what does it mean when the floor in your garage is not even?

Question

i am looking at buying a home and the garage floor has what i would call a hump in the middle. one part of floor raises up. i am having the house inspected, but i was just curious if anyone had any expeirence with this. if you know what causes this, if it is structural? also if you have had this problem and had it fixed what did it cost? thanks

Answer 1

First this should not be a structural issue. Typically the garage floor slab in poured separately from the foundation meaning the garage floor could completely fall apart and the walls will still be fine. Most of the time concrete heaves due to moisture either a lack of or excessive amount. Unless it has raised more than 1" I would recommend leaving it alone. The only proper way to fix it is to cut out that section of concrete and repour this repair would be in the thousands of dollars depending on the size.

Answer 2

You did not mention if there was a crack in the floor to go along with the hump.... If there is no visible crack... did the homeowner put down a layer of floor leveler over an existing crack and just do a poor job of it?
How large is this 'hump'? Is it centrally located, and slope off evenly in all directions?

Garage floors will often develop cracks in them - especially if theyve actually had vehicles parked in them. "Cutting them out and repouring" is NOT the only way to fix these problems. That is actually more costly to do than to have a 'mud jacking' company come in and relevel the floor for you. They will cut a notch off to one side, dig down a bit, (or drill a hole) and rig the slab so that they can pump a concrete slurry mix under the slab space. This actually raises the portion of the floor that has settled -- thus the term "mud jacking". So, if the floor has a crack, along with this hump, it can be easily corrected, just get a couple estimates from some local contractors.

Now... if it was a cracked floor, and the homeowner simply covered over it with a floor leveler... then its going to have to be busted out and replaced eventually. You can leave it as is, if you don't mind the floor being uneven.

Ask questions, and have the inspector take a good look at the floor. Worst case scenario - work out a deal with the homeowner that leaves a certain amount of money in escrow to repair that floor if it needs it.

Someone has already mentioned that garage floors are usually just slabs... and therefore not 'load bearing'... your floor was poured after the foundation was put in. So, while the floor may sink, the foundation itself shouldnt be affected by it.

Good Luck

Answer 3

Maybe there is a run off of water so the floor is built up so it runs down/off to the sides where there is drainage? I would ask the homeowner why it is like it. My other educated guess would be frost/cold weather has caused the floor to expand and contract similar to frost heaves.