I have a lakeside summer home in NH built in sections in unconventional fashion on anything convenient at the time, such as tree stumps, piles of rock, etc. Over the years, one side of the house has been sinking. I would like to support it (and probably replace the sills) on that side without having to jack up the house and put in a full foundation. I was thinking more of piers. Is there a way of doing this that would not require much destruction?
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You can try using screw jacks to stabilize a section of the house or wall, and work at digging for footings/piers, then moving on to another section. It's long laborious work, and may not be possible, depending on the clearance between house and ground.
My wife's family has a cottage on Lake Sabago in Maine, with the exact same problems. I spent several weeks up there this spring replacing rotted posts and installing jack screws. Next summer I have to tear up part of the floor so we can dig some footings and pour some piers.
I feel your pain. I'm gonna be feeling my own next April.
Thanks for the response. There is relatively little clearance from the ground at the worst points, maybe about 12-18 inches. I'm in trouble!
Hey, no problem for a short term fix.
Assemble a collection of PT lumber of various sizes, concrete blocks, etc. And, most importantly, a few of those car jacks that mechanics use; you know the ones, they're about 4 to 6 inches high, on casters. Put the jack on some PT lumber to spread out the load a bit, and you can gradually jack up while putting some cribbing in.
I wouldn't do this on a permanent house, but for a summer place, we've done it before. Summer cottages put on blocks of wood and whatever, just like you; after 30 years they needed some work. We just dug down about a foot or so to get some undisturbed dirt, and worked up from there with concrete blocks and PT lumber to level it all out. It's worked for the last 15 years, so that's not bad.
I've dug out for new footings under an existing structure with a backhoe. Pretty simple if all you need to do are perimeter piers. The machine needs to be far enough back from the building so that the bucket approaches as horizontally as possible, so you need a decent amount of space. I'd imagine one of those mini-excavators would be ideal for this job.
No big deal to support it on jacks and set piers below, particularly if you have heavy sills to span the load. If you have a flimsy 2x sill, you may run into problems.
One way to deal with this is to install a heavy sill under the existing 2x sill to span the piers. Another is to make the existing wall into a 'shear wall' (sort of a half box-beam). Plywood can be applied to either side. If the inside has unfinished stud walls, this could be considered an "opportunity".
The tough part of the job you describe would be replacing the sill itself, since that is your obvious jacking point.
Best method here really depends upon how it was constructed, and how extensive the rot is.
I am also very aquainted with what my family calls "Big Sebago Repairs". This 'inside joke' essentially means fixing stuff creatively with limited tools and supplies. When I was a kid, the nearest hardware store was a good 30 miles away. Now it is a metropolis up there.
Now it is a metropolis up there.
CS, if you're talking about East Sebago, metropolis is a term I would use for the place when comparing it, to, say, the Mohave Desert. Granted, instead of 30 miles to the nearest hardware store, I drive 25 to North Windham to find a limited selection True Value. But I know what you're saying. The guy who set the jack stands under the cottage 20 something years ago just set them in the dirt. I found 6 had rusted bases which caused them to fall over. The place was being held aloft by good memories, and not much else.
The other aspect of the guys post, is that it sounds as though he has a cottage similar to the one my in-laws have, in that numerous additions have been tacked on over the years, which means there are beams under the cottage which probably need to be addressed as well. Lakeside camps are notorious for cobbling together whatever is at hand and here's hoping it's still standing next year. When it comes time to correct the badly listing ship, with little headroom to stand, much less sling a shovel, that's when the cursing starts, and often not under one's breath.
But the camps are what childhood memories are made of, though sometimes, to us, they can be nightmares. Although I have to admit, my MIL thought I just about walked on water when I leveled a long listing floor last spring. That was worth it in of itself.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Alas, on the eastside of the lake, it is not far to suburbia anymore.
North Windham had 1 gas station, and a general store in the early '70s.
Folks were all excited when an ice cream stand opened up. Not sure they would cheer that "progress" in retrospect.
4 grocery stores and a Walmart is admittedly a mixed bag. Less planning ahead on your supplies, but not exactly getting away from it all! My suburban Boston town is more rural than up there now.
"Post and rock" construction is the norm. If the rock you chose is big enough, it will not settle or heave. Just takes a few years to figure out how big that rock really is underground...
Most of the structures were put up by depression era folks, using salvaged materials. I remember pulling nails for my uncle; "Don't bend 'em, we can use those again..."
Somebody else mentioned the backhoe - that's how I've seen it done.
They dug a 5' trench alongside the house, presumably it was supported from the inside.
They put down bigfoot footings and Sonotubes on top of them. Filled them up with concrete - I imagine with attachment hardware in the concrete for a new beam or rim joist connection (I didn't see how it was connected).