Housejacked: An Unsettling Tale

For D.C. Couple, Structural Makeover Was a Costly Lesson in Home Buying

Recently our 67-year-old brick house was accosted by men armed with hydraulics. No one was seriously hurt, but our bank account took a good beating.

My husband and I wanted a fixer-upper, so when we bought our brick Colonial in Northeast Washington last spring, we expected it to need work. We endured a three-hour inspection and noted the expert's suggestions. He said that there had been some settling, but that it had stopped. He told us that where the previous owners had caulked cracks, we should monitor them.

We realized the floor of the attached garage was cracked and that its ceiling tilted south. We also noticed the extra mortar and cracking in the same vicinity, but we chalked up all the problems to old-house character and normal wear and tear -- nothing we couldn't fix.

We soon learned that what we had considered character was actually collapse. Sure, the house could be fixed, but not by us.

Not until after we tore down the fiberboard in the bedroom above the garage and the plaster it was hiding did we understand the severity of our problem: The house wasn't done settling. In just months, already-substantial cracks had grown into gaping two- and three-inch chasms, and we measured a drop of more than four inches across the 11-foot bedroom. Removing an overhang above the garage door revealed even more substantial fractures, through which we could see the bedroom radiator from the driveway.

That's when we brought in a structural engineer, John Shuster of Geofreeze in Alexandria. Shuster diagnosed our problem as ongoing settling and proposed a solution: jacking the house back up using helical piers, giant screws that are secured several feet below ground and can support the foundation. The lifting would level the floors and close the cracks, as much as possible.

After securing permits through an expediter, who walked them through the approval process, the contractors dug six deep holes around the base of the sinking part of the house, drilled the steel poles 17 feet down, and attached them to clamps at the foundation. A very patient man chipped away mortar that would hinder the lift. Hydraulic pressure then raised the creaking house, first three-quarters of an inch, and finally another two inches -- the walls were too precarious to continue -- before the jacks were interred within concrete. The permit process took months; the setup, days; and the raising, minutes. It cost us about $11,000.

When people ask, I tell them we've been housejacked.

Tips for the Untrained Eye

Although we were satisfied with the outcome, if we had known the extent of the structural problems before we moved in, we probably would not have purchased the house. At the very least, we would have negotiated a lower price.

How does a home buyer who has not been trained as a structural engineer avoid this sort of situation? Shuster, as well as Phil Schied, his counterpart at Jessup firm Levelift Systems, provided practical tips on what to look for before buying:

· Examine the mortar. The presence of new mortar, or old mortar showing new cracks in a "stair-step" pattern, suggests recent or ongoing structural movement, Shuster said. If the home sellers have not already disclosed the issue, ask what interventions they have tried, if any, and how recently. Major settling should have stopped early in the life of the house.