The concrete slab under our house was finished a while ago now, but I was a little distracted and haven’t posted the photos and update yet on this site.

Below are the photos of our new concrete slab. Tamara jokes that she has been looking for the gold in slab and hasn’t found it yet. It’s not much to look at right now, but at least I can visualize what will be happening down the track.

Front of the slab

Looking where the rooms will be

You can see the plumbing at the back of the slab

There is about a 30 cm drop in the ground level from the back of the slab to the front of the slab. This is great for the water flowing off our property but it means that the slab at the front is 50cm above the ground.

Because of the nature of the construction of many of the houses here in North Queensland it is not uncommon to actually see houses relocated from one location to another. This is what actually happened to our old house that was purchased by Castletown. Because they were really only after the land so that they could expand the shopping complex they sold off most of the houses that they had purchased for removal. You can see our old house before and after the house removal in my previous article Where did the House Go?.

Having the houses built on stumps actually makes it quite an easy process to transport a Queenslander or similarly styled house. All they need to do is back a flatbed trailer under the house and lower the house onto the trailer. They even have specially designed trailers for this sort of work that can raise up to meet the house, making it even easier to remove the stumps. I have even seen one of these trailers driving down a narrow road actually raise up one side of the house to go over a parked car! I sure wouldn’t want to have been the owner of the car looking out the window and seeing that.

There is quite a bit involved in actually organizing for the removal of a house. Our old house would have been relatively easy to relocated as it was only 6 metres (about 20 feet) wide with the front enclosed varanda removed. If a house is bigger than 8.5 metres wide from what I have read it actually has be to be cut in half for transport. We had toyed with the idea of relocating our house to the area that we live in now, but decided against it as there is very few empty blocks of land around here to put it in.

There is a really good discussion about the removal and relocation of a house over at Cracker Classifieds, Removable Houses?. Some of the people participating in the discussion have actually gone through the process of relocating their house and it has fairly up to date information.

Here are some more links for information on the removal and relocating of a house:

• Drake Homes
• House Removal and Recycling Blog
• Mackay & Sons House Removals
• Dalby Removal Homes
• Real Estate Advisor: Relocating a house rarely a smooth move

Probably my only real disapointment with the whole process is that I didn’t get to see it happen with our old house. I think that I would have liked to see it go and to know what’s actually become of it…

In my previous post, Day 8 of the House Lift – Massive Footings, my mate David Couper asked what the footing were that Northern House Raising decided to leave in place. The footing is basically the bottom part of the foundations of the house and it is there to prevent settling or movement of the house or foundations.

Below is a very crude drawing of the new slab that they will be putting in. Normally here in Townsville that is all that they will put in, this is called a monolithic slab because the footing, foundation and slab are all one unit. Under the slab you will see two large black boxes which I have added to the slab to show where the original footing are.

In the photo below you can also sort of see how deep the original footings are compared to where the bottom of the new slab will come to. (The new slab will come to the bottom of the timber and then the old foundations extend at least 30cm below that.)

As you can see in my crude drawing above the slab isn’t just flat but has some larger concrete channels running through it to provide more structural strength. The builders have already put down some of the dirt that the new slab will sit on and you can see the pattern that the bottom of the slab will be in those photos.

In addition to the poured concrete that will make up the slab there will also be steel wire mess and reinforcing rods throughout the concrete to give it extra strength. They will also be putting the in-slab plumbing in before pouring the slab so that when we finally get to the stage of putting in the laundry and bathrooms we will already have the drainage in place.

Some of this information was found on How Your House Works – The House’s Foundation.

The house lift was completed on Wednesday next week and we moved back in that night. The house sways a bit, is a bit weird, but it is supposed to be perfectly safe. Because of the design of the house we have to build it in completely before the swaying will stop. It’s making Tamara feel a bit sick when Caleb or I move around too much. She’s 37 weeks pregnant now, so that’s understandable.

Below are some photos of the house now that the raise and restump is complete. Northern House Raising, the same company that did the lifting, should start to pour the slab tomorrow (actually he will probably be starting in about six-hours) and he should be finished by the end of the week. Then we just need to find a builder to do the walls under the house, re-attach our old deck and put on some front stairs.

Front of the House after Lifting – sans stairs

Back of the House after Lifting – scary stairs

Under the House after Lifting – lots of stumps

Previous Posts in the House Lifting Series:

• Preperation for the House Lift has begun
• Day 2 of the House Lift
• Day 3 of the House Lift
• Day 4 of the House Lift – Woops, missed this one
• Day 5 of the House Lift – Installing the I-Beams
• Day 6 of the House Lift – Ready to Lift
• Day 7 of the House Lift – Crikey That’s High!
• Day 8 of the House Lift – Massive Footings