Often you may end up discovering about sinking slab of any portion of the house quite late. You need to get in touch with any professional flooring companies in order to get your floor properly inspected by them so that the foundation levelling can be restored as soon as possible.
What is the sign of uneven slab?
Usually sinking of foundation or slab does not happen overnight. It is a very slow process and you will not be in a position to notice for few months or even years in many cases. That is the reason you must take help of a professional who can identify properly the problem if any.
Following are few symptoms that you may notice:
- Cracks in the floor
- Doors jamming
- Sagging floors
- Stuck windows
- Wall cracks
Things to know before taking any action for levelling
Before you really act upon the levelling problem along with professional you must try to do the following few things:
- Pinpoint the uneven areas
You can use 8 feet carpenter’s level and place it in different places of your floor area to notice if there is any gap. If gap is under centre then it is low spot, but if it rocks too much then it is high spot.
- Determine the problem area
Check conditions of joists and beams lying beneath. Consult structural engineer if you find it is cracked, rotted, broken or termite damage to know the extent of problem.
- Use self-levelling underlayment
You can level the floor with application of cement based self-levelling floor product, if structural engineer found no issues.
- Deal with delaminated subfloor
If subfloor becomes warped then it is not structurally sound and you need to replace damaged subfloor panels by changing with new ones.
- Plane any heaving joist
Sometimes floor joist may bow upward, and you need to remove the subfloor over bowed joist. Then plane the higher part of joist down till it is levelled across the top.
- Use shims for correcting other joist issues
In case, uneven floor is because of floor joists warping or twisting or were installed incorrectly, then you need to remove the subfloor and shim all the joists. Often many homeowners prefer to use the services of professionals in case shimming the joists will be needed. This may cost you little more based on the amount of job.
- Sister inadequate joist system
In the past few builders often used any undersized lumber or must have spaced the joists at far distance while constructing floor joist system. As a result, it was weak, saggy, or even bouncy floor.
Your structural engineer may therefore suggest “sistering” all the joists, which is a process where new joists will be attached to existing joists for adding strength to your floor.
- Figure out the foundation factors
All the above factors are usually responsible for uneven floors, but few other structural problems may also occur which may result into foundation movement, and you may have to take all above foundation moves.
That may also create cracks in walls, uneven floors and doors not closing. All these problems must be inspected by a structural engineer or get suggestion from any online flooring expert.