On the next Homestead Rescue, the art of jacking up a house off the foundation is the next master class taught by show star Marty Raney, the patriarch of the Raney clan on the show that features his daughter Misty and son Matt.
This is done for several reasons, either to move a home to another foundation, to fix a failing foundation or to shore up walls and structure that is damaged and failing.
Last week, it was salt water seeping up into the water well. This week it’s a house that is unstable.
The task at hand is to save this homestead house, secure it and lift it up to salvage it from falling in on itself. Easier said than done.
What does Marty Raney have to do?
Marty Raney has to guide several men in a painstaking and long process of securing jacks and protective boards at key critical spots all around the base of the house frame. He is the control center for giving orders on when to lift and when not to lift.
As we open the exclusive Homestead Rescue preview, we see the issues immediately. This is a heavy log and wood home, and the stress of lifting with a hydraulic jack in one area will likely crack the frame.
This needs to be a coordinated ballet of jacks, men working in unison and Marty overseeing and listening to make sure he hears no stress crack noise anywhere.
But they do and the homeowner hears it and she freaks out a little bit.
Marty is explaining the action in detail this week:
“We’ve got a house that is extremely unstable and can fall right off on the ground. We’ve got a chain hook to that tree with this binder and this chain is keeping it from falling down the mountain. This point right here [he points to a specific spot at the base of the frame] has to go up eight inches… eight inches that’s a long ways that’s a lot of weight… I’m going to bring the Bobcat over lift this straighten this up.”
He then tells the driver more instructions and says: “Put in the 20-ton jack, it should lift the building easily. We got to go eight inches… we went an inch and a half this is full on 12 alarm insanity. Can’t do it all at once here because that will be a cat-a**trophy. This house is unusually heavy takes three or four Jack place just to go up a half an inch, this is going to be slow and painstaking.”
Looking like he is ready to call it quits already, he adds, “If I had to rate the risk factor on this house raising between one and ten without hesitation I would say it’s a fifteen.”
Homestead Rescue exclusive sneak peek
Tune in on Thursday to watch as the house is carefully prepared for the lift-off, but even the best-laid plans and details sometimes fail to work the way you want them to.
Marty is at his last tether with this particular challenge.
Homestead Rescue airs on Thursday at 8/7c on Discovery Channel.