Foundation support advice needed

5 years ago

We need some advice on the best way to move forward with repairing the rotten wood in a crawl space and under the front porch of our home. I have attached pictures for reference and will describe the situation below.

The home was built in 2008. The majority of the house sits on a basement with poured concrete walls that extend up about 1' above the soil. However, the front room that you see in the photo below is a crawl space. The builder used plywood as the backer under all of the stone veneer (which also has direct contact to the ground). Of course all of the plywood is completely rotten at this point.

See crawl space photo below.

There is a small concrete slab poured that the front joist and studs are sitting on, but the ground level in the front of the house is higher. We know that we need to replace all of this, but are unsure if we need to pour a footer, lay cinder blocks first, or something different before we rebuild it.

Also, what is the best way to support the load bearing exterior wall while we replace all of the wood?

I have seen recommendations from building a temporary similar wall inside and working from the outside to using jacks.

At this point, we have decided to remove the stone veneer from 3 sides of the home and just go back with hardieboard siding. If anyone has any advice or recommendations regarding that, we welcome that as well.

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Comments (4)

PRO
PPF.
5 years ago
Not the type of project that works well with crowd sourced DIY instructions.
klem1
5 years ago
What he ^^^^ said. I suggest hiring a pro then cut your own hair to recoup expenses.
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DavidR
5 years ago
I could be wrong, but to me it looks like some previous owner enclosed a nice generous front porch and made it into a mud room or foyer, but didn't quite know what he was doing. You might find that the easiest and most practical (if not economical) fix is to demolish it and replace it with a new deck or porch.

I agree with the others. This isn't something I'd tackle myself. It's one of those cases where you need a really experienced and capable contractor (and probably a structural engineer). And, unfortunately, a sizable savings account. :(
Mule Meat
5 years ago
It can be done.

Looks like a reworked/re-purposed porch that used 4x4 treated post for the foundation.

It appears as if the 2x4's were just used to hold the plywood skirting.

If this is the case. A steel I beam or 4x4 post could be slid under the joist behind the wall (back about 24" from the outside wall. Cribbing and jacks then used to raise the room slightly (enough to remove all of the wood) and support the room.

Now it gets expensive..

Trench it for a concrete footer to be poured.

Lay block, cap block and Ground contact treated 2x8 on top of it for the wall to be lowered onto.

Remove the beam and cribbing.

It takes a person in the know, some careful planning and measuring in order to get the room to sit level on top of the new foundation once lowered onto it.

Only people that should tackle such a project are ones that work in the concrete and block laying industry with experience in constructing block foundations.

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And to add>> >> If you jack a room or house up enough to remove the old foundation and install new. Some sheetrock damage on the inside walls may occur and should be expected..