How To Level Your Floors In Old House

Even brand new houses experience some movement of the foundation.

How to level your floors in old house.

The question is how do you level a floor that sinks toward the center of a home. Lay a long level downhill on the floor with one end of the level on the level part of the floor and the other end at the lowest point. And how much of this can. Run a line outside the house and mark the low spots in the foundation.

The only problem with owning an older house is that you can run into a myriad of problems. If your house is built over a basement first inspect all of the basement support beams and posts where they meet the floor. If you have uneven floors in old house issues you can rectify this. If you have a crawl space foundation which is common in the south a sagging floor often means you have a structural problem with your floor joists or beams.

Raise the lower end of the level until the bubble is centered then measure the distance from the bottom of the level to the floor to find the depth of the dip. Assign a person to each jack and raise the jacks slowly and at the same time until the spirit level shows the house is level. Determine the underlying problem. Place your level in several different spots as you did before to get a more accurate reading of the floor s overall slope.

The level shouldn t be off by more than 3 16 inch 0 48 cm any minor deviations you happen to discover shouldn t impact the stability of the finished floor. As the posts slowly rot and melt into the floor the house settles accordingly bottom to top. A plywood subfloor will bridge any minor waves in the existing floor and leveling compound would help too. You re dealing with older material.

Before taking steps to level a floor you must find out why it s not level. How to level an existing house. Leveling a floor can be either a do it yourself project or a job for the pros. You will have to make sure your joists can handle the addition of considerably more weight from the plywood subfloor and any floor coverings.

Be suspicious of wood posts set on dirt floors or wood posts with concrete poured around the post bases. On the top side of the floor another fix it idea to lay down new hardwood over the existing floor. Foundations settle over time. Over time the dirt your house sits atop can compact causing the foundation to sink.

Having an older house can add a lot of character especially if you are into that style and design.