House raising
House raising (house lifting, house jacking, barn jacking, building jacking) is the process of separating a building from its foundation and temporarily raising it with hydraulic screw jacks. The process is the first step in structure relocation in which the building is moved to a different location. House raising may also be a part of a renovation to build a foundation under an existing house or make a house larger by building a new floor level creating a two story house. Often employed in areas that are prone to flooding and storm damage, this process can be achieved through the use of either timber piles or helical piles. Once a house is raised and supported on cribbing, a new foundation can be constructed beneath it. After Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy large numbers of houses in parts of Louisiana, New York and New Jersey were raised to avoid future flooding.
Extraordinary assumptions and hypothetical conditions
A lender may be considering making a loan to finance the construction of a house and may need to know the value of the collateral that will result. The subject property is a vacant lot, but the client needs to know what the value of the lot is or would be or will be with a house (of certain described physical characteristics) constructed on it. For purposes of discussion, we will assume that everybody expects the construction of the house to take about six months.