged when we try to remove them.
Option 3: Build a new foundation in a different spot on the property and then lift the existing house, move it, and set it down on the new foundation. I figured that the problem with this option is that the floor structure of the house needs to be in good condition to be able to lift and move the whole house. So we would have to go through a great deal of effort to fix the floor structure in place before it could be moved. But then you're halfway done! And we would still have the huge cost of the 15 corner foundation and three new chimneys.
Option 4: Keep the house where it is and replace the foundation and floor structure. I think that this is the best option. It's still a ton of work but keeps the house mostly intact, leaving the exterior nearly completely in place. By my reckoning also the least expensive figuring that I am doing most of the work myself except for the foundation work. I think there are two primary problems. 1st, how to raise the house up when both the foundation and floor structure need to be replaced. 2nd, how to raise the house and not mess up the chimneys.
So how do you pick up house and raise it 1 to 2 feet when there is no good foundation to push up from and there is no solid floor structure to slide a beam under? Did I also mention that, unlike typical current construction practice, the floor joists do not all in the same direction? They run perpendicular to each other on an almost room by room basis. Even if we had solid floor structure, supporting the house to lift it would still be a puzzle.
I have spent hours on youtube and various web sites trying to find out how other people have lifted houses. The majority of them describe houses with solid floor structure that need new foundations. Many others describe lifting a house a couple inches so that they can replace isolated areas of rotted rim joist or floor joists with decent foundation underneath. Neither of these situations helps me. I finally came across some people who shared their approach to lifting a detached garage completely off the foundation in order to replace the foundation AND rotted sill plates, sole plates, and the bottom ends of vertical wall studs. I decided that their approach will form the basis for this project.
The chimney issue seems to not be a significant problem. We will just have to make sure we remove the flashing and shingles from around the chimneys on the roof, and remove the hearth and flooring from around the fire places, so that the house "floats" around the chimneys. I intend to use the current level of the existing hearths to set the final restored height for all of the first floor.
I know what you're thinking. BIG difference between a detached 2-car garage and a 2-story, 3000 square foot house with 3 chimneys. Agreed. That's why I decided that the first thing to do is a small proof of concept project...
So it's pretty clear to me that we need a solid foundation to start from. Not much else matters at this point. I have tried to think through various options and this is what I came up with.
Not an option: Bulldoze the house and build a new modern house.
Not an option: Pay someone to restore the house. I doubt that I could crowd source $250,000.
Option 1: Bulldoze the house and build a new one that looks exactly like the old one. I personally would be okay with this idea, and in a way prefer it. But my wife has a point, and that is it simply wouldn't be an old house any more. And it's not a very green thing to do. We decided (my wife convinced me) that we want an old house, not a house that has the charm of an old house.
Option 3: Build a new foundation in a different spot on the property and then lift the existing house, move it, and set it down on the new foundation. I figured that the problem with this option is that the floor structure of the house needs to be in good condition to be able to lift and move the whole house. So we would have to go through a great deal of effort to fix the floor structure in place before it could be moved. But then you're halfway done! And we would still have the huge cost of the 15 corner foundation and three new chimneys.
Option 4: Keep the house where it is and replace the foundation and floor structure. I think that this is the best option. It's still a ton of work but keeps the house mostly intact, leaving the exterior nearly completely in place. By my reckoning also the least expensive figuring that I am doing most of the work myself except for the foundation work. I think there are two primary problems. 1st, how to raise the house up when both the foundation and floor structure need to be replaced. 2nd, how to raise the house and not mess up the chimneys.
So how do you pick up house and raise it 1 to 2 feet when there is no good foundation to push up from and there is no solid floor structure to slide a beam under? Did I also mention that, unlike typical current construction practice, the floor joists do not all in the same direction? They run perpendicular to each other on an almost room by room basis. Even if we had solid floor structure, supporting the house to lift it would still be a puzzle.
I have spent hours on youtube and various web sites trying to find out how other people have lifted houses. The majority of them describe houses with solid floor structure that need new foundations. Many others describe lifting a house a couple inches so that they can replace isolated areas of rotted rim joist or floor joists with decent foundation underneath. Neither of these situations helps me. I finally came across some people who shared their approach to lifting a detached garage completely off the foundation in order to replace the foundation AND rotted sill plates, sole plates, and the bottom ends of vertical wall studs. I decided that their approach will form the basis for this project.
The chimney issue seems to not be a significant problem. We will just have to make sure we remove the flashing and shingles from around the chimneys on the roof, and remove the hearth and flooring from around the fire places, so that the house "floats" around the chimneys. I intend to use the current level of the existing hearths to set the final restored height for all of the first floor.
I know what you're thinking. BIG difference between a detached 2-car garage and a 2-story, 3000 square foot house with 3 chimneys. Agreed. That's why I decided that the first thing to do is a small proof of concept project...
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