Building a house

mbalbritton

mbalbritton

#@$%!
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Lakeland, FL
I know we have some contractor types on here, so I wanted to pick your brains.

We've been looking for a new house or maybe land to build on. Went to look at a house and across the street I noticed a for sale sign for 2 acres. Also noticed that there where the remains of a house that had burnt down. Looking at the foundation and chimney that still stood as well as the neighborhood, I'd guess the house was built in the late 70's or 80's and burnt within the past 5 years.

Here's the question. Is it unrealistic to think the the foundation may still be good and you could build a house back on top of the foundation? Seems to me that if you could, there's potential to save a ton of money over building a new house.
 
Concrete with a basement and brick. Almost everything is burned away. the first floor floor is about the only wood left. I'll see about swinging by and grabbing some pictures tomorrow.
 
If it's a block basement and If all the blocks aren't filled they could be compromised from
The heat. But with out pictures it's really just a guess. I probably wouldn't just to be safe. The lot is probably at a reduced price to other lots due to being a burnt house on it, if there is just a basement left it wouldn't cost much for someone to finish taking it out and regrade for whatever you want to build
 
Build next to it and make that into a cool bunker...
 
That exact scenario happened about 2 miles down the road from me. House burned down 7-8 years ago, neighborhood was probably $150-250k houses, 2 acre lot with 1800ish sqft basement foundation, well, and septic sold for like $40-50k, and now theres a beautiful house on it. I have no particularly knowledge other than the above, but it definitely can be done.
 
I would certainly imagine there's all kinds of scenarios, and that the foundation would need to be inspected first. it's just that it's a nice lot, even has a concreted pad around a nice size pool that just needs a new liner and probably pump. From what I could see of the damage, I wouldn't think the foundation would be bad,but I'm no expert by ANY stretch of the imagination.
 
Theoretically... Sure. You can even reuse burnt framing depending on the damage. But you should have someone qualified inspect it.
 
They are asking tax value on the land. Basically $20k per acre which is standard land price around here. And the house burned in 2007.

I know you can tell much from photos, and I'd certainly have someone qualified do the inspection...
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Structural engineer or architect.

The photos don't look too bad, though.
 
Hypothetical. Let's say this has a foot print of about 1200sqft with a basement and it is sound to build on. How much would it have cost to lay a foundation like this?

I've never gone through the building of a house, so I know very little.

I.e if it's about $120/soft to build a house, what kind of price per square foot might I be looking at to build on top of an existing foundation?
 
mbalbritton said:
Hypothetical. Let's say this has a foot print of about 1200sqft with a basement and it is sound to build on. How much would it have cost to lay a foundation like this?

I've never gone through the building of a house, so I know very little.

I.e if it's about $120/soft to build a house, what kind of price per square foot might I be looking at to build on top of an existing foundation?
Click to expand...

Construction cost is largely dependent on finishes, with second consideration given toward how efficient it is.

I'd guess the foundation is worth $30-40k. Ditto for the hole where the pool used to be.
 
You do have to figure in the cost of not only getting some good inspections but also removing all that crap and getting everything torns down and cleaned up to the "just foundation" level too...
 
on a serious note...the garden hose wasnt melted. i doubt enough heat was directed downward to compromise the foundation. They left a nice commando behind.
 
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