We live in mid-michigan. We have an existing sunroom that hubby and his brother built about 10 years ago, but they never put a foundation on it. This was when his grandparents owned the house. Now we own it, and we want to make this sunroom into a bedroom. I know it will need a foundation put in, plus a lot of the windows taken out to make it into more of a 'room'. What kind of foundation goes under an already existing addition? It has done some settling already, but i know we will need more stability under it. Is this something we can do ourselves, or should we contract out? Would it be better to demolish the whole thing and start from scratch, or is it okay to use the existing structure and go off of that? Thanks for any help/ideas!

-- Savannah (k-korinek@msn.com), January 05, 2002

Answers

Whats there now? Is it a concrete slab on the ground? Is it an elevated wood floor? Details, many, many details are needed.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 05, 2002.

Sorry. It's just dirt right now. Originally it was a wood porch, but they built off that frame, closing it in and making it into a sunroom. It's virtually just resting on top of the ground, other than the little bit of settling it has done. It's finished off on the outside with vinyl and has been tied into the roof, too. That's it. There no real foundation under it to speak of; just sitting on the ground.

-- Savannah (k-korinek@msn.com), January 05, 2002.

Lots of choices but more details of what existing construction looks like on the house, size of the room, etc is needed. Is it cantilevered out off of the existing floor joists???

-- Gary from MN (hpysheep@midwestinfo.com), January 05, 2002.

Not sure how it is attached by way of the floor. The room is about 14 x 20 feet, a pretty good area. It is attached off the kitchen area. I know there was mention of it being tied into the ceiling joists, but there has been no mention regarding the floor joists. It's a pretty solid, sound, stable room. Two walls are mostly windows, one wall has windows running half the length, then a door, then a closet before it attaches to the main part of the house. The side that is attached to the house: You enter it through sliding glass doors off the kitchen. We plan to take this out, making a doorway a little further down the wall as it is in the middle of the long part of the kitchen wall. I know in some way the walls and floors were tied into the main structure of the house, but I am unsure as to how they did it. What type of foundation should be put under this to prevent any further settling?

-- Savannah (k-korinek@msn.com), January 05, 2002.

My husband is a general contractor. He would either brace it up and dig footings or start over. We live between Charlotte and Battle Creek. If you aren't too far, he could look at it. (You really should have a professional look at what's there.) He always has more work than he knows what to do with , so he wouldn't be pressuring you to do it himself. Again, I don't know exactly where you are, you could still be too far away. Good luck!

-- Amy (kimico@aol.com), January 06, 2002.