D.I.Y
if you can
House raising and renovating
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This is the timber house that the owners have decided to raise re-stump and renovate, they also want to enclose it, so that they can have the laundry the garage and a few more rooms under the house.
These are works in progress; now, in order to understand fully what this photo is about you need to read also the text. Anyhow, here the steel beams have been set in place and bolted to the timber bears of the house. Because these steel beams can carry more weight at a longer distance, some of the post would be eliminated.
More works in progress; this photo was taken after the house was raised, the old stumps removed and the new stump foundation dug. There is indeed a lot of work involved, and only people with the know how and with a large gang of worker should attempt to do these works; just look at those big stack of timber that they use to hold the house safely up, while to work is being done under the house.
House raising and renovating
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House raising and renovating
Dear readers, in our last posts we have
talked about stairs repairs or renovation and also fixing an old timber landing,
of course there are lots of other things that need to be done on a timber building,
so, in this post we would like to start talking about how to renovate a house.
There are lots of things that could be
done to renovate a house, some of those things can easily be done from the
owners themselves if they know how to use a paint brush, a hammer and a saw and
a few other tools, they don’t need to be very expert at it ether, since they
can take their time and learn as they go on doing the job, after all if they
make a small mistake nobody will say anything, as there is nobody to answer to,
so try to do some D.I.Y work sometimes, you will be proud you did, you see I
did and every time I see what I have done, I am proud about it.
As we all know,
the timber houses of Brisbane Australia and also in other parts of the world
need more maintenance than other types of building, therefore most people when
there is a lot of maintenance to do they try to renovate. There are times when
altogether the owners decide that they are going to raise the house higher and
build another room or two underneath, this might sound strange in some
countries that have only masonry houses, but with timber houses it could be
done easily and it is very common, in fact timber houses I would say that they
are the most versatile houses of them all. You see you could even move the
entire house from one place to another; of course this should be done from some
experts that specialize in house renovations or removals, as this requires a
lot of know-how and a lot of very heavy equipment, but anyhow it could be done
and the outcome of it is that it would be cheaper that building a new house
from scratch.
Now that I have
introduced the idea of what could be done with these timber houses, let us
follow one of these houses that the owners have decided to raise it higher and
build a few rooms underneath. You see the house needs restumping, as some of
the original wooden stumps are rotting away, perhaps one or two have been eaten
from the white ants, the house is too low to make decent rooms underneath, at
the moment it is high enough to park a car and to store a few things, but all
that covered space could be put to better use if the house is raised, So, we
need to think how that could be done safely and according to the local building
requirements, as they may vary in different country or states.
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The local building laws
The local
building laws here in Brisbane Australia allows the owners to fix the houses,
replace the stumps and other things without consulting them, as long as there
are no changes to the structure of the building, so, one could change the
stumps replace any timber that is rotting away outside as well as inside and
even carry some minor alteration inside; for most people that is enough freedom
to carry on the works themselves, or employ a tradesman to do the job, but in
this case of wanting to raise the house and fully enclose underneath the local
authorities require the owners to submit a plan of the works they want to carry
out.
Once you start
with plans and everything else you know that these sorts of works are going to
cost a lot, so before you make you last decision make sure you have a fair idea
what they could cost you; you could ring a few firms that specialize in these
sorts of work and hope that they are willing enough to give you a very rough
estimate. Another way is to stop by where they are doing some similar works and
ask the contractor or the owner what is going to cost them. Anyhow you need to know
what it could cost you, even if it is a very rough estimate.
You have worked
out what it could cost you and have decided to go ahead and do the job, so look
for a firm that makes these plans, unless you have a qualified person that you
already know, after that just tell the person you have chosen to go ahead and
make the plans for you, they should be able to tell you what the plans would
cost, and also they could give you an idea of the cost and a few other things
that you may have to do.
Once you draftsman
or architect has made the plans and they have been approved from the local
authorities, it is time to have a few quotes from some builders or contractors,
some people suggest that you get at least three quotes, and I think that it is
the right way to go. After that you can chose who is going to do the job for
you. You could decide this easily if you know somebody in this sort of work, if
not go for a firm that is really specialized in raising and restumping houses.
Now all the
decisions have been done, you have this firm that is coming to do the work, in
most cases you have to move out of the house for a few days for them to raise
the house and restump it. Here we need to point out that you need to have
chosen a firm that has good tradesman and enough of them to do the job quickly,
most of these firms know that and they are ready to do your job as quickly as
possible.
So you are
ready to move out as soon as they need you to move, and now you are waiting for
them to turn up, so let us see what happens when they are raising the house to
restump.
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Raising the house
These firms
that raise the houses and also move them have a lot of heavy equipment, in our
case that we have only to raise the house and restump it, and later on enclose
it to make a few more rooms, and also a second bathroom and laundry, they are
not going to use the big lorries to take the house away, but still there is a
lot of work to do. In this hub we are going to follow the works in progress the
best way we could, just to show you how this could be done easily, as long as
the right people with the knowhow and the right equipment are employed.
Anyhow the
house remover team has come to do the work; they start by reinforcing the house
with steel beams attached to the bears of the house. Then they make two rows of
these piles made from squares block of timber as shown in the picture beside
here, they place across these square timber piles or columns two long steel
beams one on each side right through the house, they put these big jacks under
this steel beams three or four of them on each side depending how long is the
house is and they start working the jacks up. They work as a team and they all
pump the Jacks up all at the same time, first on one side of the house and then
on the other side of the house.
Once the house
is raised to a certain level, they pack more timber on these square timber
piles and work a way how to move the jacks to a higher level, once they have
done that they start pumping the jacks up again, they will repeat this
operation several times until the required eighth of the house is reached.
Now that I have
told you all that, it does not sound that hard to do it, but in reality it is,
because there is no room for mistakes, as a single mistake may put in endanger
the workers that carry out this dangerous and hard job, because they are under
the house while they are raising it. Also to do it, whoever does it needs a lot
of material, see the large piles of timer columns made up from these large
pieces of timber, they have to carry it around from job to job, not only that
but also the large steel beams that they place under the house, so that they
can use the jacks to lift the house, and all those jacks and other things.
Anyhow the team that raises the house has successfully raised the house to the
right level, and checked that the house is level, so now a different job needs
to be done, to replace the stumps with steel columns, and then there are a lot
of other things to do as well.
Now that they
have reached the stage to restump the house with steel columns, sometimes are
the same people that continue to do this job and sometime another team might be
required depending how this firm or builder works, and we will explain here
under, what usually would happen.
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Earth work and steel columns
In this case
under this house all the timber stumps had to be removed, and also, there was
an old concrete floor that had to be completely removed and taken away, then
the foundations for the steel stumps were dug, after that the steel stumps were
fixed to the timber bears and the concrete poured after making sure that the
building was level and at the right level. While the concrete is setting and
becoming stronger as the time goes by, a steel worker is making these steel
braces in a few places, as it is shown on the plan, these braces attach two
columns one to the other, one end of the brace is attached near the bottom of
one column and the other end at the top of the other column, a second brace is
placed in the opposite way, so that the braces form like an X, this bracing
makes the two columns very strong, because it transfer the strength of the
concrete foundation of this column to the top of next column, in a lineal way.
After a day or two when the concrete
foundations become strong enough to take the weight of the house and also the
stress of any movement of the house above; the house remover will come back to
remove their jacks, their steel beams and their piles of timber, then the house
will be fully on the new steel columns.
Once the house remover team has taken
away all their heavy equipment, the builder will come in and start by digging
the rest of the foundations and concreting them as required; and then they work
out of to lay a concrete slab under the house, of course this is a very short
description of all the works required.
Anyhow this post seems that is becoming
too long, so see you in our next post, where we will try to describe what could
happen next.
See you soon.
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