basement

We are looking into moving a house onto a site where there was a house before that burned. The old basement is still there, and we were thinking of using it - with putting new walls within the old basement and just making it a little smaller. We don't have much money to spend and am wondering if this would work and what would be best block or poured cement.

 

What material is the old basement walls made out of, and what condition are they in now?

 

2 Basement walls were cement block, but now one side is bowing in some with a vertical crack, so that would have to be reinforced. One side of the basement was cement that was crumbling and needed work done before the fire. One side is cement that is still intact. I had thought that the walls could just be redone and move a different house on it, and make the foundation to fit the new house and have have some crawl space as the basement is rather small and the house I am considering is larger than the basement. But people have been advising that i have to redig the basement, remove the old walls and put in all new walls and that it would cost alot of money. I have never even thought about doing this before so maybe they are right and I am wrong with my idea.

 

I am afraid they are right. If you come inside the old basement walls and lay up a new foundation, you will have to dig new footings also. So the only thing you will be saving is tearing out and hauling off the old debris. I'm sure the existing footers are not up tro modern codes either since they change constsntly. I would opt to tear out and start from scratch.