San Francisco House Lift
Though it may sound like an extreme thing to do, this San Francisco house lift solved a big problem for its owners.
Off-street parking in San Francisco is very desirable and sought after. Most of the turn-of-the-century homes we work on don’t have garages. It’s because they were constructed prior to widespread adoption of the automobile.
We frequently get asked if it’s possible to add a garage to an existing basement level. The answer depends on the characteristics of the site. For one, the garage needs to be somewhere near eight feet in height. Also, the driveway slope cannot be too steep or vehicles will bottom-out.
For this project in Cole Valley, we lifted the house as much as the planning code allowed, and also relocated it back from its original location. The combination of lifting and literally “pushing” the house back allowed us to build a usable garage. Even more interesting, there was literally only one inch of space between this house and the two adjacent houses.
San Francisco House Lift: for more info and photos of the finished project click here.
