Raising a Home

The home has been lifted off of the foundation. And they did it without cutting down any trees!! I was stoked. I thought for sure they would have to cut some down to get those 60' beams in there. It's hard to snake a 60' beam through lots of pines and aspens, but they were able to do it. The lifting process began on Monday and the home was lifted 24" off the foundation by wendsday afternoon. We did have to disconnect the power on one side, and disconnect the plumbing in the crawl space. When the new foundation is set, the home will sit about 6" higher than it is now which will improve the situation. When I bought the home the ground sloped toward the home. Even after grading the land back out, the dirt level was right up next to the bottom of the siding. 6" was about all we could raise it without incurring a lot more expense so I figured that would do. I'm hopeing to make it up to WY this weekend to check this out. It's just cool to see something like this happen. I wish I could see someone else have to pay for it, but I think it will be well worth it in the long run. I debated quite a bit about replacing the whole foundation or just the trouble spots shown in the last post. My decision to replace the whole thing turned out to be a wise one. When the home was lifted Phi, [the guy doing the 3work for me] said that all the cracks we thought were hairline turned into full blown problem cracks as soon as the pressure was taken off. The footings turned out to only be 5" thick as opposed to 12" like they should be in the area. And the foundation wall was only 6" with no rebar - the norm around here is 8" with rebar. So I'm not excited about the expense since the liviability of the home will be about the same, but knowing the foundation is solid and not going anywhere will go a long way for sellability in the future. Not to mention eliminate problems that I might have with interior finishes cracking or seperating because the foundation is settling. Now the work begins for Phil, removing the old sections of foundation and hauling them off. I'm glad I opted not to handle this improvement by myself. You have to have the right kind of equipment to do something like this. I'll stick to things I know and have the equipment for like finish work, tile and hardwood.

Picture below is the power panel we had to disconnect. I had to run down to the local power company and ask them to disconnect it. I was surprised how willing to work with me they were. Having worked in construction in larger cities I guess I am just used to utility companies more concerned about following a "process" that they don't really care at all about any kind of personal service. Every one at the power company was very helpful I came in on a Friday and they had it disconnected the following Monday. Looks like originally the power was not put in conduit- which it should be, so thats an expense I wasn;t planning on. But the power box is just 50' or so from the home so it shouldn't be too bad.