Family member wants to put a crawl space under his the house he recently bought and is remodeling. Just trying to get an idea on what this is gonna take. Is it something take has to be professionally done? Can it be a do-it yourself project? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

I'm confused. is the house on a concrete slab? if not and it is pier and beam or block and beam there should already be a crawl space.

 

I've seen houses on slabs moved before so maybe a company that can raise the house and install a foundation along with additional supports as needed. It won't be cheap!

 

This is going to be a serious expense, I would be digging into why they want to do it.

 

Why?

Depends on what sort of foundation -
A) concrete slab= forget it.
B) piers and beams = possible but a total P-I-T-A.
C) perimeter foundation = possible, but likely to be more work than it's worth.

GOOD
An industrious uncle of mine EXTENDED the basemen of an old farmhouse, from a 5' hand dug basement to a full height 8', but that required alot of jack hammering, ~ 5,000 trips with wheel barrow, and a generous setback from the walls, with shotcrete and rebar tiebacks for stability, to ensure that digging below the foundation didn't casue the foundation to shift.

BAD
I've shown buyers a foreclosure rancher where the prior owner used a Bobcat to dig out a basement, house sits on a hill, owner dug a ramp down to ~ 8' beneath the house floor, chiseled a 7' wide hole in the block foundation and used a Bobcat to dig out a basement, unfortunately, he didn't shore up the edges of the new entrance and the foundation buckled in- about 10' on either side of the hole.
He walked away, and the house went back to the bank.

 

My grandfather did that to his farm house after he retired. I think the excavation [by hand] took the better part of a year. He blocked up a wall about 4' from the foundation and poured a concrete ledge between the top of the new wall and the old field stone foundation.