Is your home’s flooring uneven or sloping? Unlevel floors are common in older homes, and even in newer homes, especially with Oklahoma’s shifting clay soil. While it’s true that all houses settle over the years, there are times when sloped floors are a sign of a serious problem with the foundation.
How can you tell the difference between normal settling and a more significant structural issue that requires floor leveling solutions? Here’s what homeowners need to know about that uneven flooring beneath your feet.
What Causes Floors to Slope, and Why It Matters
Soil Expansion and Contraction
Houses settle as they age because the soil under the foundation expands and contracts as it grows moist due to rain, then hardens as it dries out. This ongoing cycle of soil movement can cause minor issues with any house’s structure, or it can cause more serious problems.
Aging Wood Floor Joists
As time passes, the wood that makes up the floor’s support structure can bend under the weight it holds up. A small amount of bending is normal and expected, especially in older homes. But a sagging floor can also be due to rotting wood and other structural issues, and should be inspected to assess the extent of the damage.
Foundation Damage
Many things can result in a damaged home foundation, including leaks, termite and pest infestation, improper construction techniques, flooding, tree roots, and more. If the cause of sloping, sagging floors is due to foundation damage, then leaving the issue unaddressed means the damage will grow worse over time, putting your home at risk.
How to Assess Uneven Flooring
Check for signs of slanting, sagging or rising spots in the flooring, particularly on your home’s ground level. You may see bulging tiles or exposed concrete. If your home has sloped floors, there are some things to look for that will help determine how serious the issue is.
Age of the home
Measure ceiling to floor on all sides of the room to see if they are even or not. Keep in mind that in very old homes, you’re likely to see more uneven flooring. But if the home was built in the past few years, the floors should not be sloped at all.
One-way slope
A little sagging in the center of the floor is usually minor, caused by settling that isn’t damaging to the home’s structural soundness. But if a floor is higher on one end than on the other, it is often a sign of significant structural damage. A quick test you can do yourself is to place a marble at one end of the floor and see if it rolls down toward the other end.
Inferior floor design
The size and spacing of floor joists (supports) should be appropriate to the size of the room. When the joists are the wrong size or aren’t spaced properly, it can cause structural damage. A floor leveling contractor or structural engineer can assess how your house’s floor was constructed, to see if this is the cause of your uneven flooring.
Telltale cracks
As floors shift, the movement can cause your house’s walls to move too. The smooth seams in drywall can break, and walls may bow and crack from the pressure as the foundation moves. As a result, you may notice wide cracks, stairstep breaks in mortar around bricks, and cracks at the corners of door frames. The biggest causes for concern include horizontal cracks, wide cracks, new cracks regularly forming, cracked ceramic tiles (because these usually don’t break unless you have structural problems), and matching cracks that appear in the same place both inside and outside the home’s wall.
Other Signals You Need Floor Leveling
There are several other signs that your home’s uneven floor needs an inspection and possibly structural repairs. Here’s what to look for.
1. Tilting Chimney
Along with sloped floors, you may see signs of structural damage in your chimney. This is especially true if the chimney’s foundation is part of the home’s foundation. As the structure grows damaged, it can show up in a cracked or leaning chimney.
2. Windows and Doors that Stick
Your home’s doors and windows are designed to hang evenly within their frames and function smoothly. When a home’s foundation is structurally strong and sound, the doors and windows will easily open and close. But as foundation damage grows, floors slant and walls crack, causing doors and windows to hang unevenly and get stuck.
3. History of Frequent Repairs
While all homes need occasional repairs over the course of time, a frequent need to fix any of the signs mentioned here can signal the underlying issue is a damaged foundation. If the foundation isn’t repaired, issues like these will continue to crop up:
- Constant patching of cracks in walls
- Repeated need to adjust doors within their frames
- Regular replacement of locks and latches that don’t line up anymore
- Frequent attempts to fix gaps in mortar between bricks
How a Floor Leveling Contractor Can Address the Issue
Fixing sloped floors means returning them to a level state, so that they properly play their supporting role for the walls of your home. Doing it right is important, and a floor leveling contractor (like us) can ensure the causes of the problem are addressed completely. Our process for interior slab repair (or any other foundation repair) includes:
- Measuring how much the floor slopes
- Assessing your foundation to identify any damage
- Examining your home for other signs of structural damage
- Providing a thorough plan so you know what to expect
- Repairing the subfloor and performing other repairs if needed
Our team of professionals is here to answer your questions about your floors or your foundation. In the meantime, view our online reviews to discover why Oklahoma homeowners appreciate our foundation repair solutions.
