Slanted Floors.
I have a brownstone that has two top floors slanting and am not sure what steps to take to get it fixed. Is it usually something that would require an engineer first to gauge the problem, and if it turns out to be the beams, does that require a lot of time and permits, etc? I am really curious about the cost and timeframe as well, if anyone here has a similar experience. Thank you in advance.
anonystone
in General Discussion 3 years and 1 month ago
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markwalker | 3 years and 1 month ago
Our original contractor’s men were jacking up the joists in the basement. One of the jacks slipped out of place and fell down. The whole building shook. It felt like an earthquake.
The result was some serious cracks in the plaster on the upper floors. They are stable and fixable , but not fun.
As to floors… I have posted here about our floor saga. We had a substantial difference in the height of the back and front of our house, plus sagging in the middle. . We found a competent contractor to remove the sub floors and level the whole first floor. The baseboards, marble threshold in the front, the wood panels under the windows all had to come off. The doors had to be cut down. The stairs going to the second floor were okay as they was not much difference in floor height there, just 3/4 inch, but the basement stairs needed to be rebuilt. They were too low on top, too short on the bottom. You might also need to relocate electrical outlets. too, once you reinstall the baseboards.
Expensive and. disruptive, but worth it, it’s great to not have to watch your step a ll the time, or vacuum things out of separating old floor board spaces My appliances don’t shake and chairs don’t rock and .all that. But we have a very garden variety house, no precious wood work or detail. If you have an amazing house please don’t intervene unless you have to..
If you want to save the old floors I understand you will have to work from under the floor, i. E. open up the ceiling of the floor below. I saw a neighbor’s steel scaffold-like floor support which was designed by an engineer and placed in the basement.
stevecym | 3 years and 1 month ago
Leeb, as these places settle people also repair cracks in the plaster. Then 40 years later, someone goes to jack part of the house and the plaster tries to move back and ends up busting out the repaired stuff and more.
stevecym | 3 years and 1 month ago
Rip up old floor. Leave sub floor. Lay a piece of 1/4″ plywood in center of sag. Make it the shape of the sag, an oval. Make it narrow. Like 1 foot wide and 8 feet shorter than the sag. Screw it down. Not drywall screws. Sub floor screws. Lay underlayment leveling around the plywood, say 1 foot out from it to taper it to the sub floor. Lay another 1/4″ piece of plywood covering the leveling compound and so on and so on. 10 or 12 sheets of ply filling that dip that way and your floor will be level. Lay new floor.
anonystone | 3 years and 1 month ago
I had a contractor referred by a friend look at the flooring. He says they are sloping towards the middle (about 3 inches) but as he walked around the rooms he indicated the edges were solid and therefore may just need “sistering”, but this would require the floor boards to be lifted off. Does anyone know if this is considered a “renovation”, by the building departments definition, and requires a special permit?
Guest User | 3 years and 1 month ago
You also need to consider your doors. I’ve seen people sister and jack and then find they are no longer able to close their doors.
andriywww1990 | 3 years and 1 month ago
so to answer what vard is saying:
if the slant is in the middle, run a string across the floors and keep it taught and held at both ends and use a ruler to measure the widest point in the gap between the string and the floor, usually in the middle.
if it slopes to one side, say around the penetrations, the old way to do this was set the string at the high side and have a helper hold it, run it to the other side and check the line level, and measure the distance between the string and floor. the new way to do this is, fire the helper, get a laser level, set the laser level at one side of the room and shoot it across the floor. be sure it is set level. place a ruler in front of the laser and measure and subtract the height of the laser, where it leaves the level (most laser levels tell you that height).
i am not sure what you will do with your measurements once you have them. different measurements mean different things to different people and in my case both people i had look at mine said the “sag is minor, leave it”. i do not think it is so minor though. maybe vard has some suggestion on how to deal with this if they are minor. if you are happy with the ceiling below this, if it is caused by the joists sagging, you can rip the floor up and level out the floor in a variety of ways and lay a new floor. not sure about how to do the stair penetration issue except by lifting from below, down to the basement.
hasibur.rahman07 | 3 years and 1 month ago
How much is the slant? Can you measure and post the height difference between one side and another.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 3 years and 1 month ago
Not necessarily all that much of a nightmare, if you can live with imperfection. Our last apartment in Park Slope, before buying our PLG house, was a top floor in a house with noticeably slanting floor. When I drive past that house 48 years later I see that it’s STILL standing. 🙂
randolph | 3 years and 1 month ago
sell the house, let someone else do the work. sounds like a nightmare.
stevecym | 3 years and 1 month ago
Second what cate says. We have issues here and i had a genuine structural restoration contractor take a look. Just to get an idea. If we were going to plan work, i would get an engineer.
Sometimes these sags are in the middle of the floor and that involves joist, often. Ours is around the penetration for the stairs and our floor lean in that direction. A little different and if we do something about it, the solution will be a little different.
cate | 3 years and 1 month ago
There are many approaches, but having a structural engineer with a lot of experience with 19th century Brooklyn townhouses evaluate first is a good idea. It may simply be the wood joists are sagging because of age, which is normal. If that is the case, you can leave it as is, or you can remove the floor, sister the joists, put down a new floor, etc. But the engineer will be able to tell you if the problem is something much more serious and structural.