That sinking feeling
For many of my clients, crooked floors are a deal-breaker. Correcting a sunken house is just too hard. Best you can do is keep it from sinking more. Can you live in the incredible sinking house?
Old housing stock is not the cause of warped floors. It is the excuse. If there is not enough framing and foundation under the house, gravity finds the weak spots in the first five years or so. Therefore, that “charming” old house has been crooked since 1910.
Not all settling is that way. Some houses age slowly and gracefully later in the house’s lifetime. They were built solidly, but are aging. If the house is sinking to the foundation, water may have damaged the foundation or sill. Wood-boring pests may have chewed into the sill, since they like it wet. The compressed sill takes the floor joist downward as it sinks.
If a house settles into the middle, the center beam or its supports are the weak link. In very old houses here, I sometimes still see cedar posts. They look like trees without bark. Because they are wood, they expand and contract slightly as they absorb dampness and dry out. After a hundred years, they warp and so does the floor above. The other posts that give up the ghost are hollow steel poles. They are subject to rust. The rusty part compresses, taking the house with it, earthward.
The center beams get a little curve along the bottom or twist to either side. That is a sign of not enough supports along the route, or too small a center beam. The most common spot for water and bug damage is where the center beam meets the foundation.
Then there is human error. Plumbers and electricians cut through floor joists to run pipes and electric lines. Toilet and tub seals leak, unnoticed, and water damages the floor joists. People “open up” a room by removing supports without considering the weight that the beam is carrying. People pile exceptionally heavy objects like pianos, water beds, and bookshelves on joists that aren’t designed to hold that much.
Buyers, what should you look for? When you enter an unfinished basement, check the foundation. You are looking for changes in the shape of the wall itself. Stone or rubble foundation will have a little bumpiness to it, but you should be able to tell if it is basically straight. Mortar will crack and flake; the trick is to replace it before the stone or brick starts moving. Look at what’s holding the center beam. Is it supported and straight? Are all the floor joists parallel to one another, or twisted? Or cracked? You should be able to get a feel for it. But mostly, is the floor straight upstairs?
How much tilt can you handle?
