The cottage was built on a tent platform. There is a crawl space but no foundation
. The piers are brick and mortar or cement blocks spaced several feet apart and on the corners. The are some supports that have been added over the years.
. The piers are brick and mortar or cement blocks spaced several feet apart and on the corners. The are some supports that have been added over the years.
The poor foundation has led to sags and uneven floors.
There is a floor furnace which is affectionately referred to as an "Hibachi Heater" in the Campground. When it was installed, a hole was cut in the floor and the furnace dropped in. They left the floor joists hanging. This was more than 20 years ago. The
floor has sagged considerably over that period.
floor has sagged considerably over that period. The pictures in this posting show the floor furnace as well as some of the supports, One that you can see is actually a tree stump. There is also a picture of the side of the house showing one of the piers.
Kelvin Sims, a retired Facilities Director, came to the island to provide some technical support as we attempt to straighten things out. We began with the West side of the foundation. This is the left side as you face the house. We used two 20-ton bottle jacks to lift the sill. We also used some screw jacks we purchased from Ellis Manufacturing in Oklahoma City. There is a picture of the screw jacks that sopport the corner as the sill does not connect in the corner. We moved from the front corner along th
e side to the back corner. There is a picture of the pier near the back of the house that shows that we raised that section nearly two inches.
e side to the back corner. There is a picture of the pier near the back of the house that shows that we raised that section nearly two inches. The West wall is now nearly level. Now we need to move toward the center of the house as everything sags to the middle. We will need to dig some holes to pour some footings so we will be able to lift the middle. We will also add support along the length of the sill so that some of the rises and dips can be straightened.
Remember the cottage was built on a tent platform with 3"x4" timbers spaced 24" apart with a single 3"x4" timber down the center of the house. This leads to the rolling effect of the floor.
The crawl space is between 13" and 18" deep. It will make digging quite interesting. We will begin our excavating next week.
Nice job!!!
ReplyDeleteThe photos are great!!
Your cottage is pretty typical of the work that has to be done to keep them from collapsing!
Mike Mitchell