Jacking Up the House - Part 1

Here's a little house history and structural background for you so you'll understand why we REALLY needed to jack up the house. Our house has a pier and beam foundation. To access it is difficult, at it's highest point you can't sit upright under our house, so to move around requires you to slide around on your belly, it's very unpleasant

When we bought the house we knew there were foundation issues. There had been termite damage in various areas under the house, most had been repaired according to our inspector but there were still some issues. When buying the house we asked that the homeowners make these repairs, they did. At the time of the inspection our inspector offered to come back and inspect the repairs for an additional $40.

The repairs were not completed before we closed on the house, we agreed to go ahead with the closing but withheld some money in escrow to guarantee the repairs. On the day of closing I did the final walk through with our realtor. With all of the previous owners stuff out of the house I noticed a very large dip in the kitchen floor (among MANY other things) that had been disguised by a large black rug and lots of shims to level the furniture.

A couple of days later I was working at the house while the foundation repairs were being made. I could hear everything the carpenters were saying (through the floor) while making the repairs, needless to say, some of the things I heard made me a little uncomfortable. At that point we thought it best to bring our inspector back out for a re-inspection, when I spoke to him I also mentioned the large dip in the kitchen floor which hadn't been noted on the original inspection.

$120 later (I don't know what happened to the $40) and almost 3 weeks later (since he never bothered to get back to us) it was brought to our attention that there were MORE foundation issues that our inspector missed the first time, and several of the agreed upon repairs had not been completed. Our realtor had decided since she hadn't heard from us to go ahead and release the escrow money.... SO at that point we were screwed! Our inspector said we should go to the homeowners to pay for the problem, our realtor said no way and it turned in to a huge mess. The final outcome was that the realtors, the contractor, and the inspector ended up splitting the cost of the repairs. The repairs did not include the dip in the kitchen, that was up to us.

So here we are now, looking back it's all sort of funny, but at the time it was a major drag. I'm still not sure how our inspector (who is supposed to be an expert on old houses and charges quite a bit extra because of that fact) could miss such an obvious problem... but he did. And his contract made sure that he could not be held responsible for that mistake. All I can say is that a house inspection is a very important thing, but make sure you ask lots of questions, and if your realtor tells you it's not important to be there, don't listen to them. Also, make sure your realtor is at the inspection as well, ours missed the inspection because her accupuncturist was running late (she called at the end of the inspection to let me know this...). Hmmmmmh.

Comments

[Nick]

That does sound like a very frustrating experience. I hate that feeling of having to trust other people like contractors or inspectors, even when you know they aren't necessarily competent or honest.

We had a substantial dip in our kitchen floor too (about 1.5 inches or so over 12 feet), due to sagging/bending joists over the last 90+ years. You can see how we dealt with it here:

http://www.coult.net/irving/C1674717338/E1526602293/

[Amanda]

Its pretty common for floors in pier and beam houses to sag. My does and often its the floor girders and beams. In old houses the lumber dimensions were smaller (now they overcompensate with larger beams ensuring less sag) and the beams deflect. However, pier and beam systems are much easier to fix than many other foundation systems!

Sorry about the realtor problems, that sure doesn't help!

[maryse]

where you been?

[Nick]

Yeah, whats up?

[Donna P.]

Nick, sure wish you'd been around when we were replacing all the joists on our house, starting with the ones that fell off when we jacked it up to move it. It, too, had been built very low to the ground, so low you couldn't even crawl around under it; you had to dig a trench if you wanted to go anywhere, so it was very difficult to even get it inspected (we asked the movers to try) and they said they thought everything would be okay. Boy,were they ever wrong!

[JULIE]

WHAT STATE ARE YOU LOCATED IN? I AM IN LOVE WITH A HOUSE THAT IS PIER AND BEAM WITH FOUNDATION PROBLEMS. I GUESS I AM LOOKING FOR A SUPPORTIVE EAR TO SAY THAT I AM NOT CRAZY. THE HOUSE AND YARD IS EVEYTHING WE EVER DREAMT OF. THE PRICE IS MAGNIFICENT. ANY WORDS OF SYMPATHY OR ENCOURAGEMENT? WOULD YOU DO THIS AGAIN? IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO FIX A SAGGING HOUSE? I REALLY NEED SOME RELIABLE WEB SITES FOR ADVICE TO BUT I KEEP GETTING INFO ON CONCRETE REPAIR AND NOT MUCH PEIR AND BEAM. THANKS FOR ANY REPLYS. JULIE IN TEXAS

[em]

Hi Julie,
Have you had the house inspected yet? The best advice I can give you is to hire a structural engineer in addition to your inspector, that was our biggest mistake. But on a lighter note, most foundation problems are not as bad as they seem and can be repaired by the home owner, or repaired for a reasonable fee. Also, what does your realtor think about you going back to the homeowner with your concerns, often times if they know the problems exist they'll correct the problem, or knock some money off of the selling price. That's what we were able to do....to a degree, somehow it didn't work out how i hoped! In some cases though foundation problems can be serious, I've watched two houses on my street that were pier and beam have their entire foundation replaced. The houses both had to be jacked up and the entire apron around the house and the piers were replaced. If this is needed it can cost over $5000. That's why I would suggest a structural engineer, especially if your inspector has any questions. Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck and let me know how it turns out!

[Vanessa]

My husband and I are thinking of purchasing a sagging house built in 1932 at a good price. A realtor assured me it's fixable but I have my misgivings. I really like the suggestion of using a structural engineer so I guess we'd do that prior to signing a contract. Thanks