[Mystriss]

I have a lot of "design" issues with the entire addition that was put on my house in the 80s (he believed.) The addition consisted of a sunken "family room" (we use it as a dining room) and a garage. I want to get rid of the "sunken" part but the ceiling's too low...

18 year old pic looking into the original kitchen from the now dining room - I want the "sunken" taken out of there so I can raise the sliding glass door up for a better height deck, also want to raise the garage (through door on right) to the same level as the kitchen and convert it into a laundry room/craft room because it's useless to me as a garage:

Here's the sliding glass door I want higher:

And this is the ceiling drop looking from kitchen into the now dining room:

Here's the exterior of the house on that side:

As to construction, the dining room has a 6' basement, I believe the cement brick foundation is 8' deep - it's quite solid, just survived a 7.0 quake centered 13 miles away without even a crack.

The garage's stem walls seem solid as well, however the slab poured far too thin so it's cracked in various places and heaved so it's actually sloped a bit toward the house.


Alright so given the following intentions, am I wrong to think that we'd be better off demo'ing this entire side of the house to the foundation and starting over?

I want a better covered back porch so my husband can grill in the rain/snow. It needs to carry a heavy snow load, so I kinda want to connect it to the house for stability and structure.

The intent was to get the garage slab mud-jacked this summer. In the near future (this summer or next) I want to thicken the slab about 6" then build a 2x10 sub-floor on top of it so it'll match the houses floor height.

Next summer we were hoping to build a new 2 car oversized in front of the current garage, it'd have a 10' ceiling vs the 8' 8" in the current garage. As part of that project the entire roof over there is slated to be completely redone; including replacing all the sheathing for spray insulation, and getting rid of the wood stove and old garage furnace roof vents over there. (Side/wall venting for the win.)

I kinda also want to extend the 2nd story over the garage/dining room, which currently would mean building some kinda doubled floor or whatever to match the existing existing upstairs floor height.

 

[Nealtw]

I would higher a crane to lift off the roof and set it aside.

Demo the garage front wall and lay down the side wall of the garage

Separate the dining room from the house, jack it up and raise the foundation so the floor matched the house.
Rebuild the garage, build the floor and walls above.
Bring the crane back to install the roof.

 

[Mystriss]

hmm my husband agrees with you, but I'm still dubious

 

[Nealtw]

hmm my husband agrees with you, but I'm still dubious

I saw one where the house owned buy the guy that owned cranes.

When we were driving to work they were setting up the crane and with 2 or 3 men working at something on the roof. Further down the road we passed a truck and trailer with prefabbed walls on it.

When we came home the crane was just picking up the roof to set it on the new second floor.

The next morning the roofers were there,

 

[sixeightten]

I would tear down and reframe. The crane idea sounds good, until you deal with it. Gonna be wires, insulation, and other issues with just lifting that. Two crane trips, falshing, etc, also come to mind.

 

[Nealtw]

I would tear down and reframe. The crane idea sounds good, until you deal with it. Gonna be wires, insulation, and other issues with just lifting that. Two crane trips, falshing, etc, also come to mind.

You just have to look at the cost of both and the quality of the structure.

I think trusses may be a requirement.



If you tear it down you have to deal with insulation and flashing?? :wink2:

 

[sixeightten]

You just have to look at the cost of both and the quality of the structure.

I think trusses may be a requirement.



If you tear it down you have to deal with insulation and flashing?? :wink2:

Yeah, but I only have to deal with them carefully 1 time. Trying to save stuff is a battle that I hate dealing with. That roof will also be in the way while you deal with getting everything else ready. We have contemplated going this route a few times, but after a short time considering it, we always tore it off.

 

[Nealtw]

Yeah, but I only have to deal with them carefully 1 time. Trying to save stuff is a battle that I hate dealing with. That roof will also be in the way while you deal with getting everything else ready. We have contemplated going this route a few times, but after a short time considering it, we always tore it off.

For a while in the 90s, my son worked in a few places across the country, in one area they would build the roof on the ground and set it on the house with a crane. Every house.

 

[sixeightten]

For a while in the 90s, my son worked in a few places across the country, in one area they would build the roof on the ground and set it on the house with a crane. Every house.

That is a whole different animal. We have craned up sections before, but never a whole roof. I have seen it done though. On a remodel like this, I doubt that it would save much money, if any. On the other hand, It will take up a lot of time, and be a big inconvenience at the very least.

 

[Nealtw]

That is a whole different animal. We have craned up sections before, but never a whole roof. I have seen it done though. On a remodel like this, I doubt that it would save much money, if any. On the other hand, It will take up a lot of time, and be a big inconvenience at the very least.

No what you are taking about is not enough planning.

 

[Nealtw]

 

[Mystriss]

This little disagreement helps me a bit in the decision process

See the new garage and the back covered deck "gazebo" thing would have to be tied into the roof/structure of the house, so I'm basically looking at all new trusses regardless if we just lift roof or not - and the shingles and sheathing are basically trashed so that's all gotta go regardless as well.

As to saving stuff... idk I might save the joists, solid 2x10's, but all the decking/sub-floor boards would be replaced.

The walls have really old insulation and no house wrap so def all the drywall, insulation, and possibly the exterior sheathing would be at minimum removed and recut, if not entirely replaced (so I can do the rigid foam exterior insulation thing to try to get R40 or whatever.)

The walls are 2x4 construction which is solid, but I'd much rather have 2x6 construction if at all possible so I think the cost of replacing those is not a big deal - when considering the benefits given Alaska weather.

The wiring in the walls is solid core (not aluminum) whereas we've been replacing a bunch of it with Romex cause it's so much easier to work with - plus I'd like to run 12/3 rather than 12/2 so I can do smart home stuff.

No plumbing inside the walls, we kinda don't do that on exterior walls up here because of freezing. The only plumbing over there is from the hot water heater that's run down through the bottom plate of the dining room into the basement, and four total hot water baseboard holes, which are just poked up through the floor, but I want baseboard replaced w/radiant anyway.

An of course, we'll have to reframe the existing two doors and ceilings entirely to get the ceiling height necessary as well - so whatever attic floor/truss system is up there would have to be modified for sure. (I've actually never seen either of the attics on this house, 20 years just never looked up there myself lol)