How to Jack up a House – [9 easy Steps]

Many people will find it a very stupid idea, but a dream of some foolish people, and they will never try this out, but it is a very creative idea for some people, and they would love to try it on their house.

How to Jack up a House

It is a good way to level up your house and solve all your problems, but this might be very dangerous as well, and your little mistake can cause huge damage to your home. So. we will tell you how easily you can lift your house in the nine steps.

Find structural engeenier

It is the first step you need to find a good structural engineer because this is a very technical task, and consulting with a good structural engineer would give you a way to proceed further in this process. Otherwise, it would be a very hard task for you to do it yourself and make your house’s condition worse.

Find the middle of the house

This task might look very simple to you, but it is not that simple, but we will give you a very simple way to do it. Take a string, tie it with the block, put it in one corner of the house, take another string, and put it in the other corner. Now you should measure the distance of that string from the foundation.

Lowest position

It might be very hard to measure every inch, but you have to do it, and by doing this, you will get the lowest part of your house mark that part because that is where you need to lift your home.

Temporary support

Now when you have the lowest point, what should you do? You need to give it good support from the ground level, and that you can do by making a vertical layer of some concrete or wooden blocks.

Hydraulic Jack

Now you need a hydraulic jack under your house, and then you need to jack your home; when you see that the house is moving, put some blocks in the middle of the house.

Raise the lowest position

So, now by jacking, the lowest position of the house would be raised to the level you want to raise it; now, you need to remove the jack and support the part with some wooden block; this might be the hardest task. You need to do it very carefully; otherwise, your whole house can collapse.

Check your home

When you are done doing this, visit your whole house and try to find out the problems created by this home movement in your home. There might be some little things out of place or worse conditions; you might see some cracks.

Repeat

Now repeat the process from where you want to lift the home and give their temporary support.

Permanent

Now when you are done doing this now replace all the temporary supports with permanent wooden supports. Congratulations, you are done lifting your house.

Why should you select a Professional?

Why should you select a Professional

Jack up your home by yourself is a very foolish thing, and you should never try it because you might have done it perfectly once, but that does not make you a professional so, there are many problems that you can face. Here we will give you the reasons to select the professional.

Experience

The professionals are the experts who are doing it for many years. They know very well how to do it and how not, but you are doing it the first or second time, and you are trying because you have watched some cool youtube videos and read some articles, and you think you are an expert, but the thing is you are a foolish person.

Insurance

The other reason to select the professional is that if he has done something wrong with your house, he has an insurance paper that would give you a sense of safety, but what do you have if you do something wrong. The remaining of your ruined home that you have demolished with your hands.

Tools

The third reason is the professional’s tools because he does this shit daily, but you are doing it once in five or maybe ten years, and you think you are better than the expert. No, bro, you are nothing more than foolish. The professional has spent thousands of dollars on the tools and equipment to lift the house so he can do way better than you.

Permits

When you are going to jack up your house, there is a permit that you need, and that might cost you around $500 to $1000 according to the place and city you are living so when you are paying this amount, the least you can do is to hire a person who can give you guarantee that he will do it better.

Otherwise, if you do it yourself, you might end up with a great mess so, the permit fee and your home repair damage you have to bear both.

Slow work

The one more reason that you should hire a professional is that he would be more fast and perfect than you and if you are doing some work in a whole day he might take only two hours and do your work because he does it daily and he knows how to do it perfectly.

But on the other hand, you mi, so take two hours to think that I should start from here. This thing can also be the opposite: you might think that the person I watched on youtube was doing it very fast, so let’s do this fast and then damage your house.

Safe

If you are living in a jungle, then you are trying to lift your house; then it’s ok because in the jungle you can’t damage anybody if something happens, but if you are in the city and then doing the jack-up process by watching the youtube videos and going through some articles then you are making the lives of you neighbors in danger.

They can sue you for this, and then you will be in great trouble so, the best way is to hire a professional and let the experts do their job. You can see them from some distance but don’t do this yourself; it is not safe to try.

Summary

We explained all the steps in our article on how you can lift your house with the help of a jack and then put some wooden or concrete block under that to give your home support. You can repeat this method in the other places of your home where you want to lift.

However, we won’t recommend you do this thing yourself because there are many problems that you can face, so hire a professional person for this task and see them working on your home from some distance.

If you find this article useful, share it with your friends, and if you have any questions regarding this topic, you can ask us in the comment section below; we would love to reply to you.

FAQ’s

How do you jack up a house to level it?
The first thing you can do is analyze your house from where it needs to be lifted. We’ll recommend you hire a good structural engineer for this task; he can do you better or hire a team of professionals for this task; that would be a great and safe option for you.
What to use to jack up a house?
If you need to lift the house then you need some special equipment like the jack. You need to analyze the bottom part of your home and where you think the level up is needed, put the jack there and lift it; then, you need to put some wooden blocks to support your home to stay at that place.
How much does it cost to jack up a house?
This thing might depend on your state or city where you are living, but in general, it will cost somewhere around $20000 to $100000, and this might increase or decrease according to the space of your house, and you also need to get the permit that would be an additional cost of $500.
Can you jack up a house yourself?
Yes, many stupid people might think that by watching youtube videos and reading some articles, they can lift their house independently, but this is not good, and we will recommend you go with someone professional.

 

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