cottage needs support

I am currently looking into buying a small house that consists of a late 19th century, 12ft by 19ft, 1 1/2 story cottage that has a modern, one story shed addition of about the same size. The newer portion is stick built on a slab, but the original cottage is a timber frame on a stone foundation. I have found extensive rot/termite damage to the sills and floor joists under the old house. Basically, I need to find out if and how feasible this will be to repair. The crawl space is minimal, leading me to believe that either the floor needs to come out to work from inside the house, or the frame has to be jacked up, to expose the sills from the outside. I am interested in looking into any options, and I am willing but not commited to doing some of the neccessary work myself.

Thank you for any info you might have.

- Rob

I'm not sure doing the work yourself is the best idea. Properly stabilizing and jacking a house is not an easy task, but it quite do-able. The problem comes with the stick framed area more than the timber framed section.

Depending on the extent of the damage, you may have to both remove the floor, and expose the sills from outside. Whatever you do, I would recommend borate treatment of any wood that is left as is, as well as any new wood that will be in the damp environment of the crawlspace.

You might want to hire someone to appraise the damage and recommend the required repairs first hand.

Good luck and work safe.