What to do if your Floors Aren’t Level

Many issues in the house can cause sloping or sagging floors and repairing them is not always easy. Deteriorating wood support, foundation issues, improperly installed sub-floors or joists and other issues can all cause the floors to be uneven and saggy. Fixing sloping floors is a lengthy and expensive operation. It can also be a challenge to find the right people to do this job. See why Structural Restoration Services is a preferred choice of residents of Lonsdale.

On many projects that I’ve taken, I’ve seen that older homes are particularly notorious for sagging and sloping floors.  In many cases, I’ve seen owners of the homes ignore the issues and treat them as part of owning an aging house. Though you might argue that a sloping floor might bring out the character of the house, there can be some other, more serious underlying issues to an uneven floor. This is why it is a good idea to have a professional come and evaluate the state of the floor in your house and recommend what might need to be done. Give us a call at (08) 8326 4477 to schedule a visit.

Identify the Root Cause

You might want to consider hiring a structural engineer to diagnose the problem, unless you trust a contractor to be able to identify the problem. The diagnosis is very important as it can end up being a very expensive job. Hiring a structural engineer will help because they will not have anything to do with the actual repair work and therefore will give a more honest assessment. They will also be in a better position to give you advice on the type of contractor that will be best suited to do the job. It might be that certain contractors might only be specialists in specific kinds of repair work.

Fix a Sloping Floor

In case a professional has identified that the cause of the uneven floor is something that will compromise the integrity of the entire house, you might be able to fix the underlying root cause and leave the rest of the floor as is. However, if the uneven or sloping floor is too severe to be ignored, fixing it will need to be your priority. Foundation specialists like us will always repair the structural problems first and then look at mending the uneven or sloping floor.

This can involve jacking up the floor joists and then installing supports or it can also just require jacking up the entire house and installing new footers. Jacking up the house can take some considerable amount of time. This is why you will need to plan in advance if you want to avoid any structural damage from happening.

In case your sloping floor is because of the floor being installed improperly, you might be able to have a new floor installed in place of the existing one. I’ve had customers who also had to have a new subfloor installed to create a new moisture seal. This is common in older homes with deteriorating support systems under the floor.

Any floor job can be complex, which is why I recommend you getting in touch with us for a free assessment. We will thoroughly inspect the issue and give you an honest recommendation on the best approach to fix an unlevelled floor.