Has Anyone Ever Jacked Up A House Before?
I am in a delimna where the crawl space underneath the floor joists is less than 12" in some places. This is making it impossible and very expensive to install ductwork for the new hvac system that I wanted to have put in. Also, I met w/ a plumber today and was told that it is going to be impossible for him to gain access to certain parts of the house in order to adequately run plumbing. The cheapest bid I got b/w two HVAC estimates was 8k...I have yet to receive the plumber's estimate.
Anyway, can someone please give me some advice or ideas as to how it is done or how expensive it is to have a house jacked in order to create more crawl space height???
Thanks
God Bless
what about digging it out? This is much cheaper than jacking. Usually you need only dig a channel where the ducting goes and the plumbing access is needed.
I have done this several times, sometimes it can be done from under the house, other times I roll back the carpet, lift up the subfloor and take it out through the house and then replace the subfloor.
[addsig]
Well, back when I was but a lad of 12 my father bought this old farmhouse (1820's) that had the same situation. I can tell you how he delt with this situation. He made me crawl back in there and run the duct on the grounds that I was young and skinny and didn't need much space. If you don't have a skinny 12 year old available. I'd agree with the others, probably cheaper to dig it out than to jack it up.
Just curious, why not run it in the attic?
my 2 thoughts are is the house in bad enough condition where cutting the sub floor out in strategic places would be cheaper, or can you skip the HVAC and still sell at a reduced price that still nets higher after you deduct for the expensive HVAC work?
Quote:
On 2005-01-14 09:56, bgrossnickle wrote:
Just curious, why not run it in the attic?
BGross,
That was my same exact response when I got the HVAC estimate. The problem there is that on the lower level, there are two steps leading up from a sunken living room. These two step-ups are creating 7' kitchen & dining room ceiling heights. In order to offset this, the original owners used 2x6's in the ceilings instead of 2x8's which makes it nearly impossible to run ductwork in these ceilings.
The floor decking aren't in that bad a shape. As a matter of fact, the investors before me had started some renovating, and installed new floor boards in the kitchen. But I don't care how good a shape the floor boards are, I think I will be removing them as opposed to jacking the house. Not to mention, there is a cracked drop beam that needs to be replaced as well that I am assuming can be repair/replaced once the floor decking is removed. Any thoughts??
How many estimates have you gotten on the plumbing and hvac?
What size is the house?
I would get a few more estimates and see if you can get the price down.
Depending on your dropped girder height, could not the Hvac Contractor run his main truck line along the girder and branch off from there into the cavity of the floor joist?
$8000 seems high.............new hvac system (2 - 2.5 ton - 12 seer) cost me about $3800.
In regards to the girders.....look at sistering addtional 2x 8 or 10's...whaterver your girder is.....and nailing and bolting them together.
If the girder is less then 12 inches fromt he ground it should be covered or treated.
Joist requirements are typically 18" before requiring to be treated.
There is a supply company out of Charlotte that teaches you to do your own hvac system...........since this house is in your name.......you might want to look at that.
NC_Yank
shamund,
At $8000, it might also pay to look at running a high-speed distribution system through the attic. The ducts are small hoses, 2 or 3 inches in diameter.
It tends to be more costly than standard HVAC, but, gee, it might compete with $8000...
[addsig]