Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 3/20/2011

Question
My husband and i have a 55 yr old house on pier and beam that continuously sinks in one corner.  We started an addition 3 years ago and added on a living room and new roof over existing roof.  Completely remodeled our bathroom and had to replace the floor and two walls in our kitchen.  We used a friend and got basically ripped off. The added weight of new roof isn't good.  We are stuck...don't know what to do.  We live in west Texas.  We bought  3 acres of land in another area near buy in the country(our dream) in hopes of building a home there but found out bad water in water well cant even grow a garden with the water. We have access to tapping in to new water for 5000.00  Land is totally raw. No septic  only an electric pole.  Can we affordably filter water?  How, with what? What would be the least expensive type home to build, it read this website about concrete and i too thought it would be better than stick built.  We don't know if we should just bulldoze down our 55 year old crooked house with horrible foundation problems in the city on a very small platt of land or attempt our want to be inexpensive home on land with bad water.  should it be stick, concrete, adobe, mobile home, prefab, bale of hay,sea boxes,partial underground etc open to all suggestions we are interested in solar/earth, anything at this point that is sturdy, longlasting and inexpensive.  We have terrible credit due to lost of jobs 2 years ago and have to basically depend upon saving cash to accomplish anything.  I'm 45 my husband is 57 were not young chickens.  Please help we have been stuck for 3 years with no end in sight.

Answer
Hi Jamie, gee you gave me a lot to deal with so I hope I can cover enough of it to help.  As far as your existing house:  It shouldn't be too expensive to hire a competent person to level up the house and if necessary reinforce the areas that continually sink.  It sounds like you have some soil problems, possibly clay or other unstable materials which can be overcome with the proper foundation work.  I don't know how much your present home is worth as it is or how much it will be worth if the foundation is repaired you would have to weigh the costs.  The difference between selling your place "as is" and the cost of repairing it and selling it at a regular sales price.  Repairs based on what I've read between your lines is probably going to run around $5000.  Some of this money may come from your homeowner's insurance depending on your coverage.

Sometimes it may pay to remove the existing home and replace it as you mentioned. If your sewer, water and other utilities are in place this alone can save you many thousands of dollars as opposed to building on a lot without those utilities present.  However, removing the old house will cost several thousand dollars.  

Water issues vary with the type of problem you are dealing with.  Sulphur and other smelly problems are handled by installing a cistern that aerates the water by atomizing it into the air and recapturing the mist.  Dirty water can be filtered with  a "whole house filter" and chlorinated to kill bacteria.  Hard water with a lot of minerals in it can be softened using standard water softeners.  Contacting a company in the area of your other property that specializes in water problems can get you on the right track regarding what kind of system you need.  Or maybe a combination of water treatments.

As far as house types go.  A monolithic concrete slab foundation with a stick built frame and truss roof system is probably the cheapest way to go.  The monolithic slab provides the foundation and floor all at one time, all you add is flooring, carpet, tile etc.. A stick framed exterior wall with T-111 siding/sheathing is one of the most economical building types. Add a simple truss roof and asphalt shingles and you can build for 50-75 dollars a square foot.  I used to offer a 1200 square foot house on your lot for $19,995 but that was thirty years ago.  Nowadays you can find builders offering similar deals but the cost is more like $40,000 on your lot.  

Yes there are a lot of "alterantive" building styles out there.  Care must be taken when opting for buried, hay bale, mud, adobe type of structures.  They work great in very arid areas but you need to be carefule not to build these types of homes in wet climates since water is detrimental to the building.  I'm not sure what climate you live in but look around and see what kinds of buildings are going up around your area.  

I know I have been very generic, but hopefully some of this information has been helpful.  Take care and feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com