Log cabins or other wooden buildings erected several decades ago, today have an almost completely worn out foundation or what was used instead of it. And if visually the house still has a chance of life, then a rotten or dilapidated base threatens the imminent destruction of the building. In such cases, the owners of a worn-out building have a question about how to raise the house and pour the foundation with their own hands so that the building serves as a cozy haven for the family for more than one decade.
All the subtleties and nuances of raising an old house with your own hands are in the material below.
Important: to perform this type of work, it is best to invite a team of specialists who have all the necessary equipment and certain skills. However, if for some reason there is no opportunity or desire to use the services of professionals, then you should be very careful when performing manipulations with your own hands. This is dangerous both for life and for the integrity of the old house.
Preparatory work
In order to competently and most importantly safely raise the house for the building itself, it is necessary to carry out preparatory work. Namely, you should do the following:
- All furniture and fixtures are taken out of the house;
- If possible, dismantle window frames and remove doors from hinges;
- To reduce the mass of the structure and, as a result, reduce the pressure on the logs of the house, it is fashionable to disassemble the wooden floors and ceiling;
- In some cases, the roof is also dismantled, if possible.
In addition, it is worth inspecting the building for rotten or weakened logs of the walls themselves. If there are any, then it is desirable to enclose the structure in a kind of wooden vise. That is, the house is sheathed with wooden boards diagonally, securely fastening them with bolts. This will avoid the destruction of the building when lifting. Still, a log house is not articulated.
Important: do not forget to prepare the required number of gaskets that will play the role of supporting pillars for the period of pouring the new foundation. Bricks, cinder block, wooden chocks or logs can be used as supports.
Jack selection rules
After the preparatory work, it is also necessary to calculate the mass of the house. This will allow you to correctly calculate the lifting power of the jacks and their number needed to lift the building.
- We calculate the volume of all the walls of the house in cubic meters and multiply by the density of the logs.
Important: the approximate density of a worn rounded log is 700-800 kg/m3.
- To the resulting number, add the mass of ceilings, beams, interior decoration and everything that has not been dismantled / taken out.
Having determined the mass of the structure that we will raise, we also determine the number of jacks. Taking into account the fact that the house will not rise from one corner, but from all sides under the pouring of a new foundation, it is necessary to prepare several jacks (from 4 to 6), depending on the length of the walls. Their lifting capacity should start from 5 tons each.
Important: in this case, it is not recommended to place jacks in the corners of the house, since it is the corners of the future foundation that need to be poured in a monolithic manner with a strong reinforcing belt. And jacks won't let you do that. Or use a different method of lifting the house, which we will consider below.
Ways to raise a house on a jack
To pour a new foundation, you need to raise the house only with a jack. This method is quite effective and takes more time, in contrast to lifting the building with a crane, but causes less harm to the structure itself.
You can raise the building with your own hands in stages from each side or simultaneously from all sides.
- So, if there is only one jack and its lifting power corresponds to the mass of the house, then you can lift the building a little on each side. To do this, the device is installed at the intended point of the house and the building is raised by 2-3 cm. A support is placed under the resulting space and moved to another place of lifting. Thus, you can raise the building to the desired height.
Important: this method is quite dangerous, because with slight differences in height, the walls of the house may not withstand the load and simply break. Especially when you consider that the height difference in the region of the crown of 1-2 cm at the level of the ridge is already 5-6 cm.
- Another way to raise the house is to work simultaneously from all sides. In this case, the jacks are installed along the long walls of the house, stepping back from the corners by 60-70 cm into the wall. If the logs of the crown are worn out enough, and the wall has a length of more than 4 meters, then additional jacks can be placed in the middle of the walls. Work in this case must be carried out synchronously, raising the log house by 3-4 cm at a time. At the same time, each stage of lifting is fixed with support beams or pillars. This method of raising the house is effective and less traumatic for both the log house and the craftsmen.
The correct location of the jack
Jacks should be positioned correctly when raising the house. And this correctness depends on the state of the log crown.
- So, if the lower logs of the crown are rotten, then it is necessary to cut holes for the jack with a circular saw up to the whole log. It is in it that the head of the lifting mechanism will rest, and the rotten logs will be replaced. A metal plate will need to be installed under the jack, which will prevent the device from sagging during work.
- If the crown of the house is safe and sound, then you will have to make holes in the old foundation for mounting the jack. On top of the old concrete base, you also need to install a piece of channel or other metal plate. The machine will rest against the metal during work.
Important: in any case, a steel plate 10x10 cm is installed under the jack head, which will evenly distribute the pressure of the device on the crown log. And in the place of the stop of the head, the log needs to be a little cheered up to ensure the perfect evenness of the crossbar under the head of the jack.
We control the height of the house
In order to properly control the level of lifting the house, it is forbidden to use the method of tracking the amount of shift of the jack rod, since the device sags when the house is lowered onto the support beams.
In order to control the variable height, they use specially marked rails, which are installed in the corners of the house.
Important: when performing work, it is worth monitoring the vertical installation of the lifting mechanism. If a skew of the jack is noted, work should be stopped and the mechanism should be leveled. Otherwise, the house will simply fall from the existing height.
It is possible to raise the house in this way to a height of 10 to 50 cm. This is quite enough to fill a new foundation.
Dismantling the old base and installing a new one
So the house is up. Now you need to remove the old frame. To do this, use a chisel, puncher and other complex powerful equipment. Waste from the old foundation is not in a hurry to throw it away. They'll still come in handy.
As soon as the old frame is removed, you can begin to form a foundation pit for a new one. To do this, you can deepen the existing one a little, or simply install a solid sand cushion 20 cm thick if the trench depth is sufficient. The sand is slightly moistened and well rammed.
- Formwork is installed in the trench, taking into account the bypass of those places where the jacks and support posts are. These holes can later be simply bricked up.
- A reinforcing belt is laid in the formwork, while making sure that it is curved in the corners of the house, and not welded. Since it is the corners of the building that will be responsible for the strength of the entire frame.
- Pour the solution into the prepared formwork and wait for it to dry completely.
- As soon as the concrete dries, if necessary, the crown logs are replaced. They can be tapped for rotting. If, when you knock on a log, it emits a sonorous rumble, then the wood is good. If the log echoes with a dull echo, it means that it is rotting inside and needs to be replaced.
- Logs are changed down to those that are well preserved.
Important: the new foundation and the lower logs of the crown must be carefully hydro and thermally insulated. This will significantly extend the life of a wooden frame.
Upon completion of all work, the house is also synchronously and gradually lowered onto a new foundation. Windows, doors, floors and roofs are being replaced. The new foundation is sprinkled with the remains of the broken old foundation and compacted with soil.
A wooden frame is ready for operation for another 30-40 years, provided that the tree is well cared for.
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