My house is a 38 x 22 foot ranch house built in 1953; we have owned it
for ten years.

We are on high ground by Ann Arbor standards.  However, there is water
on the basement floor after a heavy rain.

The basement is built of concrete blocks.  There are cracks, growing
gradually in severity over the years, on all four basement walls.  The
cracks are vertical at the corners, horizontal along the walls.  At
one end of the house, the wall is bowing inward noticeably.

One noted local contractor told us we needed to hoist up the house,
tear out the basement, rebuild it from scratch, and attach the house
to the new basement.  He offered to do this for $50,000.

Of course that doesn't include the cost of moving or replacing our
relatively new furnace, hot water heater, and circuit breaker box,
disconnecting and reconnecting the plumbing, re-landscaping the yard,
etc.

Friends of ours who had to do this with a much larger and older
2.5-story house spent a total of some $100,000.

A second contractor recommended a different strategy.  He would tear
out a couple feet of the basement floor on all four sides, install new
footing drains, and replace that part of the floor.  He would also
install 21 vertical 4-inch I-beams along the basement walls to
preclude further movement.  He offered to do all this for $16,100, and
guarantee a dry basement for a lifetime, transferable to future
owners.

What do Pinheads think?

                                                          Larry

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Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
Washtenaw County Clerk & Register of Deeds, http://ewashtenaw.org
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor, MI 48106

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