LOL
Dang Hal, I'm doing pretty good to remember where my keys are, let
alone what we did 30 some odd years ago.
I do know this. The way we did it back then, was NOT the way I would
hope to do it today.
Back then we did an awful lot of work with a small hydrolic bottle
jack, a couple of heavy ancient cast iron screw jacks that Archimedes
himself may have built, and about 10,000 pieces of cribbing.
The house was a very old structure and had several small additions
using various building techniques. I think the oldest part of the
house was on a simple rock foundation. Chunks of limestone laid on
the ground and stuck together with a mortar that was falling out of
the joints as we raised the house.
A second section was build on concrete block foundation, and another
section was on a slab. I think the slab section was a porch once
upon a time, but converted into a bedroom.
I don't think any of the house was connected to the foundation. I
think it was all just resting on top. I would NEVER build a
structure like that today. It was a real hodge podge.
We would jack up a small area a quarter inch or a half inch and
insert cribbing under the crawl space. Then we'd move the jacks to
another small area and repeat. I spent a huge amount of time
slithering around in the dirt like a mole. There were places I could
only slide through by turning my head sideways so my fat head would
fit through.
I remember a lot of work was spent excavating small pits so we could
fit the jacks under the joists and the braceing blocks that we'd use
to span 3-5 joists. We probably spent 3 weeks jacking the house up.
It took forever. The good part was that as the house got higher it
got easer to move around under there and I knew a lot more about what
we were trying to do and how to do it. I remember the best idea I
had was to staple twine onto a lot of the longer bracing blocks so
that my Uncle and Grandpa could adjust them while standing or
kneeling around the perimeter and out from under from the structure.
It freed my hands up to handle the jacks and cribbing, and we weren't
trying to crawl on top of each other.
That old house was creeking, popping, and groaning all the time. I
kept having visions of the whole thing crashing down on me.
Obviously it didn't, but I never felt very confident whenever I was
under there.
The rock foundation was drilled and pegged. We essentially built
kind of a reinforced concrete bond beam around the rock. By the time
we were finished the foundation for the entire structure had all been
tied together in one big mass.
If I were going to undertake a similar project today, I WOULD DO IT A
LOT DIFFERENTLY!!!!!!
Today I would get a steel I-Beam and dig out the dirt as required to
slide it perpendicular to the joists right next to the rim beam.
Then I would only need to jack from either end of that I-Beam and not
10 places in between like we did back then. The I-Beam would allow
someone to move all the joists in unison and very gradually.
I've also seen some hydrolic bottle jacks that don't have the jack
piston and jack handle right next to the ram. I've seen these newer
ones that have a hydrolic hose that leads to a second device that has
the jack piston and handle. THAT WOULD MAKE IT 1000 times easier.
The person doing the jacking would have full motion and leverage and
not be confined by the tight work space.
Having several more jacks would be nice too. That way you wouldn't
have to move them around as much. You could just pump each jack
slightly and move on to the next one. With the advent of EBAY, I
wouldn't hesitate to purchase a bunch of jacks only to turn around
and sell them once the job was completed. This is especially true if
I could purchase the jacks used. Of course there is always the
possibility of renting the needed jacks, but you never want to be in
a rush when doing this kind of work. Slow and careful = a lot
safer. Trying to rush a job to save on the rental fee could be
dangerous. I hate renting tools. Sometimes it is necessary, but I
try to avoid it.
==============================
Hal wrote:
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
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