old house...need to lift and add a basement...costs? other?
#1
08-11-04, 11:17 PM
old house...need to lift and add a basement...costs? other?
ok, we are buying an old farm house in Nebraska.
There is an original old 2 story home (aprox 360 sqft footprint)
there is a 2 story addition (aprox 345 sq ft footprint)
and a 1 story adition (270 sqft footprint)
The house was originally built in the early 1900's. One of the additions is not much older than the original house, and the 1 story addition I think was added in the 30's maybe.
There is not much of a basement, and most of the house only has a dirt crawl space. All 3 parts of the house slope one way or another as the foundations either were not right to start with, and have settled since then.
The only way that I can really see to fix it would be to lift the house, and have eral footings put in, and a real basement. has anyone done this before? Any idea on the costs? Who do I call? I dont want to do it myself. This is way to big of a project. do I contact a general contractor? or some other kind of contractor or what? Any ideas? Anything would help.
There is an original old 2 story home (aprox 360 sqft footprint)
there is a 2 story addition (aprox 345 sq ft footprint)
and a 1 story adition (270 sqft footprint)
The house was originally built in the early 1900's. One of the additions is not much older than the original house, and the 1 story addition I think was added in the 30's maybe.
There is not much of a basement, and most of the house only has a dirt crawl space. All 3 parts of the house slope one way or another as the foundations either were not right to start with, and have settled since then.
The only way that I can really see to fix it would be to lift the house, and have eral footings put in, and a real basement. has anyone done this before? Any idea on the costs? Who do I call? I dont want to do it myself. This is way to big of a project. do I contact a general contractor? or some other kind of contractor or what? Any ideas? Anything would help.
#2
08-12-04, 10:56 AM
Here is a little writeup on my project:
http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=160103
Lifting a house with two additions would be much more complicated than what I did, but its still doable.
Doing my basement myself really wasn't that bad. You could always lift it yourself, and sub out the rest of the work.
I spent a total of $30k on my house, but i built a new addition and am in the beginning stages of finishing the basement.
If you lifted it yourself and then subbed out the footings and block work, i'd bet it could be done for around 10-15k. Remeber the extras, such as windows, furnace, ductwork etc.
Good luck.
http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=160103
Lifting a house with two additions would be much more complicated than what I did, but its still doable.
Doing my basement myself really wasn't that bad. You could always lift it yourself, and sub out the rest of the work.
I spent a total of $30k on my house, but i built a new addition and am in the beginning stages of finishing the basement.
If you lifted it yourself and then subbed out the footings and block work, i'd bet it could be done for around 10-15k. Remeber the extras, such as windows, furnace, ductwork etc.
Good luck.
#3
08-12-04, 08:23 PM
"i'd bet it could be done for around 10-15k. "
Hardly.
A typically small 30x30 foot full basement can barely be done for under $30K today.
Cost of adding basements are rarely cost effective.
Better use of space is to go up or out and never DOWN.
A typically small 30x30 foot full basement can barely be done for under $30K today.
Cost of adding basements are rarely cost effective.
Better use of space is to go up or out and never DOWN.
#4
08-12-04, 08:35 PM
I agree about going up or out, but not down as being more cost effective, however, I just did mine for 30K, with a lot of extras. New furnace, water tank, ductwork, windows, doors and new siding. I did all the work myself, with the help of my freinds. The purpose of my reply to the origonal post was to show that with some common sense the job could be done cost effectively. You just need to be willing to do a lot of hard work yourself.
