Raising wood frame house two feet

[Bruce Swanson]

FEMA requires gutted one story house be raised two feet before permitting a n certificate of occupancy. House is on a concrete slab. No sheet rock insi de. 2"x4" construction is solid. Except for plywood in corners, exterior sh eathing is buffalo board-little structural value. Brick veneer exterior wil l be removed first. Not many bolts attaching bottom sill to slab. Our plan is to raise wood frame, build concrete block 24" to 32" high stub wall, bui ld a floor at height of stub wall, then reattach house wood frame to founda tion. House is L shaped, dimensions measuring from the lower left corner of L are length 60' and width 26'. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[millinghill]

Can't comment on the mechanics, but 4 related suggestions:

1. consider adding just a little more height. Now's your only chance.
2. consider closed-cell spray foam insulation under floor. 99% immune to future flooding, and no better air barrier.
3. check with authoriy having jurisdiction on whether you need flood openings in a below-BFE enclosure wall (to allow floodwater to flow through)
4. exterior mechnical systems (i.e. a/c compressor, fuel oil tank, etc) should be raised too.

[Malcom Mal Reynolds]

if you make it about a total of 8 or more feet high, you'd have a great garage space

[micky]

40 years ago I drove around south of New Orleans where the streets are paved with broken sea shells and 7 out of every 8 houses were up 8 feet, and one was right on the ground, and that one didn't look any older than the others. You really had to wonder who built his house on the ground when everyone else's was higher.

[gfretwell]

Before FEMA (AKA PreFIRM) the height of a house was just a guideline. Now it is law.

[micky]

I didn't know that.

But you have to be an idiot to build at ground level when 7 out of 8 are building on stilts.

[Rachael Madcow]

The majority of people in the US are idiots.

Don't believe me? Look at the last presidential election.

[Ed Pawlowski]

It is was like some houses built in Tuckerton NJ, they were all on the ground at one time and only one has not been raised. Built in about the 50's, most houses were raised after a couple of floods.

[Bruce Swanson]

Thanks

[Tony Hwang]

Big monster crane or house mover will do.

[taxed and spent]

2"x4" construction is solid. Except for plywood in corners, exterior sheathing is buffalo board-little structural value. Brick veneer exterior will be removed first. Not many bolts attaching bottom sill to slab. Our plan is to raise wood frame, build concrete block 24" to 32" high stub wall, build a floor at height of stub wall, then reattach house wood frame to foundation. House is L shaped, dimensions measuring from the lower left corner of L are length 60' and width 26'. Any suggestions are appreciated.

-------

I'm sure there are some DIY videos on YouTube.

[dpb]

Biggest practical problem I see is that it's on a slab--there's no basement/footing to be able to get under it w/ the typical beams used by housemovers for lifting.

There's a fella' been doing this for 50 yr I generally see at coffee in the mornings--I'll ask him how he'd tackle it. But, it won't be tomorrow morning, have to go to Dodge for a funeral...maybe Saturday.

[gfretwell]

My neighbor picked up a 1000 sq/ft CBS house, slab and all to make FEMA happy and allow him to build on.

[Malcom Mal Reynolds]

yup, hard to imagine so many voted for a Mormon

[gfretwell]

This is the house, up on jacks and after the remodel, tripling the size under air

[dpb]

On 07/23/2015 12:51 PM, [e-mail] wrote: ...

Thassa' good idea...wonder about the support for the slab then, though???

[clare]

And the ones that were not raised were raized??