lifting and reblocking

[HAPPYCAMPER]

Hi ALL , i am new to the forum and MH ownership. I live in the province of NEW BRUNSWICK in eastern CANADA and bought an older , early 70 ? mobile about a year ago for a summer cottage. It is 12X60 not sure of the make or model as it has been completely redone inside and out over the years
I want to lift the home up about 10 -12 inches next summer as it is to low right now for me to fit under it and move around very much to inspect or work on anything. I will also be putting some 3/4 crush stone under it as i get some water pooling under it at times , mostly because the ground around it was filled in over the years and it is low under the trailer.
My plan is to remove the decks ( they are not attatched to house ) and skirting and put the stone under and level it , then i will put a 24" sqaure cement pad and use cement blocks 3 high for my peirs, it only has wood blocking now and some of it looks pretty poor condition so it needs to go anyways.
My questions to all of you are 1) how many peirs should i put ? it has about 8 on each side now
2) how should i go about doing this , one side at a time ? jack the whole trailer up at once ? with 8 - 10 jacks or start on one end and work towards the other end ?
3) should i replace all of the peirs that are under first and then take it up the extra height?


Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated

[Mark440]

I would think raising it up would have to be done in small (1-2"?) increments. Even with another set of jacks, you can't raise it all at once...so going up would be one point at a time. That one point would be supporting a tremendous amount of weight - and I'm not sure the impact of those forces being transmitted throughout the structure as the steel i-beam frames will flex.

Of course, you will also have to consider your electrical, water, and sewer lines as they will have to be lengthened to accommodate the rise. The water and sewer can easily be added on - but the electrical is a whole other story. That is your main line coming in - and i don't believe splicing of any sort is allowed (or safe for that matter). So you would potentially have to replace the electrical run from meter to inside panel. That could get real expensive.

And lastly, all of your tie-downs will have to be replaced/adjusted.

[Greg]

Mark makes valid points as far as utilities go, but if you have enough jacks available AND can engineer a way to safely lift I would try doing one lift. Remember that you will also need to find a way to keep the jacks from sinking so a large solid base under each jack will be needed. You will also want to keep adding small "safety" blocks to your existing piers as you go just in case something goes horribly wrong.

Greg

[HAPPYCAMPER]

thanks for your replies , water and sewer will not be a problem and electrical comes down from a pole in the yard so it will get slack as house goes up so it is also no problem.
Was wondering more about jacking procedures , was origanaly going to rent 8 - 12 ton jacks and do all at once but am starting to rethink that and may just and do one side at a time, useing 4 jacks to lift the whole side going up about 1-2 " at a time then move to other side and do the same
I dont really like the idea of haveing to do this much work but i want to be able to get under the house so i can repair some insulation and if i ever have to work on the water lines and right now i cant fit under it as the frame rails are pretty close to the ground and the wood blocking is sitting right on the ground and are rotten and sinking and needs replacing anyway