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Kim4life99
Member
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2023 02:31am
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So I have a lofted cabin that was bought as a shell and finished out on property 7 years ago. It was put on dirt with cement blocks holding it up about 2.5ft off the ground. It is about 16ft x 24ft in size and has a loft on both ends and a porch on the front. I moved in about 2 yr ago and in that time the slight downhill slant to the back of the house is now a major problem that is causing the roof to leak, causing the walls to bubble out with water, and mold is now becoming an issue and the house is causing me health issues. You can see that the front blocks are about 6 to 10 in under the actual floor, as in the front of the house is not getting held up by all the blocks. The floor has a major crack across the entire house where you can really feel the slant in the house. I have finally talked my boss into fixing the house and there are people coming to level it again. Now I am told that I have to have the entire house empty for them to be able to level and that they will have to have the ac company come to take my mini split unit out before also. I was told also that after the house is level there won't be any more issues with leaking. This is my first cabin to live in so maybe I'm wrong, but how is just leveling it going to fix the leaks? Won't it still need work done on the roof? Also is it necessary to empty the house completely for it to be leveled? I'm just wanting to understand what to expect since I feel as tho the people coming to level are taking advantage of my boss and I'm still going to have issues with the place.im attaching a pic of the floor with a level so you can see its pretty bad.
20230207_133841.jpg
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2023 06:57am
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Is it a shed that was dropped on site?
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curious
Member
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2023 10:48am
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Looks like a shed to me. Who else runs metal panels horizontally like that?
The picture doesn't allow any view of the foundation blocks so it is hard to say what is going on or what the real solution is.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2023 12:57pm
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Blocks on dirt (no footers), interior slab cracked (block area filled with dirt, slab poured, no rebar in slab) foundation disaster.
Why wasn't shed built on ground level slab? Flood zone? Why were floor joists on top of blocks not used?
Blocks sinking opening metal roof to rain. I don't think this place is fixable. Kim, find another place to live. This place needs to be torn down. I bet it was built with no building permit.
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2023 01:35pm
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Wait seriously.. Suggesting it needs to be tore down.. COME ON...
I raised a few foundations working construction and driving screw piles. We even did a roll, rebuild fountain and roll back one time. Its not rocket science. A small building like that could even use 20,000 pound bottle jacks. Plan it out, figure the best places to lift, lift, shim, assess, lift some more, ect ect.. Or lift, drive screw piles, weld on ibeam and set back down.
You will then need to do address the other repairs (cracked drywall, roof leaks, ect).
Anything is fixable with a little planning and some hard work.
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Steve_S
Member
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2023 01:43pm
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Agree with DaveBell on this one, far too many Red Flags that will only cascade into a set of Domino Fixes that will empty your pocket fast.
Taking everything out of a building about to be lifted is Very Normal, that's literally "tons" of weight that does not need to be there.
Lifting it flat & even is a very tricky job and get's worse for every 4" of lift needed, then to secure/stabilize it while people are underneath fixing the foundation is hard & costly too.
Structural repairs AFTER the building is set back on a sold/stable foundation is when the dominoes start to fall, especially when starting to remediate damage and cleaning out the mold & mildew that resulted from the damage.
Not having many images to go by the 1st clue that this was a Kludged Bodge Job is how the Tin Roof is installed. WTF were they thinking ? Good Lord what else is kludged & bodged lurking underneath the "finished" build...
Sorry that this is not the encouragement you were hoping for and I get you are not happy about it but please for your own sanity & longer term financial health serious stop and think this through before comitting any pennies to further this project.
If the land is yours already, would it not be possible to just use what you have now till you can build/install a replacement cabin on a proper building Pad and/or Foundation ?
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Kim4life99
Member
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2023 02:14pm
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Thank you for the response, DaveBell and Steve_S, I had been thinking along the same lines that this isn't going to be fixable unless spending more than what it had cost to buy and finish. I do not own this but it is part of my pay for my work on ranch. I kept getting told it will be easy to level and that will fix it, but I have been having doubts that it will. No there is no building permit and it has been a guessing game as to where the electric water and sewer lines all are that come to this house, nothing was marked, it is turning from a cute little place to live into a sh!t show, excuse my saying.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 20 Feb 2023 10:41am
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Fixing this right is going to take time and money. The boss/owner is probably going to 'cheap out' just like the first time when built. And while it all happens you are out of house.....
Yes, both foundation/pad And the structural issues will need to be fixed; ie, fixing the bottom Does Not fix leaks in the top (even though the bottom caused the leaks in the top).
Imo, owner should get estimates for lifting/moving this, doing a proper foundation And fixing the structure and compare that to moving in a new/used/repossessed prebuilt in and fixing this one over time or turning it into a storage building.
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