Augmenting a Pier Foundation for 2nd Story

Started by Dhill, November 24, 2004, 01:30:35 PM

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Dhill

I have a house on the lake that is non comforming and I want to put a second story on it.  My fear is that they wont let me do it cause the house rests on cynderblocks.  Is there any way to build it up in a fashion that would not require a full foundation?   Let me know your thoughts.

jraabe

#1
There are likely to be two problems with adding a second story to a pier and beam foundation. One is that the load on the foundation beam is increased perhaps double. The second is that the footing load to the soil underneath is also much greater than in the original design.

Fortunately the solution to both problems can be the same — adding new piers and footings to the middle of each beam span. This shortens the beam spans making them stronger and spreads the total building weight out over more soil area.

Of course, there might other non-conforming issues such as earthquake anchorage that could make this more complex than what I've just described.