# Need info about jacking a house up.



## Mr. Mike (Dec 27, 2008)

I am going to try and be GC on raising a house to level it, please let me know what all could go wrong when subbing this out.


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## TimelessQuality (Sep 23, 2007)

it could fall


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## jmic (Dec 10, 2005)

TimelessQuality said:


> it could fall


:w00t:


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## rbsremodeling (Nov 12, 2007)

Mr. Mike said:


> I am going to try and be GC on raising a house to level it, please let me know what all could go wrong when subbing this out.


Are you for Real?:blink:


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## SelfContract (Dec 6, 2007)

House *Jacked *= House *Cracked!* :whistling


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## Aggie67 (Aug 28, 2008)

You could go do it, and then something bad might happen, and then when the insurance company realizes that the painting company they are insuring went out and GC'd a residential structural job, they'll deny the claim.

That's about as bad as it would get. As long as no one got hurt. Then it would be worse.

I gotta get off CT and go do my estimates. :wallbash:


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## SLSTech (Sep 13, 2008)

Look for a show on HGTV about Haulin' House - all your questions can be answered in the first 5 to 10 minutes

Jack goes - house comes down on a worker
To fast, crooked - walls are cracked, doors out of plumb, windows shattered
The list is to long to mention - hire a [email protected] good sub & make sure you are listed n his policy


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## Warren (Feb 19, 2005)

im guessing that worst thing is house could get jacked up


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## K2 (Jul 8, 2005)

Mr. Mike said:


> I am going to try and be GC on raising a house to level it, please let me know what all could go wrong when subbing this out.


Aroun here if you seperate a house from the foundation you have to bring the whole thing up to curent code which is near impossible and expensive. But I've leveled sections of alot of old houses. About 20 or 30 screw/bottle jacks should do the trick. The 2-1/2 inch stubby bottle jacks are great for tight spaces which seem to be the case in old houses. 

The screw size on the bottle jack tells the rating. 1 inch screw =10 ton, 1-1/2 inch screw = 15 tons, 2 inch = 20. 

Big railroad jacks or house movers jacks seem to be too much for smaller repairs. I can never find room to swing the handle.

Oh yeah, bottle jacks with the swivel head or single ball bearing are less likely to walk on you. The friction heads just need to be well greased.


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## J-Peffer (Mar 3, 2007)

I can't really see anything bad happening living a house up.

get some 2x's and a few car jacks, get-er-dun!!!!


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## Mike(VA) (Jan 9, 2008)

Mr. Mike, you outa know by now that you walked into that one; you've been here long enough. Many here could and would give you constructive advice, but won't because of the lack of information. You want to level a house. Why? Is one side sinking? Are the floors not level in one area? Is it the second floor that is dipping in the middle? Does the roof have a swayback? As well as 101 more questions, one of which may be: Do you want to level a house or 'level' a house?

A bit more detail would either let people know you may have some ability to handle a job like this if you only had more information, OR it may tell everyone that you are a painter who wants to level a house.

Your call.


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## thom (Nov 3, 2006)

Warren said:


> im guessing that worst thing is house could get jacked up


Seems to me that if it fell in the process it would be Jacked Off.


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## WarnerConstInc. (Jan 30, 2008)

Go slow, it takes months even years to get a house back to "normal"

Should we tell hime to dig the footings first and then jack off those, or do it like we all end up doing it?


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## thom (Nov 3, 2006)

WarnerConstInc. said:


> Should we tell him to dig the footings first and then jack off those?


...


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## That Other Guy (Jan 19, 2009)

Maybe he means level it like in using a bulldozer and/or a wrecking ball:whistling


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## Mr. Mike (Dec 27, 2008)

Perfect replies, thanks a million.

I guess I just wanted to hear it that the house could fall,lol.

The house is settling in the middle, I had a couple companies come out and give me a bid. I was thinking about subbing or gifting one of them the job for a fee. I have been leaning towards the gifting out but at the last minute I thought hmm I could add a couple few grand to this bid and sub it out. Any more comments would be awesome.



> Aroun here if you seperate a house from the foundation you have to bring the whole thing up to curent code which is near impossible and expensive. But I've leveled sections of alot of old houses. About 20 or 30 screw/bottle jacks should do the trick. The 2-1/2 inch stubby bottle jacks are great for tight spaces which seem to be the case in old houses.
> 
> The screw size on the bottle jack tells the rating. 1 inch screw =10 ton, 1-1/2 inch screw = 15 tons, 2 inch = 20.
> 
> ...


That is the type of things the contractors I had come out said, I was curious since it is just sections of the middle beam what all could go a miss.


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## BHI (Feb 6, 2008)

Mr. Mike, 
Just finished lifting a 2100 sq foot single story. and took out the muddy pit of a crwl space under it and added a fully finished 9' basement. took 4 months. 20 grand just to get the guys in here to lift it 4 1/2 feet off its original foundation walls. it is a huge task. and same thing once we got it up i then found 2x8x16 clear span floor joists, main beams that where rotted, another that was burnt out from a previous fire. Tons of stuff that can pop up with out any warning. we sent 2 skid steers under to dig and the one kid lifted the boom and hit one of the massive I's holding up the house...If you want to not sleep well at night..have a house up in the air for 4 weeks..lol. i know my mind was always wondering! Let us know how it goes!!!


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## cleveman (Dec 28, 2007)

It's not too big of a deal.

I was working once on a house which was lifted and a basement was put in underneath, then dropped back down on top of it.

I had the opportunity to do the same for my own house a few years later and I got the lift done for $6000. I thought that was plenty, but I couldn't go and get the materials and equipment and start to do it for that.

I once lifted a 30x60 building and put a 4' higher wall under it. It was a concrete block wall and it was only lifted about 10" at a time. That building had to be stabilized a lot beforehand.

Let us know more about the specifics.


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