Just a few questions regarding major renos 100 year old house

[Graham_A_M]

Hey guys, story is; at my farm we have a 1700ft2 farm house that just turned 100 years old this month. Oddly enough it was a Sears Roe-buck mail order house. You'd send a check for $2500 and a few months later this would arrive on the back of a train; to which you'd bring it horse back to the farm then construct it yourself using their supplied blue-prints. Its amazingly well built, as now the foundation is collapsing, and yet the fact its structure is rock-solid after all these long years really shows how well this was built.

About 15 years ago, due to not having any centralized air, and the foundation problems, we had to move out of it.

Unfortunately those said accommodations really aren't suitable much more, so we're thinking of moving back to the farm house, after its renovated.

So my question is; how much do you guys figure it would be to remove it off its crumbling foundation, move it temporarily, tear up the old foundation, re-pour it then move it back?
These pics are fairly close to what it looks like.
http://landanrealestate.alberta.rema...&PID=101662507

Heres an actual pic of it in the back ground, even though all you can see is the top level
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...M/0e09e127.jpg
Its quite heavy, as back then they had these 2X12 Douglas Fir Floorboards to use throughout.
Which brings me to my last question for now. Installing an actual furnace. Way back then they used boilers to create steam which in turn fed these "radiators" in each room. So how much do you figure it would be to remove them then install centralized air?
Unlike modern day builds whereas drywall is used; instead they used a wooden strip lining in all the rooms, then used (amazingly heavy) plaster to create walls. This really adds to the weight of the house, and may add to the complications of adding in ducts & vents, as well as moving it.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Does that boiler systerm still work, was it maintained or is it f'd? If it does, I'd just convert to gas (if you have it out there) and keep it.

Lift, move, foundation.....shit I don't know, 20G.....easy, I would think?

[Graham_A_M]

^ It would work, but all the piping needs to be checked. The actual boiler for it hasn't worked in 50 years... Who knows of the condition of everything else.

$20k isn't that bad at all for the move. Thats really good to know, thanks.

[gram]

I just did almost this exact same thing. 20K is probably a little under budget. It will depend on how far you want to move the house. If you do a simple straight up raise it is cheap. Ie...they jack the house up and you rebuild the foundation under it. You could do that for around 20k for sure.

If you actually move the house away from it's foundation then the costs go up dramatically. Not only from the move itself but all of the stuff inside that can flex and break. (ie drywall-plaster and lathe etc)

I would strongly suggest that you just jack it up in place and have the foundation re poured under the house (a little more work for the foundation crew but you'll be way better off)

here is a great house mover near you
http://www.neufeldbuildingmovers.com/

Let me know via PM if you need any help with this. I can send you pics of how this works etc.


As for the second question regarding the boiler. HUGE costs. You can actually patch in those walls with drywall if you have a good drywaller though. A better way to do the same thing is to get a ductless heat pump-it will save you a lot of hassles.


Gram

[JRSC00LUDE]

Yes, neufeld is good.

[EM1FTW]

Just out of curiosity, where is this place!

[Graham_A_M]

^Dads farm, about 1 hr se of swift current

[bspot]

Apparently residential boilers are making a comeback. You can get some pretty slick units, and if it is do-able with your existing plumbing, I say go that route. They are crazy efficient.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by bspot
Apparently residential boilers are making a comeback. You can get some pretty slick units, and if it is do-able with your existing plumbing, I say go that route. They are crazy efficient.

I love hot steam/water radiators for heat. In the winter it is nice clean quiet heat with nice warm spots if you put a big arm chair right next to the radiator.

However I wouldn't call them efficient. Gravity based steam boilers only have a max of about 80-82% efficiency. If you switch to a closed loop water based system you can get 95%+ efficiency, but you wont be able to use to old radiators and will have to swap to either infloor heat or change your radiators for water.

The problem in the winter is that you can't do A/C other than window based units.

[bspot]

Originally posted by sputnik


If you switch to a closed loop water based system you can get 95%+ efficiency, but you wont be able to use to old radiators and will have to swap to either infloor heat or change your radiators for water.

That is the system I heard about, so I take it very different than the gravity systems. Do you pretty much need your house built for this then?

[sputnik]

Originally posted by bspot


That is the system I heard about, so I take it very different than the gravity systems. Do you pretty much need your house built for this then?

It is how your piping is run.

For steam there is one pipe to the radiator. The steam condenses as it cools and the water runs (via gravity) down the same pipe back into the boiler. All of your pipes need to be angled down towards the boiler so that you don't get any "water hammer" issues where there is water stuck in the pipes.

With a water system there are two pipes (in/out) on the radiator and the water circulates through the radiator in a loop. This is how most modern water/glycol systems work and is far more efficient.