Addition to house. What would you do?
I want to add a 16’x20′ addition to the back of the house. Presently, a 14’x40′ concrete patio slab is there. It has a deep footing and is 6″ thick.
Coming out of the Pier and Beam foundation, I could sister the floor joists with 20′ pressure treated lumber and go out the 16′ feet to a newly poured concrete footing.
Would you jack hammer out the current slab or use it as part of the foundation for the new room? How else would you add the addition?
Thanks,
Bill
Replies
When doing additions, I try to match the foundation type of the addition to the existing home foundation. The rationale is that whatever forces are impacting the soil and therefore impacting your foundation are impacting the foundations of the entire house the same way. I am not sure what part of Texas your are from, but this effect is particularly relevant in some of the expansive clay soils we have here in Central Texas.
Best bet is to have a local engineer look at the situation and help with the decision. It may work out to just leave the slab and build over.
Regards,
Bruce
use it has a rat seal
if you leave it in place would you have enough crawlspace to get around if need be? if so i would leave it and pour a new footing/foundation around it. if not ,time to get a backhoe in there and tear out.larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.