(old) wood floor vs concrete

[Jason Wagner]

We have a home that was built in stages. Part of the house is built on a raised wooden skirt with wooden floors and nothing below except earth. The newer part of the house was built on a poured concrete slab. We are wanting the entire house to be on a concrete foundation.

From what I have been told, the older part of the house basically needs to be gutted (all interior walls and existing flooring removed) and then the new foundation gets poured. Then the walls go back up.

We've gotten quotes ranging up to $40k to do this.

My attitude is to nuke the site from orbit and start over again by building a new house in place of the old one.

Has anyone ever gone through anything like this before?

Thanks.

[rb608]

A good friend recently added not just new foundations, but an entire basement under his house with less trouble than that. Basically the process was to construct some shallow footings outboard of the house, then jack up the house until it was bearing solely on the temporary footings. Then, a loader excavated completely under the house, new basement foundations & walls were installed, and the house was lowered back down to bear on the new construction. Frankly, I didn't believe it was going to work, but he's very happy with the result.

FWIW, Joe F.

[ameijers]

When you say 'raised wooden skirt', do you mean a pier house, like is common down south? (think entire house is basically an enclosed front porch). Or do you mean a 'sleeper' foundation, where house is built on what are basically huge railroad ties laying on ground? As to the question about having gone through that- well, sort of- I participated in a house moving once, which is basically the same thing, except the house isn't in the way while you build the new foundation. Get professional advice- is there enough left of the original wing of house to be worth gutting and rebuilding from inside out, versus demo and rebuilding new wing on same footprint? (with modern insulation and utilities, and nice and square, etc.) Is the old wing constructed in such a way that it can't be jacked by a house mover and new crawlspace foundation added underneath (preferable to slab in many cases)?

You need professional help to chart out all the viable options and cost them out. Don't forget the sell and move option. Any harebrained scheme can be done if you throw enough money at it, but if it costs you more than replacement cost of house, it is seldom worth it, other than maybe like they do with historical houses. 'Nuke from orbit' is sometimes the logical choice.

aem sends....