Few things make our hair stand on end as much as seeing a house propped up on car jacks. This is a trend that is not only a really bad idea, but a really dangerous one also.
Check out this photo. It’s a beautiful three-bedroom, two-bath bungalow on San Pedro in South Tampa that was recently remodeled and listed for sale. Bungalows in South Tampa are a real commodity and often sell quickly once they hit the market.
But, as with any older home, bungalows too have their own sets of issues. Typically, a bungalow has a crawl space for a foundation and isn’t positioned on a slab. Because of this the floors, even newly remodeled ones, can sag. It’s an important repair but can be accomplished successfully…that is if you hire a professional to do the job.
One look at this photo and the first thing we notice is that the floors are being supported by car jacks. Yes, we said car jacks. Those jacks are meant for cars only. They were never designed to support the weight of a home. Would you want to enter the crawl space knowing that the car jacks could give way? We’re sure the answer is “no”!
It’s evident that the home owner contracted with a non-licensed repair team to fix the problem. And it’s a problem that is too often being solved the wrong (and dangerous) way. We collect car jacks from one out of every six homes we inspect. That’s an alarming number.
The moral of this story is to ALWAYS hire a professional and have the job done right!