Any concrete mags out there?

Somtime in the future I'm looking to upgrade the foundation of our house. It's a perimeter batter-style foundation, probably original from when the house was built in 1920, which also means there is no reinforcement in there. If I upgrade, I want the foundation to be at least strong enough to hold 2 stories (the house is only 1 now), which means I need reinforcement in the foundation.

Does anyone know if I can just add on to the existing foundation, or do I have to (or maybe it's just easier) to do a replacement? I haven't dug down into the soil to see how deep the existing foundation is, but my guess would be a the new one will need to go deeper.

I have no problem designing and sizing the new foundation myself, I'm more thinking about the practical part of it all.

Cha ching! Hope the house is worth it. If you are looking at going up and re-doing the foundation, you might be better off just adding some steel columns. The problem will be getting the load down to the top of the foundation. Good luck!

Is it unreinforced concrete block? I'm not familiar with what a 'batter-style' foundation is....I'm more of a water and drainage and paving guy.

You could probably excavate the perimiter and dowel a new footing to the sides of the existing foundation, increasing your bearing capacity. What will be critical is that the area beneath any new foundation be thoroughly compacted, any differential settlement there could be problematic to say the least, but you probably know that.

I may need some more clarification, or probably just a fucking clue about foundations to really help, though.

wtf, is this the home and garden channel today?

anyway, goodluck.

edit: and what p4b said sounsd reasonable. dig some deep peirs, pour with conrete, reinforced of course, and set in your massive steel beams.
we did something like that on a new house we built on the side of a mountain in NC. 4x4 holes 6ft deep, think we had them spaced about 20 ft on the side adjacent to the downhill side

I think he means the bottom of the wall is wider than the top. A trapezoid in section.

world of concrete thread ;)

Batter style means the outside edge is vertical and the inside edge is inclined, making it wider at the bottom than the top. I pretty much know it's going to be expensive if I do this, I' just trying to get a grip on what my options are. Oh, and the foundation is countinous around the perimeter of the house.

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Originally Posted by runethechamp

Batter style means the outside edge is vertical and the inside edge is inclined, making it wider at the bottom than the top. I pretty much know it's going to be expensive if I do this, I' just trying to get a grip on what my options are.

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Roger that.

Tieing a new footing around the exterior sides could be a possibility, or maybe you should just buy a new 2-story house.

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Originally Posted by homerjay

Roger that.
or maybe you should just buy a new 2-story house.

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An option of course, but our location is pretty fucking hard to beat. Somehow I think I could get more for my money by upgrading the existing house than switching, but that's why I am trying to figure out my options.

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Originally Posted by homerjay

Roger that.

Tieing a new footing around the exterior sides could be a possibility.

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Friend is currently doing exactly that around and in places underneath his latest project in Seattle.

Three or four similar ones done already.

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Originally Posted by PNWbrit

Friend is currently doing exactly that around and in places underneath his latest project in Seattle.

Three or four similar ones done already.

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I would be very interested in hearing about this, specially since Seattle is earthquake zone, just like Berkeley.