Over 100 years old teak house - spot footings Foundation

[ryukenden]

I appreciate your advice on how to reinforce the spot footings Foundation of our over 100 years old teak house.

Our ground floor was raised about 4 feet above the ground with long teak vertical beams or poles and some of the beams have been in bad state. As a result, there have been floor sagging in some part of the house.

I am thinking to reinforce the teak spot footings.

How do I do that? Is it possible to do concrete foundation between those long teak vertical poles?

Many thanks for your suggestions and advice.

 

[wrightwoodwork]

You need to get professional advice from a timber engineer specialist. A lot of engineers only understand concrete or steel. I guess you want to safe the teak house. Extra footings will help, but its specialist work

 

[ryukenden]

Thanks. I have attached the following photos where you can see the teak wood footings. I wonder how to strengthen these footings.

Many thanks for suggestions

Untitled

• ryukenden
• 29 Dec 2013
• 1

Untitled

• ryukenden
• 29 Dec 2013
• 1

 

[wrightwoodwork]

Out of curiosity are posts sat on concrete pad foundations. If there not I would underpin the poles by using several across props to support the house where the poles are then dig a 1m square hole 500 deep and fill it with concrete just doing one at time. Then I would laminate the the posts by adding on 40 mm timber possibly could be glued with a 2 part structrural glue and also screwed every 150 mm in a zip zag pattern. Then for the beams that are sagging I would jack them up then bolt another beam to the side then I would go approx every 1.8m and fix a solid row of dwangs or noggings full depth. So effectively you're reducing the clear span of the joists. Then where the internal wall sit I would then dwang below them in the joists with full depth timbers. If the portion runs parallel with the joists every 600 and if at 90 degrees then every space. A teak house is a traditional thai home last time I was in Thailand I went to look at one was stunning. There's is Jim Thompson museum in Bangkok I'd like to see its built using no nails and all locks together

 

[ryukenden]

Out of curiosity are posts sat on concrete pad foundations. If there not I would underpin the poles by using several across props to support the house where the poles are then dig a 1m square hole 500 deep and fill it with concrete just doing one at time. Then I would laminate the the posts by adding on 40 mm timber possibly could be glued with a 2 part structrural glue and also screwed every 150 mm in a zip zag pattern. Then for the beams that are sagging I would jack them up then bolt another beam to the side then I would go approx every 1.8m and fix a solid row of dwangs or noggings full depth. So effectively you're reducing the clear span of the joists. Then where the internal wall sit I would then dwang below them in the joists with full depth timbers. If the portion runs parallel with the joists every 600 and if at 90 degrees then every space. A teak house is a traditional thai home last time I was in Thailand I went to look at one was stunning. There's is Jim Thompson museum in Bangkok I'd like to see its built using no nails and all locks together

Sorry for delay in reply. Was away for few days on holidays after my last post. Many thanks for your suggestions. You sound like you have considerable experience in dealing with such cases.

Our house is in Myanmar and may be similar to Thai houses and it was built over 100 years ago using teak. The posts were originally without any concrete but we put concrete around the posts after quite a few years. I am not sure about how deep the concrete goes into the ground. The base of some posts are a bit rotten possibly within concrete. Should we dig deep to see how much deep the posts go to? Will it disturb the foundations?

Many thanks

 

[wrightwoodwork]

I would imagine there will be a lot of similarities with a traditional thai house house. Most people Thailand will speak there neighboring countries dialect and will have traditionally shared ideas on building for the post that are showing sign of rot I would support around then replace the rotten post or try to splice a piece back on. I don't know if you have ever put a fence post in the ground what happens when it rots it will only rot at the junction with the ground where the wood gets oxygen. The piece of wood at the bottom will not rot as it is not getting any oxygen to start the rotting process. Also for any post that you replace I would wrap the post on a dpc membrane or give it a tar coating to prevent the moisture from the concrete getting soaked into the post. I would properly only replace the posts as and when needed some timbers will be more suitable. A good source of information would be to look up trada timber data sheets also speaking to an old local with experience. If anything like Thailand then the young one only work with steel and concrete so might not understand the timbers properties and weakness where someone a bit older wiser will know tricks how to make the timber last longer. It's nice when people try to keep traditional building in these Asian countries I'm all for it. To me a timber house has a certain warmth