There are many reasons to lift a house and further reasons to do it yourself. Everyone’s story differs a little in this respect. If you’re a lifter-to-be yourself, I hope these recollections experiences are of help to you.
Our reason for the lift was simple. We bought a home as a young couple in a beautiful remote valley of British Columbia, Canada. The 1910’s schoolhouse is built solid and has been an inconspicuous landmark of the valley for over a century. However, a schoolhouse is not a home, and previous owners only used it for summer vacations since it was a school.
The house we bought didn’t have a perimeter foundation. Cold air froze our feet as it circulated around the pipes in the cold snaps of winter. Temperatures, usually mild, dropped to -20C at times with fierce outflow winds. Despite single pane windows and uninsulated walls, 700 sq. feet of floor was where we lost all our heat.
Furthermore, we live in a valley with a history of flooding. Over the century of existence, the house was flooded only once in 2010. Pretty good given some properties have experienced many more floods than that in the last century. However, climate change creates a lot of uncertainty around the likelihood of future floods. Raising the house would allow us to put the main floor above historical 1 in 500 year flood levels.
I researched extensively online for information about the process as as I certainly had never done anything like this. Friends who’d lifted small cabins gave me recommendations. Overall the process seemed simple and attainable for a do-it-yourselfer like myself despite being no more than handy. Furthermore, our house was simple, just a box or large cabin. I estimate the house to weigh under 100 tonnes. If your house is quite big, L shaped, has many additions or is any more complicated than ours and you find yourself in the same research phase as me, I feel the need to caution you at this point. You may need to hire a professional. For us to hire an outside professional lifting company would mean paying a fortune as they would have to come a long way from out of valley to service our house. We did not have the financial means to lift the house professionally and so we decided that I would do it. It is also worth mentioning that our area does not have any building code obligations.
I sourced heavy duty i-beams to rent and they came with jacks. The jacks were mechanical jacks meant for railroad work. Some might have been older than the house. They were useless due to the lack of mechanical advantage or being to heavy to lift. Friends lent me 20 tonne hydraulic jacks that worked much better and were much easier to wield.
Prep work involved removing additions on the house first. Demolition! A deck, back entryway and front porch needed removal. Following that our chimney: a super tall cinder-block construct passing through the roof into the house and through the floor was sitting on the ground. Removal of this was tricky involving harnessed work on the roof with a hammer drill.
Next a backhoe operator came to dig trenches where our beams could be set. From there they would be slid under the house. Silt and sediment had built up under the house from the 2010 flood and this meant that I had to crawl under the house joist and dig a trench for the beam. I only had 6" of clearance in places from the joists so it was a tight fit for digging. The backhoe also dug 4 holes at the corners of the house where I would set up my jacks and cribbing under the beams.
The backhoe then loaded up the beams onto a hired trailer and worked to slide the beams into the trench and under the house. The beams were set to hold up the house about 16" inside of the exterior walls where most of the house load is sitting. The floor joists ran perpendicular to the beams and were supported by the beam.
With the beams in place I took time to prepare my cribbing pads and jacks. The ground substrate is a mix of sand, silt, gravel and old river rock. I didn’t need to add crushed rock but this may be necessary if you have soft ground. The house dimensions are 24'x30'. We had 34' beams and I would be jacking from the ends. Back up cribbing was to be set up under the house. The prep work took weeks and is very important. Everything needed to be solid. It’s crucial that these are set level so that the house doesn’t lean or travel in the jacking process. The cribbing blocks were 4' long 6"x8" mostly.
The base under the cribbing were old 1"x8" boards and plywood was set on top of this. The jack then sat on metal plates (flywheels) to disperse the weight to the wood. Various small pieces of wood and metal gave me shims to get the heights right. Due to my previous concern with hydraulic jacks over mechanical jacks, I always had my backup cribbing snug to the beam.
Keeping the house level in the lifting process is crucial. I used string-lines and levels that I checked continuously while jacking. I recommend a laser level or tripod builders level. If I were to do again I would purchase one for greater confidence.
Once I was sure that the house was solid on new base I cut the plumbing and the 1-man jacking race began.
The jacks had about 6" of throw or pistol height before it would max out. The first 3 or so inches would be wasted lifting the house’s weight off the wood. The wood would decompress giving me no lift. Given the beams were jacked from their ends, some flex would occur there also. The final few inches would finally raise the house. I made sure also to randomize the jacking so that the house wouldn’t travel. I was warned that as you jack, travel is possible, especially if things aren’t perfectly level. Despite my best efforts the house travelled a bit over 6" forward.
The process is very labour intensive. I don’t recommend doing it entirely alone as I did. I was reminded that a jack only applies mechanical advantage and if you want to lift a house five feet in the air alone, all the work has to come from myself alone. Furthermore there was a lot of wood to move around. Imagine 8 hours of low intensity gym workout every day over a week. The equivalent of raising over 8000 twenty pound dumbbells 5 feet up in the air. I would raise the house about 6" a day. The house also needs to be able to settle and relax after all that movement, any more in any given day isn’t ideal.
Once the house was high enough, the backhoe revisited. We were going to be digging a basement. This was one of the most stressful parts but I trusted the operator and with excellent delicate work he dug out 3 feet of earth at our basement level under the house.
With the base dug out, I placed a bunch of cribbing that would replace the pieces at the ends. It was a tight fit but these new piles would have to be clear of the foundation work.
The backhoe was back shortly after to dig out the perimeter.
With everything dug out. It was time to do the foundation work. My dad, a retired builder of many many years, graciously came out to help with this part of the project. Details for this section is limited. For information of ICF foundation building there is plenty out there. Here are more photos of the process.
We left notches cut out in the foundation that would allow the beams to slide out. The ICF build is something I would recommend. It’s very easy to put together and doesn’t require taking apart (which would be a challenge with the house levitating above).
The concrete pour was next once ready. This part was very nerve-wracking and challenging. Our area does not have a concrete pump within 500 kilometers and this makes things significantly harder. I also lifted the house to a bare minimum above the foundation height to keep things less tall. With the basement dug out the cribbing piles were over eight feet tall. This left only a narrow opening between the house and the foundation top available to pour concrete in. The truck chute just barely fit and we moved buckets of concrete for the pour. We had hired a crew to help and thankfully a friend came along to help. I hope for your sake that you have a concrete pump in your area future do-it-yourselfer; the concrete pour and bucket loads left me lying on ground waiting for my back to recover.
We waited about a week for the concrete to cure given we were going to be loading it quite suddenly. Once ready the house was lowered carefully. I tried my hardest to make sure the house would come down smoothly and square with how the foundation was established. Despite my best effort, the house rotated a bit on me.
With the house on its new solid foundation I could finally breathe a big sigh of relief. Soon we could reconnect the plumbing and return to living normally at home. At this point I got rid of all the cribbing from underneath the house and pulled the beams out with the use of the car, heavy duty straps and a come along. It’s at this point that if you’ve done a basement you should do a concrete floor. With the house now seated and only small opening where the beams once were, we could not pour concrete into the basement without a concrete pump. In retrospect a concrete ramp could have been built out of wood to slide concrete down into the basement. Instead I will be doing wood bricks like Victoria, BC’s Waddington Alley made out of the 6"x6" cribbing we bought for the job. These will sit on a vapour barrier, dimple board and plywood set down on a smoothen, levelled and packed dirt floor.
Finally, all that remained was to clean everything up. I applied membrane to the outside, the machine came back to fill in the earth.
Overall a great learning process and in my view a great success. Now we can continue to renovate the old schoolhouse piece by piece and keep the building upright for maybe another century. Drywall cracked as to be expected during the lift. As fall sets in, the house is already much warmer than before. The main floor is 3 feet higher than where it was previously set and flood proof from the biggest events. Yes our basement could flood now, but the storage was needed and it will be set to be flood proof.
If you’re reading this wondering about taking on this sort of project as I was, I hope this helps. The lift itself was about 2 months of working every single day with another month or more on either end of prep and finishing. Total project cost was about $15,000. It’s a daunting task; the consequences are high if things go wrong. If you’re reading this and a professional builder or house lifter yourself, I have opened myself up to critique with this post. Spew away if you must. Just know that there is often a difference between ideal and realistic. This article is a recollection of experiences of my spring and summer 2021 COVID house lift project. I hope you’ve enjoyed.