Re: [papercreters] Re: Restoration of old house

slurryguy,

Your grandpa was a wise man in many ways.  How did you detach the house from the foundation.  I will have to cut a strip along the lower edge of the wall and see it I can find any lag bolts.  These walls are tilting in, since the slab broke and the footing gave way.  I posted picture show how they are off by 3 inches.  I will need to pull them in but maybe I can put in a new set of lag bolts.  How did you jack the house up?  I have 2 farm jacks and some bottle jacks and a floor jack.  I a curious how you got under the wall, if the house was on a slab, or was it?

Thanks

Hal



 wrote:

My feeble brain is having trouble remembering how long ago it was?   30 years ago?  uhhhhh...    Suffice it to say, "a long time ago," I helped my grandfather repair  a sinking foundation that had a big crack in it.  In that instance,  we jacked up the house, drilled a bunch of 1/2" holes vertically to a  depth of about 6" at about 6" intervals and then grouted in a bunch  of foot long rebar pegs.  It made it into a porcupine.  Then we tied  a series of long rebars creating a grid that attached all the pegs  together.  There was a series of two layers of rebar.  One layer sat  at the surface of the existing foundation and the top layer was tied  at the top of the short vertical pegs.  Then we poured a big mass of  concrete over the whole thing turning it all into one big mass.  We  didn't bother to try to move the displaced foundation we left it  sitting right where it was.  As Grandpa stated, "It took that 30 years to move that far, I don't  want to give it a bunch of new ground to settle into.  If we can just  lock it up where it is, it should last another 100."  When the new concrete was poured, the surface leveled, so when the  house was lowered, everything was perfect.  Even the doors opened and  closed without sticking anymore.  The finished project had the house  sitting about 6" higher than when we started.  I have no clue if what we did would pass close engineering  inspection, or pass code inspections today, but I do know that house  is still sitting nice and level.  My cousins are still living there  and love the house.  In that particular case, the root cause of the foundation settling  was a leaky septic pipe that was very slowly creating a sink hole  under the house.  We fixed all that before we fixed the foundation.   UUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH    WHAT A CRAPPY JOB THAT WAS!  (pun intended)   I loved my Grandpa, but I was sure cussing under my breath when he  had me doing all the very very gross work digging down in that nasty  pit.  I remember puking my guts out twice.  To this very day, every  time I smell sewer smells, I have flashbacks to working on that  project with Grandpa.  I can still picture the old codger standing  upwind hollering, "It's goooooood for ya.  Use yer muscles.  Show me  how strong ya are!"  To top it all off, Grandma fussed at me at the  end of the day for getting my clothes so dirty and smelly!  What's up  with that?  Going back to discussing papercrete.......  There are nearly as many different forumlas for papercrete as there  are papercrete enthusiasts.  LOL.  Judith's mix  (that she posted) is as good as any as a starting  recipe.  She was making mix for building walls, so it needed more  strength.  I imagine you might be able to substitute your demolition  waste for pumice in her mix, cut back on the cement a little, and add  some borax.  Since there's no way to know what your waste will do to the mix, I'd  suggest experimenting with several different mixes until you find the  best mix for your situation.  Just be sure to wait till the  papercrete is absolutely completely dry before you put a torch on it  to be certain that it won't burn or smolder.    If you start your small experiments now, you'll probably have dry  samples before your project is ready for you to be mixing papercrete  for real.    For your small experiments, I'd suggest just using a "bucket  technique."  (search the archives)  It involves using a sharpened  blade on the end of a shaft chucked into a drill.  BE EXTREMELY  CAREFUL!!!  Wear heavy boots, and dull the outer corners of the blade  where it will tend to scrape against the bucket.  An X blade will  tend to say centered in the bucket better than a simple flat blade.     You won't want to use the bucket technqiue to make large quantities  of papercrete, but that will get you started with your experiments  quickly.  It will also give you a little experience with making it.  You'll want to build a much larger mixer to make larger quantities  with much less effort.  Many mixer designs have been discussed, previously.  Most people tend  to try to take advantage of scrap materials that they already have  laying around.  Read up about what others have done to build a mixer,  then feel free to toss out ideas with this group concerning how you  might best use whatever junk or materials you have or can obtain easy  and cheap.   --- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Hal Schmidt <halschmi@...> wrote:   

Slurryguy,  Thanks for the ideas,  I finished gutting the room today and my      

plan is    

to drill holes in cement berm that goes around the edge of the      

house and    

try to pull it in with a pair of 2000lb comealongs attached to      

peaces of    

rebar in  holes drilled in the slab to pull it in.  I do not know      

if    

will work.  This is like R&D for me. You are right about the      

gutters and    

French drain.  there are no gutters and the house has been that way      

for    

a  about 100 years.  I know nothing about mixing papercrete, where do I find a formula?       

Can    

I use a cement mixer?  Do I need a shredder?  Tell me where I can      

read    

about it.  Thanks  Hal      

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