Quote for raising house and building underneath

OK. I rang ACERT - the phone number you listed is the fax actually - real phone number is 07) 32563077

They suggested.
1) see a draftsman / architect to get plans drawn up
2) the drafstman will have a good idea of whether or not you will need town planning approval
3) if necessary (cross fingers that its' not) town planning approval may take many weeks and add $5K to process.. yuk.
4) lastly - submit draftsman's plans with engineers approval to Certifier. They will issue Council approval and building approval.

Does this sound correct?

that's correct, refer earlier post of where to start, I've listed contact for CDS (Contract Design staff) cheers Paul

This is all very interesting - I've enjoyed reading your bits and bobs.

Do any of you have renovation blogs, which we can have a look at???

Cheers,
Lotte

Hi no blogs, not that internet savvy!
we just had the slab done, ended up with a bunker, blewout to $24200, won't fall down!
Currently sourcing quotes on building under using hardwood weatherboards, vj imitation sheeting etc. By the way we went with Budget House raising for the lift, these guys are very professional and did the job on time, no internal cracks! Good welding and all in all very pleased!

We're having some finance problems at the moment. We've just gotten a $40,000 top up on our home loan to do rear and front decks plus roof (roof is expensive as the two old roofs need to be removed - one of which is asbestos), Yesterday, I found out that we really should be restumping the place before we do anything else. So I rang around to get quotes, but both restumping mobs I spoke to are saying that the front of the house (only 40cm off the ground) is in the too hard basket, and that we should raise the house instead. ARGH!!!

The house is reasonably sized for a post war (about 150m²), and with a bit of rejigging the interior, easily goes from being 2 bed + study with one bathroom, to 3 bed plus bathroom & ensuite. Also the living area is reasonable. We are more interested in just doing a big deck off the back and a reasonably big one to the front.

Have any of you guys restumped without raising?

Cheers,
Lotte

Hey Lotte,
it costs bugger all difference to raise as against restumping (presume you'll replace stumps with galvanised SHS? the only extra costs are steel beams if required (to reduced number of posts and allow more room underneath) and the extra cost of the lengths of the steel posts which is only marginal. We had 43 posts including posts under a sizeable back decks and abouth 7 beams, we went up 1245mm at a total cost inc GST, bobcat/truck/excavator hire of around AU$29300. if your restumping definitely lift to at least legasl height (we went 2700mm) as then you always have the option of building under at some stage in the future. (PS you'll need plans done up if more than 20% of your posts need restumping anyway so may as well get all the renovations on the plan at the one time) Good luck!
Paul

I did get a price for restumping last year (without raising), which came in at $8,400, but I'm not entirely sure if that included stumping the front of the house which currently rests on a single brick wall.

I've got a guy coming on Monday to quote the restumping and I'll talk to him about raising the place. I just don't think the house would look right raised. It's L shaped - not your standard post war at all. I'll take some photos on the weekend and post them, so you can all see how ugly it currently is (and why I think raising may not be a good idea).

Cheers,
Lotte

What is 're-stumping'? It seems to be a mainly Victorian phenomenon. From what I gather, it's replacing the rotten timber house supports with other timber supports which will soon rot out.

Why can't you install brick piers or similar?

up here in the land of bananas and pineapples restumping means replacement with concrete posts, treated hardwood posts or galvanised SHS, the latter being the most popular!

Joinery arriving next week, rear stairs to be installed next week and builder starts underneath first week of January, good to be back on the rails!

Hi All, just an update, our builder is currently installing the cca treated hardwood weatherboards at the moment, about 50% done, we went for cca treated hardwood frame (the builder, plumber, electrician hates these let me tell you, but should keep any termites at bay and probably last a 100 years) the joinery looks nice and is all in place, had too allow $1500 for all the locks, catches etc for the windows and french doors and access doors, we used woodworkers for this gear, we've ended up going 2400 for the height as we would have had 3 exposed beams in a small area in the lounge if we wanted 2700 and this would have looked a bit odd, and apparently is bad Feng Shui if this makes any difference. I forgot to advise we used Budget House Raising (at wynnum) for the lifting, these guys did a great job, we took the option of 100mm gal rhs on the outside perimeter and under the deck as this gives the place a chunkier look, (75mm rhs were used inside which are hidden) I have seen houses lifted and put on 75mm all round and I think it looks a bit odd having a house sitting on 'skinny legs'. The plumber and electrician are currently working on the abode and then the builder will install the mdf vj boards. We have used sound proof batts (r1.5) and soundcheck gyprock boards to try ans minimise noise from upstairs, the plaster advised no matter what you do you will still hear heavy footprints from upstairs. We spent all of one weekend and anzac day priming both sides and edges of the weatherboards prior to application, went through 5 10L drums of paint, ouch $500 for this lot. Picked up a 3.3kW NEC reverse cycle aircon from the Good Guys for $700 so this will keep downstairs bedroom cool, still looking ok for our budget, will keep you posted!

Well as can be expected when renovating costs have blown out a bit but mainly due to deciding as you go along that other things may as well be done while the job is getting completed. We have now gone for 1 x bedrooms downstairs, 1 x large storeroom (ie bedroom size) with an internal laundry behind sliding shutter doors. Lighting and fans came to around $1800, throw in a 5000L colourbond watertank for $3200 (gov't should give 1/2 back) electrician wiring downstairs, install phone response alarm system and install lights etc add another $6000. One thing we did not consider was wetsealing the upstairs bathroom, add $400 plus tiles for upstairs and downstairs add $2000 plus a tiler $35 / sqm. Good news the soundcheck (soundstop) gyprock combined with r2.0 acoustic batts does reduce the sound of footsteps and noise from upstairs, well worth the extra bucks. The project is nearing completion, hopefully be end of June 07. Looking closer to 190k now, though we've gone the best in all the materials we could. Plenty more houses being raised locally, all going 75mm gal posts on the outside, definitely does not look as good!

Would love to see some photos of the job??

Matt

Thanks for the names Wyld. I'm in the preliminary stages stages of similar work in North-West Brisbane.

Following your post, I used Gary for the soil testing - great service although I did end up with a P classifaction due to a rotten hole over the future footings where a mago tree once stood.

I wish I could say the same for your certifier, useless they are.

And did you post some details on a cheap height serveyor? Want to post the details ?

You're right about houses springing up everywhere, one up the road was started and finished by a builder in what I remember was around 4 months and then there's one around the corner that is looking real similar to our design.

[Edit] .

Hi All, we used Simpson Raynor Surveys Ph 07 3899 8105. mmm, like to upload photos but not sure how to, any ideas?

I have just stumbled across all the progress reports & information from Wyld and would love to know where you are at now, as you mentioned you thought you would be finished late june. Ditto on seeing some photos of your hard work & dedication.
We are in the southport area on the GC and about to embark on a similar journey, so it's been excellent reading.
Hope all has gone well.
I don't recall you making any mention of how the original house structure coped with being lifted and if you needed to repair much. Is there much stress placed on internal walls, flooring, roof etc?
cheers

Hi Trae, the tilers are working downstairs as I write, paving the outdoor patio, downstairs bathroom and laundry. The electrician will finalise everything downstairs 26.06.2007 and our builder will finish of all the extras we got him to do such as built in cupboards, line under eaves etc. We got the electrician to in run a cat5 cable from upstairs where our broadband modem is to downstairs so we can have another broadband pc downstairs as well. We had a 7 week for the painter so now expect everything finalised end of july, this will make it just over 12 months since we purchased the house so definitely allow 12 months for the project, if you can send a private message (I don't know how to) with your email address will gladly send photos as I havent worked out how to upload them successfully on the forum, cheers Paul

Hi Trae,
just reread our post, we had surprisingly little damage after the lift, though I did happen to be there when one corner went up a tad quicker than the other 3 (the raisers use 4 x 30Ton Bottle jacks, thats it when raising) so there was a cracking noise at one point and I notice a hairline crack on the front fascia board which opened up a bit as the house was raised further, when the house was back on its 'legs' the crack closed (reminds me must putty that one, this will mean a pretty big ladder as its a long way up) we had a couple of hairline cracks in 2 windows but 1 or both may have already been there, there was no movement with the vj boards and all the windows and doors open the same, all in all a great job, prior to the lift you could feel movement in the house as you walked around as a couple of the posts were rotten/eaten by borers, now with the built in underneath the old girls as solid as a rock!, later wyld

Good update - I just checked into this forum to get who you used for house raising and found it back to the top. I've just got my structural plans so can get some better quotes for the major work.

At this point I have a million questions to ask having never undertaken any major renovation work - although I have worked on many commercial building renovations.

Do you mind if I shoot you a list of questions and see how you go answering as I'm sure there are others with similar.

Hi David, send your questions through, would love to assist, cheers Wyld