My son's frame one-story bungalow was built in 1920. The cinder-block foundation is cracking, the footers are probably bad, there's a lot of visible stress upstairs with cracks around door frames and windows and with plaster bulging in some spots.

What repairs would you suggest? -- jack up the house and replace the foundation? Sell as is and let the new owner tear it down and start over?

Is there any kind of financial aid for or homeowners insurance to cover something like this, if he chooses to repair/replace the foundation?

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

My son's frame one-story bungalow was built in 1920. The cinder-block foundation is cracking, the footers are probably bad, there's a lot of visible stress upstairs with cracks around door frames and windows and with plaster bulging in some spots.

What repairs would you suggest? -- jack up the house and replace the foundation? sell as is and let the new owner tear it down and start over?

Is there any kind of financial aid for or homeowners insurance to cover something like this, if he chooses to repair/replace the foundation?

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Good questions. A lot of the "Sell as is" depends on the value of the land if a new owner tears down and rebuilds. I don't know of any aid for this. I do know how to replace a foundation.

What I say to my customers is look at it this way. How much are you in love with the Location of your house which changes things. The other question is how long are you going to live here to build equity to offset the cost of a new foundation.

With out more details of the rest of the house it's a crap shoot. Cracks and crooked door jambs are very common in old houses.

Wondergirl, does he live near you, in DuPage? Several small towns NW of you invented in 1969 have problems like you describe. Foundation jacking is not cheap but can be done. If you sell the defect has to be disclosed and nobody is doing tear downs in the market. My neighbpor had his entire jome raised 1/2" caved in the foundation walls and built new ppoured wall, his only regret was he should have raised it 20" and poured a nice tall wall.

Hi bal what's a "jome" ?

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with fingers too big for theses keyboards

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Originally Posted by ballengerb1

Wondergirl, does he live near you, in DuPage?? Several small towns NW of you invented in 1969 have probloems like you describe. Foundation jacking is not cheap but can be done. If you sell the defect has to be disclosed and nobody is doing tear downs in the market. My neighbpor had his entire jome raised 1/2" caved in the foundation walls and built new ppoured wall, his only regret was he should have raised it 20" and poured a nice tall wall.

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Yes, he lives 8 blocks from me. It was my grandparents' house that they built in 1920 and moved into in '21. Only my family members have lived there. I bought it in 1995 so it wouldn't leave the family and sold it to my son in 2001 or so.

My son figures it would cost him $30,000 to $40,000 to jack up the house and pour a new foundation. He'd really like to stay there -- it's a perfect location in an established neighborhood and near shopping/town, walk to train and Dairy Queen :D, etc. He's wondering if there would be any financial help for this.

Is there anything he can do short of rebuilding the foundation?

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Originally Posted by 21boat

Hi bal whats a "jome" ?

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with fingers too big for theses keyboards

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I've typed a lot of term papers for guys over the years. Jome = home (The "h" and the "j" are next to each other on the keyboard.)

Wondergirl, thanks for the fix, yes I meant HOME. I will send you a PM with the name of the company that raised my neighbors jome.

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Originally Posted by ballengerb1

Wondergirl, thanks for the fix, yes I meant HOME. I will send you a PM with the name of the company that raised my neighbors jome.

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Thanks, ballenger. I'm here all day. I LOVE getting referrals!