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My wife and I are in the process of buying a house in a small town in North Carolina. It’s about a hundred years old. About 2/3 of the house is a later addition built with the floor joists almost touching the ground. In fact a slope was cut away and a stone bulkhead built so that the back of th e house sits about three feet below grade. Termite damage exists, but it isn’t too bad – apparently some treatment was applied in the past. The entire floor system of one room will need to be replaced due to rotten joists, and in the process we hope to deal with drainage issues, crawl space height, termite treatment, etc. The options seem to be raising the whole house, which has some major disadvantages, or somehow digging a crawl space by hand, which is just plain unappealing. Any advice?
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My wife and I are in the process of buying a house in a small town in North Carolina. It's about a hundred years old. About 2/3 of the house is a later addition built with the floor joists almost touching the ground. In fact a slope was cut away and a stone bulkhead built so that the back of th e house sits about three feet below grade. Termite damage exists, but it isn't too bad - apparently some treatment was applied in the past. The entire floor system of one room will need to be replaced due to rotten joists, and in the process we hope to deal with drainage issues, crawl space height, termite treatment, etc. The options seem to be raising the whole house, which has some major disadvantages, or somehow digging a crawl space by hand, which is just plain unappealing. Any advice?