Leveling An Old Foundation

KentWhitten

Our house is pretty old. It has the old granite blocks for foundation walls. It has sunk in one area probably about 3 inches. I really want to have the house burn to the ground completely, but..... LOL

I figure I'm gonna have to start with a level foundation first and I was wondering, being a concrete noob, is 3" too much for just plain mortar to fill? I'm assuming it is. Anything that might be easy to fill in some small voids with?

Then when I get this filled in, what do you guys suggest to match it in? I've seen that spray can of granite paint before.

ch0mpie

how about some pics. was the wall damaged by the settlement? are you doing this work just to fix the wall or are you adding on to the house?

jvcstone

Up there in your neck of the woods, you should be able to come up with a piece of a 2.25 or 2.5 inch thick slab of a matching granite. If it's only one area that needs to be blocked up, that is the way I'd go about it. See if there are any processing mills, or quarries still working--most have "bone yards" where material can be gotten inexpensively.

JVC

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John VanCamp
www.jvcstoneworks.com

boman47k

#" seems like a lot raise the house. What kind of damages are you anticipating? Drywall, roofing and decking, etc.? One of my houses has the same problem. The blocks drop a good 3" at least. I think this is the result of someone in years past closing the back porch in then just adding the block to replace pilings maybe. Improper foundation depth.

jvcstone

actually, 3 inches can be done, but it must be done over a few days, to allow everything to adjust. Learned that from This old House--the Austin TX show where the house was out of level 4 inches from front to back.

jvc

__________________
John VanCamp
www.jvcstoneworks.com

boman47k

I think I read somewhere through the yeyars something about 1/4" a day??

KentWhitten

Well, the house is circa 1850ish. It's damn old!. I'm assuming it just never had footing put in. I would post a shot, but we just got 11" of snow. I'm going to go over the whole house and jack it to tolerable levels at least. I just know one part is really low. It's visually low. I was guessing at 3". It will probably be more.

Back of my mind I remember something like that too, going slow jacking it up. I will be doing that!

boman47k

I think we have like situations.