3

Bought my first home, and after removing some of the siding I found that a corner of the house is "lifted" above the foundation. What causes this, how bad is it, and how would I go about fixing it?

This is a 3D representation viewing the crawlspace entry, the left side being the corner in question. enter image description here

Edit: here is a picture of the foundation

enter image description here

Nathan Goings
  • 133
  • 5
  • 1
    I'm not sure how the house could be separated form the foundation. Connection between walls and foundation is (or it should be) one of the strongest. Pictures from the site would be a lot more useful than a 3d model. Can you provide those? Not just the foundation but house from all sides; close to the ground level. – python starter Jun 01 '15 at 08:20
  • Is this a mobile or manufactured home? – Tester101 Jun 01 '15 at 12:06
  • I'll try to get some photos of it. @Tester101, it's neither, it's constructed. – Nathan Goings Jun 01 '15 at 13:49
  • Pictures good; please tell us as well about the soil around (nature of drainage, best guess at composition, etc). If you don't mind spending time in the crawlspace, tell us if your house is actually bolted down to the foundation. Vintage of house would be useful. And was there anything related to settling noted in your home inspection report? – Aloysius Defenestrate Jun 01 '15 at 14:12
  • Soil is clay and sand. There should be a big layer of Caliche about a foot or two down. The house is 1960's. I'm unsure if it's bolted, I'm working on clearing the crawlspace now as it's impossible to fit under the joists. – Nathan Goings Jun 01 '15 at 18:40

1 Answers1

4

Being bolted down, or not, is an era-dependendent thing - modern houses generally are, many older ones are not.

Usually, the house has not lifted, despite appearing that way - what has happened is that the foundation has sunk - in this case, in a manner that moves the actual support of the house back to the points where the sill is still touching the foundation.

Mitigation ranges from the low-cost approach of shimming the gap to the high-cost one of a new foundation. If considering the latter, it may make sense (if you have space) to build a new foundation and move the house onto it, or to move the house off the foundation, build a new one, and move the house back onto it, rather than rebuilding it "in place." It's certainly posible to support the house where it is and build a new foundation under it, but it adds enough complexity to the job that paying to have the house moved once or twice is often the less expensive route.

Beyond shimming this is not a great project to DIY, for the most part.

Ecnerwal
  • 213,340
  • 10
  • 261
  • 571
  • Would a mason be the person to "shim" it? – Nathan Goings Jun 01 '15 at 18:42
  • 2
    Shimming it is literally filling the gap to restore some bearing. Obvious drawback is that it does not correct whatever caused the foundation to sink, so it may sink further. If you use wood (pressure treated for the piece that actually touches the foundation) it's quite DIY-able. Due to the drawback few masons worth the name will want to get involved in shimming. With wooden shims, if the house continues to move, you drive the wedges in further and tighten it up; if it seems to be moving slowly enough that you don't notice any change in a few years, you might leave it alone. – Ecnerwal Jun 01 '15 at 20:15