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Re: Sinking cottage

To: Brian Kennedy <kennedybc@mediaone.net>
Subject: Re: Sinking cottage
From: Trevor Boicey <tboicey@brit.ca>
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 17:13:09 -0400
Brian Kennedy wrote:
> 
> My neighbor has a cottage on a slab that's been 'sinking' for the last 60
> years or so. The slab is broken and they've used scraps of wood to provide a
> 'level' floor which is now above the sill plates. The slab is now about 6"
> below grade and every thing is pretty well rotted. He can't afford to tear
> is all out and redo it properly. His latest thought is to dig out around the
> outside and just fill it in with cement to stabilize the mess. He's also
> thought about raising the wall a bit and replacing the sill plates with
> treated lumber.

  My dad did this when I was younger, so I might be a little
short on details.

  However, our cottage had this problem in a way, it wasn't sinking
but it was balanced on very flimsy stacks of rocks, and wasn't
high enough to withstand the floodwaters.

  So my dad jacked the cottage up with a lot of jacks, then
dug holes and put concrete posts down beneath the frost
line.

  Then he put steel I-beams across the concrete, and set 
the cottage back down on it. So now it's a cottage, sitting
on 4 or 5 I-beams, sitting on 8-10 concrete posts with
about 18 inches above the soil and about 6 feet beneath.

  This might require that the cottage has at least a little
bit of torsional stiffness. Having to lift in simultaneously
in any more than say, 8-10 places might be difficult.

-- 
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
"The dog doesn't like pickles." - Tyson Sherman

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