Raising the Porch, Walking the Roof
Posted by: Adam Fuson @ 2006.07.29.1236

After helping to move a larger self defrosting refrigerator into Jim's kitchen, Jim and I inspected his small front porch. It had sank over the years and was now about 8 inches lower than it had been, when it was originally built. Complicating the matter the northern edge had moved more than the southern and the entire thing was one big block of cement. I promised to return a few days later with wood and jacks to perform the lift. Three days later on a Saturday after being dropped from a bicycle race in Madison, Indiana, I called Jim to see if he was free to move his porch. At that time has was having a snack with a supermodel, but said he was free and that we should start immediately. I took a half hour to pack the Acura with jacks and wood to use as levers and platforms for jacking.

Arriving at Jim's house I enlisted his help in unloading the Acura, and initially attempted to move the slab with a 2x10 mitered to fit beneath the block. Even for a slab this small (about 4' x 5' x 1') a simple wooden lever was not going to break the suction between the earth and the block. So Jim and I dug a hole to place a trolley jack and lined the bottom with block to prevent too much sinking. The trolley jack elevated the slab with little trouble allowing us to support the slab with more blocks. Repeating this process of jacking and supporting with blocks raised the porch back to its original height. The following day we were able to use a screw-type jack to move the slab laterally towards the house foundation and back to its true original location.

However, after raising the slab we cleaned up for the night and enjoyed some watermelon with Danni, who had been taking an online exam and reading emails most of the evening. Jim and I then inspected the drooping roof of his garage from the attic and then then by walking on the roof of the house. Inspecting the roof of the house took about 2 hours, and then we finally descended and made our ways home at about 5:30 am.

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