There is an old farm house on my property that has not been lived in for many years. I have been living in the newer house on the same property, but was planning to rebuild the old (original) house.
During the winter the snow on the roof (the part of the roof over the living room and one bedroom) caused the roof to settle in the middle and push off the walls on both the front and rear of the house. In other words, the ridge apparently broke apart and both halves of the roof came off the walls. The roof was originally 9 to 10 feet at the ridge down to the the attic floor and had a small 8 inch overhang at the rain gutters. After the roof settled, it was only about 4 feet to the ridge, but the overhangs were sticking out about 3 to 4 feet on both the the front and rear of the house.
Another heavy snow storm fell, and caused the roof to completely flatten, and the overhanging parts on the front and rear were then sticking out about 7 feet.
That's when tragedy struck. The overhanging front part of the roof broke off and fell on to another bedroom and the bathroom roof, which was a much flatter roof, and was an addition built later. The weight of the main roof caused the bedroom and bathroom roof to collapse and took down the front wall of that addition in the process, completely destroying those two rooms, leaving debris all over the lawn in front.
If that's not bad enough, the rear part of the main roof fell inward on the attic floor, crushing everything stored in the attic.
But this is not the end of the story. As the snow began to melt, and water was pouring down into the living room, the attic floor (living room ceiling), fell down into the living room, with the roof on top of it. At this point the attic floor with all contents was suspended about
5 feet above the living room floor with all the furniture in the living room holding up this floor, with the remaining top of the main roof resting on top.However, it dont stop there. Last week I heard a loud crash during the night. The following day I was looking for a fallen tree, or ???? Whatever made the noise. Nothing could be found. On Saturday I was walking past that old house, when I noticed thru the window that something looked unusual. I opened the door and found that the weight of all of this had caused the living room floor to collapse into the basement.
Now the original roof sits about eye level in the living room, the attic floor seems to have gotten wedged about 2 feet above the original lower level floor, and has forced the front wall of the house off the foundation, which is now just sort of suspended there. All of the contents and furniture that was in there is crunched between all the sections of floors and roofs.
Yet, although the entire inside of the house has fallen down inside, the outer walls still remain standing (except the addition which I have since demolished and removed). So what I now have is a complete shell of a house, with the gables still standing a good 20 feet in the air. The front wall is off the foundation, and yet not even one window broke during all of this.
My problem now, is how the f**k do I tear it apart with 2 floors and a roof all stacked on top of each other, and partly in the basement????
Yea, I know someone will suggest a professional wrecking company, but that is not going to happen, since the money is not there. It's going to come down piece by piece using hand tools, power saws, chainsaw, and my farm tractor and log chains to remove large pieces at once. I know now that there is no saving this house, but I cant just leave it standing either because it's going to collapse the rest of the way and someone could get hurt. It cant be burned either since it's too close to my newer house, two sheds, and an LP tank.
But I keep asking myself which is the best way to safely collapse it. I should mention that the kitchen part of that house was a separate piece and that roof is still standing, but it's attached to that same front wall which is now off the foundation, and I noticed that part of that roof is not detached from that front wall too.
Yesterday I took a chainsaw and widened the old bathroom door into a 6 foot wide door, and was able to pull out a few pieces of furniture and some other stuff that was between the layers, and this included a whole stack of window glass, of which not one piece was broken. I also got the old bathtub out, and cut the power wires going to the building.
I guess I never realized just how poorly this building was constructed. Each 2x10 floor joist in the attic floor was held with one nail to the
2x4 walls. These are the old square nails too. It appears that the weight of the roof on that floor caused those nails to break, and there was no wood under them. That attic floor came down, pushed the front wall off the foundation as it came down, and that brought down the first floor, floor into the basement.I cant say I've ever seen this sort of thing happen...... I am taking photos as it comes apart and as I rip it apart. I think what kept it together is the newest addition on the back, which was build somewhere in the 1960s. That room, a 10x12 room is of much newer construction, and at this point, is the only solid part that remains. Aside from needing sone roof work where it detached from the main house, and of course missing one wall, I might try to save that room and turn it into a storage shed.
The part that pisses me off the most, is that somewhere between all that collapsed stuff, lies my rotatiller. I kept it in there as a place to store it, and I cant even see it between all that rubble. Apparently it rolled on it's wheels and went to the lowest part of the collapse. So much for that....