Need advice on foundation settling issue
I am planning to add a small addition to the side of my house, basically a side door and broom & coat closet prox 4′ x 10′. The area is on the gable end of a house and will be roofed with an extension of one roof plane out and a second roof plane added. The area is inaccessible for machine digging meaning it will be by hand, and has utility issues – gas line and water line crossing through it. The house is in the midwest, frost line dictates footers be poured at their tops 36″ below grade. I do not want to hand dig this whole area out.
Any thoughts on post-hole digging piers at the corners below frost line and a slab over? foundation of house is block and can be anchored to. I can rebar the heck out of the slab to address settlement issues, will heaving be a problem with this approach? Any way to address it? Any other thoughts?
thank you,
remodeler
Replies
remodeler
Welcome to BT.
If you go to your local rental place you should be able to find a "small" machine with the arm like that on the backhoe for digging trenches. They use them often on the roads I noticed. You could also look into a "ditchwitch" which should get you down most of the way...(just go easy)..the other option besides doing it with a shovel is to hire some cheap labor with shovels.
I'm guessing that the "slab" will need to be about 18" below the floor joists....So isnt that even more digging? Meaning that a post hole digger wont help you there.
My vote goes to hiring a cpl of guys if you dont want to do it yourself. Doesnt seem like all that much work your talking about there.
Be well
Namaste
andy
"Attachment is the strongest block to realization"
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Sems like bad idea to me. Asking fer trouble.
Q. What is it when a man talks dirty to a woman?
A. Sexual harassment.
Q. What is it when a woman talks dirty to a man?
A. $3.99 a minute.
rent a power auger, do it like a pile cap. auger down, fill with concrete and rebar, pour a grade beam, then slab on that.
House is slab on grade, can't get any machiner (even ditcher) back in area due to various issues. I really don't want to dig it out by hand, temp labor is difficult here. I like the grade beam idea - thank you. Is heaving likely to be an issue w/pea gravel bedding for concrete slab, any idea?
A 4x10 single story closet? If the floor joist on the original house run parallel to your 4 ft depth, is it possible to cantilever out the 4foot by sistering joists to the originals?
Andy?
Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
The other...proper application of risk.
Edited 1/20/2003 2:34:16 PM ET by rez
rez
I dont wanna say a thing...you know what I'm thinking homes.
a"Attachment is the strongest block to realization"http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
I figure you have two options:
1) Dig it out all the way to the depth of the existing adjacent footing.
2) Go with a FPSF (Frost Protected Shallow Foundation).
I my opinion, if the existing house is on a frost wall, I'd dig it out otherwise no mater what you do, you will be on backfill. If you don't elect to do that, then I would go with the FPSF. The auger seams like a good way to hit an utility you thought was somewhere else and I think that whole 'Alaskan Foundation' ??? approach is not without its issues.
Good luck and trust me, I can get a machine in there.
what's a grade beam pour?
Grade beams are typically used on buildings with deep foundations which are piles driven or cassions dug down to suitable soils with allowable bearing capacity. At the top of these piles, a cap is usually poured out of concrete and a series of beams are also installed between these caps in which the walls can then be erected on. This is a grade beam.
What is being disscussed here is a number of concrete sono tubes are being installed and then a concrete beam spans between them. This beam is shallow, not going down below the frost line.
While the grade beam rests on or just below grade, it is not a perimeter wall nor a footing, it carrys the load such as a regular beam and transfers it to the sono tubes of concrete which extend down below the frost line and carry the load.
My only fear in this is that, since the structure is so small, the frost would heave the beam and all.
Ok say you wanted to pour a footing to hold a load bearing wallI inside the basement of a home . There is about 6ft. of fill ( 60 years old) . Can i just saw cut my floor and pour a footer 8" deep and 2 ft. wide with rebar and fiber to support a main wall. I was thinking about pouring piers with sono tubes to support this footer. But unless they have a footing say like a 3 X 3 pad to support them wouldn't they just sink over time. What about digging down ( by hand the only way ) the 6ft. and putting 57 gravel and then poring concrete on the gravel . i am just concerned abour settling I live in Wv so heaving i dont think is a problem. I am just trying to figure a cheap way of resupporting an existing wall. Any suggestions would be helpfull. Thanks .
Edited 1/23/2003 10:11:11 PM ET by Andy3882
From what it sounds, you have a basment with a slab and the first floor has a main beam that is sagging? Therfore you want to jack it up with some lally's and are wondering how to support them?
If that is the case, then yes, I would install some concret pads on virgin soil by breaking thru the concrete and digging the area out. Then post up with lallys to the underside of the beam and screw them tight. Check your building code, most of the required sizes you can get from the tables.
What I don't understand is the 6' of fill. Is there 6' of fill under the slab? How did that happen? You on top of a coal mine?
If thats the case then I'd dig down 6' and place the pad. That might really tear the place up though when you figure the angle of repose.
Can you retrofit the beam by going under it with a few LVL plies and break a new beam pocket in the existing foundation wall?
I can't really give you a better solution until I know what the story is with the fill.
8:-{
Is there a competition going on to try to find a font size that only certain people can read?.
Excellence is its own reward!
Newbie #4Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
The other...proper application of risk.
Thanks, rez.
You're a master-jack-of-all-trades?
remodeler
Nah, certainly no master here. I was responding to Pif's comment about the small letter font from a previous poster and not your post. :O)
Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
The other...proper application of risk.
Edited 1/25/2003 12:05:14 AM ET by rez
But we could start calling you ( affectionately, of coursse) Master Jack.
I wonder if it willl stick?.
Excellence is its own reward!
Wasn't there an old ballad song from the 50s or 60s about 'it's a strange strange world we live in, Master Jack'?
Reminds me of some of these political threads that get going. Makes me real glad prospero had the foresight to place the ignore feature.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
The other...proper application of risk.
>>Good luck and trust me, I can get a machine in there.
Which, there are a lot of people better at operating than I. The problem is the area is bounded by a driveway on one side and a house on the other. The driveway has a new asphalt topping, so -no- track or even rubber wheel machinery can get on it without destroying the top. the area is about 11' wide between the driveway and house. There is a gas line and water line, well located, running through the middle of the area. There is no place for spoilage from an arm except the driveway. There is an overhead electrical line hanging low - 10'.
Geez, the way it started off, I thought you meant something challenging, like lifting the machine over a 10-story building and dropping it blind into a small courtyard with a pool in it (yes, done that). We used to walk 505's with deep growsers over asphalt all the time; you just lay down some 2-by to walk on. .
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
I'm with Phil Not a problem
You can use a car carrying trailer to deliver the SMALL machine down the drive - I wouldn't bother. A small machine with CLEAN tyres will mark the drive less than a SUV.
As for the spoil - buy a couple of tarps, cover the drive and load the spoil onto them.
If you want to get real clever and right into overkill hire a conveyor to ship the dirt out.
As for working the machine start slow, away from where you can do a lot of damage, keep the brain awake and within an hour you'll be sufficiently confident to finish the job. Better yet hire the machine with an operator.
What happened to the guy with the 6' of fill under the basment slab?
don't know. wasn't me