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Elizabethfarrar · Jul 18, 2011, 08:28 AM

The cottage seems to be listing forward now. And the front pylons are leaning.

smoothy · Jul 18, 2011, 09:50 AM

You need to find and hire a contractor qualified on repairing foundation issues, before it gets worse and thus even more expensive.

You aren't going to be doing this yourself.

ma0641 · Jul 20, 2011, 05:03 PM

Are we talking about a 45 degree brace to a cantelever? Are you in CA, on a hillside? Sounds like a dangerous situation. I'd be careful about living there. If one suppoprt pylon has cracked, the other is most likely overloaded and could fail. Get immediate engineering attention.

ballengerb1 · Jul 20, 2011, 08:52 PM

First get out of the house and stay out. Pylon is not what you need to be saying, maybe a peir or concrete pillar. How many are there and can you post a picture? This will require equipment that can lift the weight of the home to repair so start looking for house movers or structural engineers in your area

Elizabethfarrar · Jul 21, 2011, 05:34 AM

Thanks to everyone who responded. My cottage (cabin) is 12 by 20. The back cement pillar on the end is the one that has cracked and split. The other five are still good but are listing to the front. The cabin is on flat land on a lake in Canada. Could I use two jacks, one on either side of the cracked cement pillar, and replace it?

ma0641 · Jul 21, 2011, 12:34 PM

Elizabeth, now that we know it's not a pylon but a pillar, you can sleep a little better. Hope our initial answers didn't scare you too much. 240 sq. ft at an average of 50#/sq. ft. is 12,400# or roughly 1 ton per pillar. Depending on the pillar size, @ 12X12 = 1 ton per pillar. You have 6 pillars, guessing 1 at each corner and 1 each in the middle of the 20'span. A lot therefore depends on the bearing weight of the soil. You probably get a lot of frost heave so it's hard to determine. Adding screw jacks, 2-3 ton would help relieve the pressure on the cracked pillar. To be really safe, you would need to dig to the frost level, 4ft? and then build a footer and new pillar for support.

Elizabethfarrar · Jul 22, 2011, 08:57 AM

Now that I think about it (I haven't really looked under there for years) there are three down the middle as well so that makes nine altogether. I hope we can use two jacks and then replace the pillar. Thank you.