Foundation Repair and Living in House

Can anyone tell me if you can continue to live in a house that needs foundation repairs while the repairs are being done? Also, I realize that this next answer depends on the extent of the problem, but do repairs normally take days, weeks or months?

Thanks for any insight.

Reply to
Math teacher
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Well as you indicated, it depends on the extent of the repairs.

That said, a buddy of mine needed to have one side of his house jacked up

18+ inches, he lived in it all through the repairs. He took it very slowly and considering he is a mechanical engineer had sufficient knowledge to apply extra bracing. The side of his house he jacked up was the side containing his chimney, just to add another level of complexity to it.

All said it took him a year or so to repair the foundation, 6 months to jack up the house and 6 months to complete the repairs. He took it slowly so as to provide the house framing time to relax and reform to its new shape.

Reply to
Eigenvector

Eigenvector has the right idea. If the foundation repairs are extensive, the utilities may have to be cut so house can be raised enough to do the work. If the repairs are minor, slow raising of parts of the house can allow living in the house. (This house has been raised in parts several times while we continued lived in it.) TB

Reply to
tbasc

Eigenvector has the right idea. If the foundation repairs are extensive, the utilities may have to be cut so house can be raised enough to do the work. If the repairs are minor, slow raising of parts of the house can allow living in the house. (This house has been raised in parts several times while we continued lived in it.) TB

Reply to
tbasc

Our house had a crawlspace, and we really wanted a basement under it. Estimates for the housemover to jack up the house was over $11,000. That did not include hooking/un-hooking any utilities OR any of the prep work, which I was going to have to do myself. The basement would have cost another $28,000 on top of that. Work would have taken a month or two to complete. And yes, we were told that we could live in the house while the work was being done.

In the end, we ended up building a new home with a basement. It was just easier.

Reply to
J.A. Michel

Very nasty work sometimes and takes a month or two sometimes. Lots of dirt tracked in to the house.

Most continue to live in the house.

Reply to
JimL

Yep!

I have generally been of the opinion that if you want extra room or otherwise want to make major modifications to your home, it's almost always cheaper to buy a house that has what you want and sell the old house than modify the old house. Your old house may be exactly what someone else needs.

If you LOVE your present neighborhood, often a "tear down" and restart is cheaper than extensives ad ons and remodeling.

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Reply to
John Gilmer

Wanted to update everyone. Thanks for all your replies. Foundation repair company came out and said for $12,400 they could fix it. Will take a couple of days to set the piers and then they come back out a week or two later. No problem living in the house.

Reply to
Math teacher

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