Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum banner

Increasing 1st floor ceiling height of an existing home

40K views 42 replies 12 participants last post by  wasdifferent  
#1 ·
I have a client that wants me to do a renovation on their home and one of the things that they want me to do is increase the height of their first floor ceiling. Apparently, they have heard of contractors jacking up the second floor, adding steel beams to reinforce everything, and then setting the second floor down on the beams. It is a 2 story colonial in New England. Has anyone ever heard of this technique? Cost?
 
#6 · (Edited)
JDT1,
You have a PM. It contains the names of 4 contractors in your area that do this kind of work.

At the bottom of the first page of my web site are pictures of a similar type job. I've managed several of them. They're a blast.

What is the square footage of the house? How many chimneys/fireplaces are there? What kind of siding do you have? Any brick on the exterior walls?

I wish you were closer, I love doing these jobs.
 
#11 ·
Ted's $0.02:

It might be cheaper to raze the top half of the house and rebuild it.

The other option might be to lift a couple of floors on the second level that sit above the dining and living room areas. This is more attainable being that most of the electrical and plumbing lines are run between floor via the perimeter or the center of the house.
 
#16 ·
For the Jersey shore area, the usual cost of the lift itself has been in the 14-18k range. That's just for the lift company to come out to jack and lower the house. The cost to put it all back together will vary wildly and depend on what the architect specs. We had one job where we ripped the second floor off and had to run 12" paralams around the entire perimeter. The plumber loved that one...

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk