Sagging floors are a sign of serious damage to the joists beneath your home and the structure of your home overall. Left untended, this can lead to injury, property loss, and disaster. Worse, insurance companies often will not pay for such losses or repairs if you ignored the issue once the early signs became visible.
Naturally, as time passes, your floors will sag by 1/2″ due to normal wear and tear. However, if you see your floors sagging more than this or forming new cracks you should call us to assess the problem and offer a suitable solution. Sagging floors are not only deformed and unappealing but they can be dangerous.
Uneven floors are rarely caused by problems with the floor itself. The cause is usually settling or shifting of the foundation underneath the floors. If the floor beams and joists are made from wood, like the ones above a crawl space, they will usually bend rather than crack.
Many homeowners and owners of commercial property have dealt with a sagging floor. Floors can sag for many reasons. For instance, they may sag due to the natural settling of your property or building materials over time. However, a sagging floor may also signify damage from water leaks or pests, like termites.
In layman's terms, this means typical 2-by-10 floor joists, spanning 16 feet, can be expected to sag about one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch. Not much; however, as the span increases, so does the amount of deflection. In any case, the floor system can be repaired.
If the floor sags more than a few inches, it may collapse completely, putting everyone in your house in danger. Sagging floors can also cause misalignment of doors and windows, making them harder to open and close. Sagging floors can even crack the walls of your home in extreme circumstances.
Sagging floors are a sign of serious damage to the joists beneath your home and the structure of your home overall. Left untended, this can lead to injury, property loss, and disaster. Worse, insurance companies often will not pay for such losses or repairs if you ignored the issue once the early signs became visible.
Excessive Weight on a Floor
For example, a floor of an office building is generally designed to hold a lot more weight than a floor in a residential home. However, if load-bearing supports are not installed properly, this can cause a floor to collapse.
Keep in mind the various signs of rot, such as creaking and lumpy floors, soft or spongy areas, musty odours, warping or cupping, water stains, and mold or mildew growth. Remember that the primary causes are often moisture-related issues, poor ventilation, and pest infestations.
Sometimes, the signs of sagging or sloping floors in your home are as easy to spot as they sound. Your floors may visually appear slanted. You may even notice objects roll when dropped on the floor. This occurs because the foundation has improperly settled, creating the sloping.
Uneven floors are most common in old homes because the home's foundation shifts over time. For example, it may take about 15-20 years for a foundation to shift and the floors to become uneven.
It can be heartbreaking, but sometimes your only real choice when dealing with foundation issues is to walk away. If the seller won't make repairs, the damage is too extensive or you can't wait for repairs to be completed, you may have no choice but to give up and find your next dream house.
Uneven floors pose a serious risk of slips, trips, stumbles and falls. Our feet instinctively know to expect even and consistent flooring.
Does home insurance cover foundation movement or sagging floors? Foundation damage caused by shifting or settling earth or sagging floors caused by rotting floor joists are typically not covered by homeowners insurance. If the damage is caused by flooding or an earthquake, you'll typically require separate coverage.
The typical costs for repairing sagging floors start at $1000 and can go up to $10,000, with the average rate being around $300 per square foot.
The solution to sagging floors, or the damaged sills and joist ends that contribute to them, often involves jacking. A common scenario is to install temporary jack posts and support beams, then permanent posts and beams over new footings.
Old house or new, mold can develop practically anywhere, as long as the conditions are right. It's not uncommon, for example, for mold to grow under vinyl flooring or under wooden floorboards. Mold can be tricky – it can actually “hide” in its early stages of development, and can go unnoticed for quite some time.
Wood can Start to Rot in 1-6 months If:
The area is at or near the ground. Wood is exposed to dirt.
A: Sagging floors are more common than you might think. In my opinion, the most common causes are wood-eating insects, wood rot caused by water leaks, undersized beams and soil settlement.
Floors are usually designed for a nominal 30psf to 40 psf live load. Example: a 10x10′ room designed for 30 psf can handle 3,000 pounds of people, evenly distributed across it.
When the joists of your floor become old, they weaken and therefore make your floors to sag. Moreover, if they are exposed to high humidity for a long time, they may absorb moisture then rot, which makes them sag.
Safety factor is a measurement with which your floor was designed to support loads without collapsing. Most homes have a safety factor of 40 PSF (pounds per square foot).
For homes where this is the case, the subfloors likely need to be replaced. According to Angi and HomeAdvisor, the cost to replace a subfloor ranges from $428 to $2,978, with a national average of $572.
In other situations, like a recent incident that occurred in Dallas, a floor collapse can be caused by too many people inhabiting an apartment. In this case, far too many people attended a party and were jumping up and down and caused the collapse.