# Forum Home Renovation Structural Renovation  House Raising Brisbane - Where to start????

## joshuaand

Hi All, 
So we are keen to raise the house, and build in underneath. 
We will likely also slide the house forward, probably 2-3 metres. 
With a block that slopes from back to front, excavation will be required. 
I know someone who is a draftsmen who will do the designs for me for free, but she normally drafts power stations etc so I think she is not really knowledgeable on where to start, and neither am I. She is asking for dimensions etc. 
I guess my question is, where do I start, obviously I will need an engineer to work with draftperson to spec up right beams, do I need a surveyor to determine exact placement etc? 
Any help is appreciated!

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## ringtail

Yep a surveyor is a definite. You cant go closer than 6 mt from the front boundary without either a relaxation from council and / or consulting the QLD development code. First step is to get in touch with a house raiser. There are a few around - google. Meyers is pretty good but there are others. I suggest a drive through the flooded areas and look for signs on fences of raised houses. Some of the raisers have their own engineers that size all the beams etc.. but you will need a plan for the ground floor so a post layout can be sorted. I also suggest that you use a drafty that works in the construction industry or you will be chasing your tail regarding rules and regs and construction methods and materials. Lots of local laws to obey aswell. You also need to find a certifier and a builder or do the owner builder course if you want to do the work yourself or run the show.

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## tomas.souter

Hi Joshuaand,
i'm starting the same sort of thinking with our place in mitchelton, how is yours going? 
Seems like the first step i've found id decide if you really want to raise of not, if you do then everyone needs structural plans, this is used for approvals and accurate quoting. I'm still working on getting these done. 
Today I spoke to Don Simpson, he gets a big wrap on this site, who was able to give me a rough estimate sight unseen.  
So, for a 3BR on stumps with flat block he estimated:
-$7,000 Architect/drafty/engineer|council approvals|certifier
-$22-25,000 Lift|stumps|steel bearers
-$1,000 Site cleanup (removing old cement stumps etc)
-$7,000 Plumbing in slab & reconnetion of lifted fittings
-$13,000 new slab (based on 130m2)
-$3,000 electrical box relocation
-$1,000 Temporary stairs 
TOTAL $54-57,000 
After this you obviously will have additional costs with building in underneath and fitting out the rooms but i've found it hard to get a basic price so thought this might help. let me know if you have any more details on your job, would be interested to see if you got the project off the ground. 
*take this as a rough guide only - sight unseen and he is the first guy i've called*

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## joshuaand

Hi tomas, 
we start in 13 days, its all happening. 
Your prices seem a lot cheaper than I have obtained, I will outline below:  So, for a 3BR on stumps with flat block he estimated: -$7,000 Architect/drafty/engineer|council approvals|certifier (we are at about $5k for all this)  -$22-25,000 Lift|stumps|steel bearers (we got 6 quotes, went with a quote for about $29.5k, we had 55 concrete posts, reducing to about 43 steel posts, with a 3.5 metre slide, 1.5 metre raise. highest price was $43k, two at about $38k, 3 at $29k)  -$1,000 Site cleanup (removing old cement stumps etc) (haven't factored this yet)  -$7,000 Plumbing in slab & reconnetion of lifted fittings (we are at $10.5k for new sewerage, temp reconnect, and connection of all new services and upstairs services, 2 bath 1 kitchen downstairs, 2 bath 1 kitchen upstairs, not including excavation)  -$13,000 new slab (based on 130m2) (we are at about $8500 here on the same size not including excavation, although my concreter is MIA for the last week or so, stay tuned)  -$3,000 electrical box relocation (friend doing this, dont have budget but sounds right)  -$1,000 Temporary stairs (ladders are free!)   
so we spent last weekend stripping downstairs, as we had a garage, laundry and bathroom downstairs, a few sledges, some pizza and a few mates had it doen in 5 hours, ready for raise. 
We have 5 loads of soil sitting in the front yard, we are raising the block 600mm so we need soil to achieve this (to level the block) 
as I said, its all happening, a fwe more things to do before we start, but are on schedule.

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## tomas.souter

13 days have passed, how is everything going with your lift? did your concreter turn up? 
any chance i can get the details of who you used for plans/engineering/lodgement with council? i'm working on getting this underway too.
what else would you suggest i factor inis there any significant charges that i haven't factored in yet? 
i think i worked out why some of the costs were so different, i have 26 concrete stumps, 55 sounds like you have a much bigger floorplan. 
some pics would be great if you are keeping a record of the progress
Cheers,
Tomas

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## joshuaand

Hi Tomas, 
Raise is 1 week in, I have to say at this stage I am disappointed, I was told the raisers would be in this week to start lifting, I don't believe that will happen today, or tomorrow. 
I could be completely wrong and I don't want to talk bad about a company until the final result is in, hopefully its up and done by the end of next week as promised. 
With regards to concreter, he has pulled out, said he didn't under quote, was too busy and doesn't have the man power, yeah right. 
new quotes including footings around 14k. Original quote didn't include footings. 
Our slab will be 140m2, which is basically a mirror of upstairs except for about 7m2 extension at front. 
We were hoping to be back in after 3-4 weeks, this will likely slip 2 weeks now, even if the raisers finish on time. 
I hadn't factored in the plumber would take so long, and wouldn't want to do a temporary re-connect of upstairs until after slab is poured, which is probably fair enough. 
With the exception of the slab, everything is pretty much on budget (so far), hopefully we can get there on budget. We are looking at doing this in stages so once raise and slab is down, I will be doing the framing, put the windows in and put the weatherboards on to get it basically weather tight. Garage door still has to be sourced. 
I am going on site today, will take some photos of the steel beams etc and put some up later. I will also give you the details of my draftsman, who organised the engineer and approvals. (will send in a Pm later on)

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## ringtail

So, have you done the owner builder course ? You cant do any of the framing etc or any other structural work.... without first doing the course or hiring licensed trades. You will need form 16's to present to the certifier ( and therefore council) for all work done and the only way you can get these is to either be the builder ( owner builder), engage a builder to do the work, or used contractors.

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## joshuaand

Hi, 
yes I have completed the OB course. 
OB sign is up out front ($2k fine if you don't put on up!)

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## joshuaand

Hi, 
To anyone interested below is an album of photos from the last week's progress, it has been slow so far. (also original photo of house is about 18months old) Photo Album - Imgur  
Also have a cool time-lapse of me dismantling the rear deck as it couldn't be raised with the house: Deck Demolition - 5 Hours, 2 people, condensed into 2mins - YouTube

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## ringtail

Bwahahaha - cool vid.   :Biggrin:  
How crap is that OB course. No doubt you've realised by now that it offers nothing to the guy that actually wants to do the work himself

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## joshuaand

Hey, 
I can honestly say I am none the wiser for having completed it, I did it online, I'm pretty sure in record time. 
I would give me right nut for them to have a list of builders that are prepared to "mentor" OB's like myself giving advise etc through the stages, I would be happy to pay for that. I have build basic stud walls before, done some decent reno's etc but nothing on this scale. 
Your right, it leave me without any real clue on what I need to do to do the job properly, so its basically a revenue raiser. 
If anyone knows a builder that's happy to take cash for an hour or so a week(ish) for advise in Brisbane (Ashgrove) let me know.

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## ringtail

Might be able to help you out there :Biggrin:

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## adam.baxter

keep the photos coming! Gives me something to do at work. 
I did my OB course online in around 15 Minutes. Didn't read anything 
Adam.

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## joshuaand

Ok here are a bunch more photos: Photo Album - Imgur 
House was off the stumps at lunchtime on Friday. 
However, as shown in the time lapse, given the method of raising, 3" each spot at the time, it has cause a massive amount of cracks, particularly in the renovated kitchen/lounge, cracks above/below every window frame and door frame.  
Some cracks are 15mm wide! This is disappointing however it was inevitable, shouldn't be too big a deal to fix. 
Time Lapse Stage 1: House Raise - Intial Raise off Stumps - YouTube  
Today is the slide forward 3.5metres, should have a video tomorrow.

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## Uncle Bob

I wonder why they didn't lift all the jacks at the same time?

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## joshuaand

I asked, the answer was it was unsafe for more than one person to be underneath the house at any one time. 
I don't know if this is correct however I was told that that's how all the raisers do the job. 
If anyone is in the know please advise!

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## ringtail

> I asked, the answer was it was unsafe for more than one person to be underneath the house at any one time. 
> I don't know if this is correct however I was told that that's how all the raisers do the job. 
> If anyone is in the know please advise!

  
 I have seen it done with multiple jacks but it was a really full on set up. One big hydraulic station with a petrol powered hydrostatic pump, multiple hoses running off to all the jacks. 1 operator and lots of watchers/timber sliders. Bloody awesome to watch. All the houses Ive seen raised have several people on the jacks no problems. Then again, they are all wearing thongs too :Biggrin:

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## Uncle Bob

> they are all wearing thongs too

  Womens underwear ?  :Smilie:

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## ringtail

> Womens underwear ?

  
That, my friend, is not a image I wish to have in my head  :Yuk:  :Biggrin:  Quite enough @@@@ crack on display from most rough nuts in the industry but no G bangers on display. Not that I was looking :Biggrin:  :Biggrin:

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## Uncle Bob

> I asked, the answer was it was unsafe for more than one person to be underneath the house at any one time. 
> I don't know if this is correct however I was told that that's how all the raisers do the job. 
> If anyone is in the know please advise!

  I'd take a stab and say maybe they didn't have the smicko hydro system that can lift all at once.

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## Jillaroo

Glad to read some recent experiences/prices on this as we're about to undertake this.  Just getting raise/stump quotes atm.  plans currently awaiting certification.  What online OB course did you use, as the other half is looking at doing that for the build in component.  We've budgeted about 65k for the raise/stump/slab and all that goes with, drawings, BCC, plumbing electrics, hoping there might be cash left over to bump up the build in budget.....how is the build in process going for you?? 
Thankfully we're a level block, dual access and 100m square to get off the ground but putting in a driveway and a carport that is half in half out of the current house frame.  Thanks for sharing the photos good to "see" the process.

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## joshuaand

HI, 
Ok so here are some more photos, attached below. 
Since the raise, we noticed about 4-6 posts in the wrong spot, and we widened the stairs, so had to cut all that steel out and re-do. 
In the process of this I smashed my thumb, and it was in a cast for 6 weeks, although I still kept going. Had to put off the slab for a week as I was in hospital, which put us back a bit. 
However, we now have the slab, about 80% of the framing done, all electrics upstairs are re-connected (new board and some modifications to old wiring to bring it up to code), plumbing is on a temporary re-connect. 
We also have finished the ground excavations, all three retaining walls and front fence, driveway etc. 
Should have the framing done in 2 weeks, and start on weatherboards shortly thereafter. 
There have been plenty of dramas, but the main issue is tradies. Not ONE of them cleans up after themselves, they throw rubbish straight onto the ground when there is a bin 2 metres away, its very frustrating. 
Oh and we got fined $1000 by council as there was dirt in the gutters and the concretors had let runoff into the gutters. 
We are trying to get the weatherboards on, windows and doors in in just another 6 weeks as we have family coming, wish me luck!  Photos Here

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## ringtail

Coming along nicely - I hardly recognise it  :Biggrin:

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## Deanod26

looking good mate!!

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## tomas.souter

Hey josh, how's it going these days?
I'm still going with our raise, just with council now. It takes some decent time to get it all underway. 
Anyway, I just got an estimate from the plumber for all the work, sewage, drainage, connections etc... $20-25,000!!! Am I overreacting or is this excessive?
Thought I'd run it by you seeing as you were closer to 10.5. 
Speak to you later, look forward to the next round of pictures. 
Cheers, Tom

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## JuneReno

How is the raise and build in progressing? 
I may be a little late with this one but this site has a pretty good cost breakdown for raise and build in's http://www.nqcad.com.au/sp/costsguide/ 
Looking at the earlier posts for a raise only coming in at about the $50K mark is about right from my experience, and the .pdf puts raise and restump, slab and plumbing at $48.5K, the build-in pricing comes in at around $150K mark (including raise 200K) with a deck included... Be interested to know if this is about right?

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