Sagging House Floors

There are lots of clues that indicate structural problems in a house.

Sagging house floors.

The average person can sense if a floor slopes 1 inch in 10 feet and sloping floors or sagging floors are often one of the warning signs that structural engineers look for when analyzing a house. Even historic houses have saggy sloping floors. These problems can result from open crawl space vents or doors excessive moisture and humidity and wet rotting wood. I can tell that without even seeing it from the description.

Sagging floors a common problem in old homes have many potential causes. Old houses often have floors that are less than perfect. Some are serious structural issues that require the attention of a contractor while others are more routine cosmetic problems that you can solve yourself if you re a fairly advanced do it yourselfer. Over time the dirt your house sits atop can compact causing the foundation to sink.

In my own house for example every floor pitches toward the center stairwell. And not all structural problems are that big a deal. Fixing a sagging floor requires patience and construction experience but it can be done. Many older homes have problems with sloping and sagging floors.

Sagging floors result from failing floor joists in the crawl space underneath your house. Foundation repairs are the most expensive reason for sagging floors in old houses. Minor workarounds are possible such as leveling individual elements within the floor tables armoires cabinets etc. If you have a crawl space foundation which is common in the south a sagging floor often means you have a structural problem with your floor joists or beams.

Check sag locate the area on the floor where it sags by measuring the height in the room from the floor to. That house has a structural problem. Well after doing the navy seal crawl up under the house we found that the joists that were supporting that floor were not actually attached to the sill plate any longer as seen in the photograph below. In a lot of cases the owners of these homes simply ignore the problem or pass it off as a normal part of having a classic house.

Some homeowners when confronted with staggering bills for floor repairs come to terms with their floors. The sagging floor was the symptom and somewhere under the house there had to be a cause. Although most floors slope it is important to know how much and why. Though a sloped floor might indeed bring some character to a house some of the issues that can cause them can lead to other problems down the road.

Floors out of level windows and doors sticking or not closing properly bouncy floors or floors that sag in spots in a room.