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/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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861457 No.861457 [Reply] [Original]

Hi /diy/. I need opinions or advice or past experiences or something if that's not too much to ask.
>Buy 60 acres of land to build my future house, mostly woods with a couple grown-over fields.
>Hiking in the woods one day and find what looks like an old path, follow it, leads to what looks like a small barn or very small old house. It totals 416 square feet in the form 3 rooms in one story. Windows busted out, no door, plaster falling off walls, etc. But the heavy timber framing is in great shape and the slate roof surprisingly isn't leaking at all despite being covered in vegetation.
>Contact the gentleman I purchased the land from, he said he was aware of it but didn't think it was still standing. He thinks it used to be some kind of outbuilding as part of a farm in the area many years ago.
>Thrilled that I got a surprise building, plan on fixing it up into a little party shack/cabin/whatever
>After much trail clearing and a few days of cleaning it up, I notice the floors are unlevel so I have my brother (framing inspector) look it over. He said it will need extensive slate repair or simply a new roof. Said the walls are fine enough but its sandstone foundation is badly deteriorated and worsening, and recommended I replace the foundation before any work is done. Yet he wasn't aware of any contractors within the county who specialize in such work.
>I for one thought the foundation just needed some new mortar but I guess his diagnosis explains the unlevel floors. (It has a 6' ceiling dirt floor basement)
So basically I've got this little old house that I really want to fix up but needs a new foundation otherwise it won't last very much longer. What do I do now? Is this something I can do with a few buddies, house jacks and a hired stonemason? Or do I need to reach out to neighboring counties to pay an arm and a leg for professionals to do it? I'm at a loss and really don't want to see my little old building fall over.

>> No.861459

No idea, but bumping for interest. Got any pictures, op?

>> No.861462

>>861457
>foundation is badly deteriorated and worsening
this can mean a million fucking different things so without more information like land condition and actual pictures we cant really say anything

>> No.861463
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861463

>>861459
Unfortunately I've never taken any pictures of the building itself but I'll see if I can't get any in the next few days if this thread's still up. Here's some more details about it to make up for lack of pics- One big room that measures 16x16, and it has two lean-to rooms that measure 8x12 and 8x8. The pitch of the roof over the big room is 6:12 and the lean-to rooms look roughly 4:12. It must've had a woodstove in it because there's a stone hearth in the corner of the big room and there was a rotten pile of stovepipe laying on the ground outside. Pic related is some rotten oak siding I pulled off it and took to my father's house to be made into firewood

>> No.861464

>>861462
Like there's huge cracks in between the stones on all walls, and one wall is kind of caving in i.e. towards the basement. It's at the bottom of a very steep hill on one side but the other sides slope away from it. (Wall closest to steep hill is the one that's caving) Shockingly there's not much mold, and it's in SE Ohio if that means anything

>> No.861465

>>861457
It might be better just to salvage what you can from it. Half the slate tiles, and some good lumber for something that wasn't expected is good.

>> No.861468

>>861464

Its probably subsiding underneath, does not sound like it was very well built or built to last, better off using it as firewood but dont bring it near your house unless you want rot to spead

>> No.861472

>>861464
yeah i agree it sounds like a lost cause because you will have to demo everything and rebuild the retaining walls aka rebuild everything anyway

otherwise you have a trap waiting to kill any moment you never know

>> No.861477

mayb you just need to do some underpinning.

some thing you would be able to talk to a ground worker about.

but that plus a new roof then some repairs inside might not be worth it.

>> No.861549

You'd basically need to blow beams underneath sill plates, and lift house up and off current foundation. Then build new retaining walls in its place. This is not simple work. Alternately, something that small you may be able to pick up with a bunch of guys, 50 of them, and carry to a newly poured slab foundation or such.

I'd carefully remove the slate and recover the roof with asphalt diy.

>> No.862756

>>861457
Just out of curiosity

How much did 60 acres of land cost you?
And what country is it in?

What you've bought sounds fantastic and I'd love to do something similar myself one day. Best of luck with your new Land.

>> No.862787

>>861457
I'd take tons of pictures, and carefully tear down everything so you can basically rebuild it with the usable original parts. on a new foundation. if you want to keep it original.

what I would personally do. knock it down, and build a new fresh timber framed party shack. and build it to last the next 200 years...

>> No.862840

>>862756
wondering this aswell, looks like I can get 60 acres in the middle of nowhere in Idaho for 165k, and theres a 40 acre property with ranches and a home for 370k.

>> No.863083

is the foundation build of sandstone blocks?

>> No.863437

>>862756
>>862840
Not the OP, but he said he was in Southeastern Ohio.

I live in West Virginia, right on the Ohio river.

A piece of property like that would be $60K to $400K.
Depending on where it's at, water features/access, roads, existing structures, mineral rights, ... a whole bunch of things.

Based on his description, though
>mostly woods with a couple grown-over fields
It's probably somewhere in the $60K to $100K range.

>> No.863454

>>861457
In my experience in New York , you'd have to end up hiring someone to raise the house on a hydraulic setup which would cost around 40-50. Thousand and have someone else pour a new concrete foundation underneath and have the house reset on the new foundation. The issue comes in when the remaining frame work suddenly is exposed to being now on a truly square base which could lead to walls buckling and floors separating or ceilings sagging. The process itself would probably end up costing you around 100,000 here but I'm sure ohio's contractors are cheaper. It'll up to you in whether or not the work is worth saving the cabin

>> No.863836

>>862840
>>863437
>>862756
where the fuck do people get money for this shit

>> No.863955
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863955

>>861457
get the vegetation off the roof before it destroys it.

>> No.863958

>>863836
Jobs. You do work and people just give you money every couple of weeks. Sometimes they even pay to keep you healthy so you can work better. Crazy, I know.