Has anyone done a house lift?

[Nick G]

I have a property in Wellington and I'm looking at raising the top floor 30cm to open up space to add 2 more bedrooms to the downstairs flat. Has anybody done or been quoted on a similar project in the past? I'd love to hear your experiences. Cheers

[revdev]

Not strictly what you are after Nick, but friends of ours had a house lifted in Taupo years ago.
They put in a whole new ground floor and the original (now raised) floor then had fantastic views of the lake. Pretty much tripled the value.

[Nick G]

Great cheers. I think with mine it would take a pokey downstairs 3br flat and turn it into a mint 5br place so doubling the value of that part of the property is not out of the question.

I don't know what it will cost though. My guess is including a new kitchen, new bathroom, 30cm of wall, foundation for new space, carpet/paint and fire-line plus soundproof the ceiling somewhere near 150-175k.

[Bobsyouruncle]

We didn't do one in Auckland because the cost was too great. Wasn't a simple one though, sort of split level. Can cost a fortune......

[Davo36]

Great cheers. I think with mine it would take a pokey downstairs 3br flat and turn it into a mint 5br place so doubling the value of that part of the property is not out of the question.

I don't know what it will cost though. My guess is including a new kitchen, new bathroom, 30cm of wall, foundation for new space, carpet/paint and fire-line plus soundproof the ceiling somewhere near 150-175k.

Nick, you have to take into account all the new rules. So separation of services, turning bay, fire rating, noise rating, water ingress, light etc. I'd say it could cost $250k or more.

[Nick G]

Thanks, it's street parking and fire/noise is on the list (its not so much, maybe 12k to do both I've been told by my builder. Water and light might be interesting. I guess we can only ask. It's in Wellington. If I get over 200k I won't do it yet. Cheers for the tips.

[Nick G]

FWIW Britons reckoned 30-40k for a 2-3 month job for their part. So I wonder if I could swing a 30cm raise + 1 new room for 150k in Wellington (excl council and architect). Rent uptick would be 400 pw so it sort of justifies itself...

[Connor]

I've been given a rough quote of 3k/m2 to lift and build an entirely new two bedroom flat and garage. It would be around 90m2, so plus reconnection etc I reckon it would cost around 300-350k, so I didn't do it. Decided to just sell the house and build new. This is for Auckland.

[Nick G]

Ya, I just want to add a foot of height. So there's a bit of new wall right through, plus one new room which needs to be done from foundations up. Cheers

[Raeburn]

Not strictly what you are after Nick, but friends of ours had a house lifted in Taupo years ago.
They put in a whole new ground floor and the original (now raised) floor then had fantastic views of the lake. Pretty much tripled the value.

Oh really, well that's interesting. It does seem like a low risk high reward situation.

[Viking]

Shifted and Lifted a smaller 3 bedroom house back on a slopimng section after we had excavated the space and then built a concrete block basement underneath for garage etc. No big deal and not that expensive. Was a few years ago now. But well worth the effort as we created a new section which then had a four bedroom house shifted on.

[Wayne]

Oh really, well that's interesting. It does seem like a low risk high reward situation.

I suspect the reward on that one came from changing from no view to having a nice view.
Just doing it to add rooms probably wouldn't triple the value.

[BigDreamer]

Oh really, well that's interesting. It does seem like a low risk high reward situation.

Although I've never attempted this, I suspect it isn't a renovation activity which is low risk.

[Nick G]

You have to allow for damage to the house as it is lifted, which is a big unknown.

[BigDreamer]

You have to allow for damage to the house as it is lifted, which is a big unknown.

Agreed. My comment was disagreeing with Raeburn's 'low risk' comment.