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Old 11-17-2008, 10:38 AM
 
Location: West Michigan
654 posts, read 3,446,621 times
Reputation: 579

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I know it may not be easy to tell here but, take a look at the front of the house:

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/Picture31man/House-15.jpg (broken link)

Does it look as it will need leveling? I have noticed that in the guest bedroom the floor tilts slightly near a corner of the room and I do have some drywall cracks near the doors and some walls in a few other rooms, including the guest bath. From the outside I have a foot clearance from the bottom siding to the ground.

According to the house diagram I have, most of the leveling work is possibly needed in the left side/corner of the house where most of the drywall cracks are located.

Now this is my question. With the pending work I will be doing to these rooms, would it make sense to simply level the house before beginning work as I know leveling can possibly create new cracks in the walls and such? A few quotes I have gotten pretty much leads me to the fact that it will take a LONG time to save up the money to hire someone else to do the job, or I can simply just live with it as it is. What would be ideal to do in this case?
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Old 11-17-2008, 12:15 PM
 
Location: Apple Valley Calif
7,474 posts, read 22,807,685 times
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There are several ways to level a house, depending on exactly what the problem is.
My last house was a large, two story house that soil wasn't compacted correctly before construction. I ended up with cracks, doors that wouldn't close or open, it was a mess. I tried several differnt engineers, all who wanted a small fortune.
I found a company with HQ in Texas, which I see is where you are. They cut several 3 ft sq holes in the interior floor, and dug down under the foundation and put in big steel beams and jacks. They pushed pipes down until they contacted sub strata, so they will never move again.
We stood there and watched the cracks go away and the doors return to square, as they jacked the foundation up. Once the house was level, they welded the jacks in place and filled the holes up and did the concrete work.
It was cheap compared to what the engineers wanted to charge. For our project it was about $10k, compared to $150k. It was all monitored and approved by the City, and is guarnteed. That price was for a lareg two story, and they can even do multi story hotels and schools. You small house would be a fraction of that amount. They know their stuff..!
They have other ways that are less involved, such as mud jacking, it all depend on your situation.
I used.... SABER - Concrete & Foundation Leveling
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Old 11-17-2008, 01:11 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,701 posts, read 79,330,237 times
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You need to find out when and why it moved and whether it is still moving. If it is still moving, it needs to be corrected. If it is just differenetial settlement that occurred over a period of 50 or more years, then you can just ignore it.

Attempting to level a house opens up a huge can of worms. Once the house is levelled, you may have to replace doors and windows, drywall, even wood flooring. With older houses, if it is differential settlement, you are usually better off leaving it alone. UNevenness is part of the "character" of an older house. However you need to be certain that it is not a structural problem before you elect to ignore it.
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Old 11-17-2008, 01:19 PM
 
Location: Montrose, CA
3,032 posts, read 8,895,453 times
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It's definitely not level. If you look at the right side of the photo, look at the line of the eaves in relation to the line of the top of the windows. Looks to me like it's the middle of the house that moved. Whether or not it's an issue -- only an expert can tell you that. Might just be normal settling because of the age of the house, might not.
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Old 11-17-2008, 01:21 PM
 
48,505 posts, read 96,476,720 times
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If that is on piers as it looks 'you need to get a good house level contractor to look at it. You can of have areas that settled and can be level to a certain extent without further drywall or window damage. A good leveler will know how far to take it. Defiinely have it leveled if you are thinking remodeling.They may also put other pier supports. If its a slab you have to watchout because many times when you level it will break a old lead/ wadding joint on a sewer pipe where it comes up to the slab.Good professional help is the way to go;no fly by night .
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Old 11-17-2008, 06:37 PM
 
3,020 posts, read 25,672,075 times
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Default Yeah, you can do it yourself......

If the house is out of level, you definitely want to correct it prior to any major rehab work. It is not rocket science and you can do it yourself.

Think you said the house was on a pier system. Typical for a lot of those cheap houses to be on piers with no footings. So, yeah they do tend to sink and go out of level with age.

You first start with a very good survey to find out what is out of level and by how much. A long level, least 4 foot is good, lay it on the floor in various directions. They also make a round bubble level which is excellent for a first good quick indication of how much and what direction is out of level. You make up a floor plan and mark it to build up a picture of what is happening and use that to decide on a jacking plan.

Also nice to dig down around a few of the piers to see how deep they are and if there is any type of footers installed.

Once you have the plan fleshed out sets up how complicated you might go. Also depends on the amount of crawl space available and how good your access might be. Plus a lot depends on how high you might have to jack various areas.

I've done it using wooden cribbing and car jacks. On a cheap house, you might just jack and use shim blocks to correct any settling. Can attempt to redo using proper footers but it can get more complicated, expensive and far more time consuming.

Yes, you can find contractor type fellows who will jack up houses. But like with most things, using too much hired helps can rapidly make any old house retrofit project be a loser. You do have to consider what the finished product might resell for. To make any economic sense, it is best to do everything you can.

At the minimum, I might consider jacking and shimming to level it out. You do not need super powerful jacks. A couple ton short hydraulic ones, then a bunch of them sissor type car jacks can do the trick. The secret if there is one, jack and lift from a number of points along a line to restore level, checking the progress very often.

You can correct an area, go on to the next, in sequence as required, does not have to all be done at once. Can come back and tweak an area if required later.

To get a good rehab project, you want to start with everything as level, plumb, true and square as possible. Makes a lot of the other work go so much better. Do not let anybody tell you a lop sided house has character. Only them real estate boys talk pap like that.
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Old 11-18-2008, 03:50 AM
 
Location: West Michigan
654 posts, read 3,446,621 times
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I do have a diagram of the house of where it shows where the house is weak at as far as where settling has occurred. And I know it goes beyond jacking up just the outside piers, the inner ones underneath the house may need to be adjusted too.

I do have a 4' level available so I will check and see what areas need to be level. Although based on my walkthrough of the house I already know where it needs a lift because I was able to feel the tilt in the front bedroom walking towards its corner.

And looking underneath I have seen where they placed boards on top of the cinder blocks so apparently it may have been leveled before. I need to find out how much of the house can be raised at a time, I am assuming a few inches.
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Old 11-18-2008, 12:42 PM
 
3,020 posts, read 25,672,075 times
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Default How much are we talking at the max.......

How much is it out of level at the max???

Yep, you are on too the right approach by a careful measurement analysis and then figure out a gameplan to jack the sucker.

From what you say, probably setting on bare ground on just cinder blocks, built like a big shed. It does happen.

One practical fix can be just jack up an area, remove the cinder block, dig down six inches or so, put in a far larger area masonry type pad under the cinder block to spread the load under that pier. Just that type of fix can dramatically reduce any future settling. Like say something with at least 4 or 5 times the area of a cinder block. Maybe anticipate another 1/4" settle after the fix and preload the pier that amount. Always be a bit on the strong side, they always tend to sink a tad after. Virgin ground, the first few inches tend to have a lot more organic materials and that wants to compress a lot more than soils without it. Just getting below that, also gives better bearing support, depends a lot on the soils involved.

These type things can eat up a bunch of time. I had to jack the porch on my present shack. Nothing wildly technical in nature, hardest part was getting at certain points, was like yours, built close to the ground in spots, setting on a few bricks. In a few spots, I had to remove decking, some had to be replaced anyway. Couple places I put in a better masonary bearing pad. Sometimes you change the design a bit, I put in more cross bracing where the porch posts bear on the deck. It is all about seeing it, understanding what is happening and never take any short cuts or do jury rigs. The worse part of any rehab is to do poor work, cover up problem areas or just hurry thru a phase, just to get done. Hate to admit how much time that porch gobbled, if it is yours can justify the effort. Can cost a mint if others do it, plus they will tend not to care at the critical moment. Have to be in control and get the quality approach as cheap as possible on an old rehab.

If it is under there in a real tight crawl space can be loads of fun. Never know exactly what you might meet under there.

Recruit some helpers, skinny girls are nice. Tell them you have done it all a million times before. Just be careful and safe.
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Old 11-30-2008, 10:08 AM
 
Location: North Alabama
1,546 posts, read 2,765,178 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AVTechMan View Post
And looking underneath I have seen where they placed boards on top of the cinder blocks so apparently it may have been leveled before. I need to find out how much of the house can be raised at a time, I am assuming a few inches.
You might want to limit any jacking to a quarter-inch at a time and then wait 24 hours while the framing above adjusts to its new location. Could save you some nail pops and chunking out of framing members from the relatively sudden changes in stress that would result from larger lifts. Good luck.
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Old 05-24-2013, 03:49 PM
 
1 posts, read 24,119 times
Reputation: 12
How long does it take to level a house??? It's 2 stories, and roughly 2000 square foot......Please help, it's very important!!! Thanks in advance!
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