How to Lift a Home
It is not uncommon to lift a house to remodel, adapt to a high-flood area or move one's house to a different location. Leaving this job to the professionals may seem like the easiest route, but it can get very expensive. There are some steps you can take to lift a home in the event you are considering taking on this task yourself. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Turn off all utilities, such as gas, water and electricity. The last thing you want is a gas line to break during the process.
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Move into the crawlspace below the house to remove any water or gas pipes that are in the way.
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Remove any plaster, concrete or other material that is connecting the home to the ground or foundation.
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Place the I-beams into position under the home. The I-beams should be raised using hydraulic jacks, one at the end of each beam.
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Raise the house using the hydraulic jacks no more than 18 inches.
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Insert enough 4-foot timbers in the space by cross-stacking them. This cross-stacking is sometimes called cribbing. See pictures of cribbing at Geekazon.com (see Resources below).
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Raise the home 18 more inches and insert additional timbers for more cribbing.
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Continue to raise the home until it is about 12 feet off the ground or foundation. The final height will depend largely on the purpose of raising the home. If, for example, you want to build an additional floor underneath your house, you may need to raise it even higher.
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Tips & Warnings
To determine whether you can take on the lifting job yourself, compare the costs of doing it yourself with the estimate of having the lift done by a professional. Many companies who offer foundational repair services also have information on home lifting costs.
Consider the type of wood to use for your lifting. Oak, for example, can be expensive but is very strong under extremely heavy weight.
In order to perform these steps, it is necessary that you know how to operate a hydraulic jack.
The raising of the home 18 inches at a time may have to be done over several days to avoid damage or cracks to any plaster or other substances at the base of the house.
Time your home lifting project so that it coincides with amenable weather conditions. It can be risky to lift a home on snowy or extremely windy days.
Resources
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Comments
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your social media box is in the way of all the text... I cant read your article.... jeesh
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geekazonguy
Oct 01, 2009
- If you intend to live in the house while it's in the air you will need temporary utility hookups. So dig up around the sewer and water lines run outside the house and expose them so you can cut into them. Plan where your temporary lines will run and pre-buy enough pipe and fittings so you can assemble them on the day of the lift. There's no reason you can't be back in the house that same night. - Also remember that your doors are going to be up in the air, so plan for access! You will want to put a ramp or a temporary stairway in place right away, one that's safe for your family to use, or whoever is going to be in the house. We built our new front porch right away but the back door ramp was up for at least a year. I put handrailings on it and even nailed some asphalt shingles on it for traction. If you're interested there are lots of photos of various phases of the whole lift ...
