I have found that the floor in a downstairs room has dropped over an inch from the skirting board. Advice pls?

Answer 1

If your floor has dropped it is not your foundations it is the floor itself that has moved. If it is a concrete floor the whole slab can settle in time sometimes because of water washing the earth away from underneath but this is usually in a small area of the floor. You could put a new floor in as it probably is out of date insulation wise. Take it up and put a 5inch slab of polystyrene (whatever the current regs require) and put a 4 inch slab on top.
Hard work but you will do your part in reducing energy consumption.

Answer 2

Is there basement access under the sinking room?

Get down there and take a look at the support posts. Has a support post rusted and no longer adding support? Are there cracks in the basement floor or some other evidence of instability? In a finished basement, you might have to pop up a few ceiling tiles if possible to make some self inspection.

Next look at the floor joists --- these will be above you (if you are still in the basement :). Anything unusual? Cracking? If something doesn't look right, compare to floor joists of other (non-sinking rooms).

Joists often travel from the sill (the top of your concrete foundation) to rest on a steel beam running down the center of your basement ceiling. Are all of them still on the beam? Does the beam look level? Follow along the beam and ensure that all of the support posts are still in place and stable.

Has anyone recently tried to move one of the support posts, e.g. to make room for a pool table?

Anyway, that's where I'd start. An inch is too far. After some initial quick self inspection, I'd get a builder in and would not wait until winter to do it. Too many other structural problems downstream if you wait. If sinking continues you will wreck door frames, windows, etc.

Good luck.

Answer 3

An inch sounds a lot. If its a new house you will get a bit of settlement which will cause fine cracks in plaster& maybe timber items splitting a bit as they dry, but it does sound as though something below the floor has dropped or broken, re positioning the skirting wont cure the cause so if you are handy I would get a couple of floorboards up in that area and have a look

Answer 4

This could end up being a structural problem, that if left unattended could result in bigger problems down the road. My family buy, sells and restores old homes in an area where the homes are over 100 years old. We get these floor jacks that have a crank on them. You place them in the basement under the problem area and crank them up until you get a snug fit Then you crank it up one notch a day, not all at once because this is to much sudden change and could cause cracks in the wall . You will start to notice your floor meeting back up to the base. When it gets to this point you can now insert some support bars under the area and remove the jack. You can rent these jacks at a tool rental shop or purchase them fro your favorite DYI store.

Answer 5

quite likely the joist ends are dropping, either they are rotten or the wooden wall plate is rotten, take up a floor board or two and have a look with a torch, look for wood worm activity or powderyness around the wood, stab the timbers with a screwdriver, if powdery or flakey they will need replacing, quite an easy job to replace joists and floor if you know what ur douing with a spirit level, otherwise call a chippie

Answer 6

You could have given more details i,e, Is there a basement, If it is a wooden floor can you prise out one of the boards, is it a woodblock floor. Assuming a common wooden floor, it is possible that the "toes" of the joists have rotted where they meet the brickwork. If it is a .new house then it is settlement

Answer 7

Get bigger skirting boards Sounds like your foundations have moved, are there any cracks in the walls? You would need to get some one out to look at it

Answer 8

you have to get under there to inspect. there should be floor joists of about 2x8 or 2x10 or 2x12 inches, not 2X4s. there might be support posts of steel, wood, maybe cement block. the joists should rest on an area of the foundation, did it shift and slip off in one place? Look and compare.

Answer 9

dont panic it could be your founds have split not collapsed. you need to get a builder in. if you can wait til the cold weather comes itll be cheaper coz they dont do much work in the winter and drop there prices

Answer 10

to much vitamin C in your water take some out and the house will stop growing...and don't tell the rates people they will put your rates up ..