You can DO that? or, Fun with Foundations!

Mr. Nola met today with Boudreaux the Contractor over at the house to review the plan for this week. After many months of planning, we finally will have someone lift a hammer. The first phase of the project is to hoist up the side of the house that has subsided and bring the floors back to level.

New Orleans is a geologically unstable place, a city built on a series of swamps. At the end of our street you can see the Mississippi River levee loom over the buildings in front of it, and ships float along on the other side that appear to be flying. We are below sea level, below the river level even, and prone to flooding. The silty soil is notoriously unreliable, and some parts of the city just have their own ways of reminding us of our foolish choices in settlement.

Ironically it was actually a drought that caused much of the subsidence in our house and many of the others in our neighborhood. Without the usual onslaught of rain one year, the ground dried deeper than it should of and many of the old foundations shifted or settled. If you're lucky your house might subside evenly or just have a sort of ladylike lilt in the floorboards. Ours, well, it's more like a drunken swagger.

Part of the house is built over a cellar, and part of it is over the traditional pier and beam foundation. Naturally, the two parts didn't settle at the same rate, so now the left side of the house tilts rather dramatically towards the outside. It doesn't look as noticeable when it's furnished, but when the house is empty it sort of feels like a Salvador Dali painting. The difference in height from the low point of the house to the high point is about five inches.

On Monday, they'll begin the leveling process by removing an old chimney stack that isn't in use and partially holds the center part of the house higher than everything else. Getting rid of the chimney will also free up a good chunk of space in the kitchen. After the chimney's gone they'll place jacks all around the house and lift it up, repair the piers, build up the ones that are shorter, then lower the house back in place. It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But every house in this city gets it done at one time or another. It's like getting a new roof. The whole shebang will cost about $20K.