advice on what to do with partially collapsed cabin posts?

Hi there.   We are here in the Ozarks.  Have a couple of acres.  Living in a rv for now, but want to rebuild an old cabin just a little
bit to make it livable for a couple of years until we can build something better.  This cabin was built in 2010 and has been mostly
abandoned, stripped by thieves since then.  Still have bare bones, good roof.  When we built it we had little money like we do now....
we used gravel and 4x4s as the foundation.  
Since then the posts have settled and the floor is a little uneven, but something I'm willing to live with since it is just a two year shelter.

We are cleaning and painting it.  Will put insulation and wood stove in for this winter.  Will have a couple of outlets for electric and a water hose
from our well to it for some water.  Sewer is.....well, holes in the ground for now.

So we don't want to spend much on this.  What do you think about the bottom of the cabin touching the ground in some places.
It seems like if we try to jack it up and put cinder blocks under it, it causes more construction problems .....

How about just putting some bug powder down and putting a layer of insulation or plastic sheeting on the floor and stapled up the walls a bit?
Any ideas?  thank you for your time.  

Two things to ask;
- will you have continued trouble with the vandals?
- I would simply jack up the floor joists where the 'stumps' have sunk and insert a spacer. But you seem to suggest that will not work, is that correct?
- Why not spend some time effort and money to do a better job, so it lasts anyway?

If the cabin sits on the soil, you may have issues with dampness, I think from your description nothing has been done to prevent termites or similar?

Pictures would help greatly.  In general, touching the ground is not good, but more specifics would help.  

Hi Bethany,
If the floors being unlevel is not a structural issue and you are trying to save money, then I would leave well enough alone.

Having said that I would tend to agree with John Daley on putting some money into it and getting it down right. A foundation is not the place to scrimp on money or materials.

Bethany, I have read this thread several times and each time I question the title:

advice on what to do with partially collapsed cabin posts?

And I ask myself "has anyone answered this question?"

How were the posts originally installed?  In cement?

Can new posts be added to brace the collapsed ones and raise them?

As has been mentioned, pictures are worth a thousand words.

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Bethany,
If the floors being unlevel is not a structural issue and you are trying to save money, then I would leave well enough alone.

Having said that I would tend to agree with John Daley on putting some money into it and getting it down right. A foundation is not the place to scrimp on money or materials.

Thanks for your response.  This was the best we could do in 2010. Feeding people can sometimes take precedence over buying concrete.
We may build a small cabin in a year or so and we will not make the same mistake. Our kids are grown now so not as hard. Still a tight budget. We have worked a lot but still don't have a lot of money....imagine that in the great USA. But thankful to God for what we have.
Jacking it up has proven to cause more.
Might do some pictures this weekend.
I think we will put down some plastic type material or insulation and call it good.
Have a good day.    

Hi Bethany, I'm sure that making the floor windproof will make a huge amount of difference. I'm imagining from your text that you have 4x4 lying flat on a gravel base with some sort of planking creating your floor surface. To give you heart, our bathroom floor is completely rotten so that we've had to reinforce it with ply in places to stop falling through! I 'insulated' it (it is a suspended floor) with an off cut of damp proof membrane (the drafts when having a bath were annoying!) and this 'temporary' fix has lasted about 10 years so far! We're living in this house though and don't have your cold winters. I suspect a bit of insulation (assuming roof and walls are already done) would be worthwhile for you. Get a livable fix done and spend wisely on making the new house awesome!

I can imagine what you mean about more damage when you try to jack it up but to secure the structure you will have to correct the post situation.
in many post constructed  buildings the posts are supported by concrete pillars under them. this puts base of post above moisture zone.
this might work for you. fasten solid block to a side lower portion of post so you have solid support to place a jack under. jack the post up, cut post flush where wood is solid.  get rotten post wood out of the ground and fill with rocks. or you might be able to put a temporary beam across more than one post to have a solid place to jack posts up. build a form around post base and fill form with concrete. with taper outside post base so no water can pool at post base.
then once posts are secure you can address the rest of the structure. it would be much less work and cost than replacing building.

Thank you Nancy for your encouragement and Bruce you have just kinda stated what I was just thinking.  I think we will remove the flooring until the cross beams are exposed and this will help us access the bottom beams so we can come up with a way to rebuild the foundation/support system for the cabin.  

I think this would be worthwhile and possibly not too expensive and would give us many more years in the long run.

Sorry I've been busy working and fighting a knee problem.  Plan to get out there today and tommorow.  At some point I will take pictures for you all.

Thank you all for your responses    we bought some 2 ton bottle jacks and have jacked the cabin up and put concrete blocks under it.

Definitely an improvement

Next summer we plan to build another room onto this or connect with a short hallway so we can share heat and ac between the rooms.
We are now insulating and getting ready to install us stove