I just bought a house on a slab with a partial basement. The part of the house that is on a slab, then crawl space and then main level, has floors sloping towards the wall that is in middle of the house ( the house is 20 years old). A structural engineer said that the weight bearing wall on the main level and the corresponding wall on the second floor caused the 2 2x10s to give in ( the slope is about 1.5 inches). He recommended putting a steel post in the crawl space to prevent any further dipping. He told us NOT to jack it up as this might case cracks in the wall especially the ones on the second floor. Won't a steel post like that scare off potential buyers who might think that there is some serious problem with the house? Our pre-purchase inspector never said anything about this so is it better to just leave it alone or install the post?
2007-12-20 07:29:08 · 8 answers · asked by Jennifer B 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
The inspector said not to jack it up because the sagging might have occurred when the house was being built and the builder might have compensated for this on the second floor. So if I jack it up now, it might cause cracks and damage on the second floor. Walking on a sloping floor bothers me quite a bit so is there any way to make it flat again without jacking it up? If the subflooring is wood and then we have a wooden floor on top of that, can I use the left-leveling cement to make the floor straight after the steel post is installed?
2007-12-20 07:49:12 · update #1
I'd put the steel post in. You can probably get them at a home improvement store or at a lumber yard.
Builders put these in as supports in houses all the time when they are built. I have 4 in my basement under the main wooden beam. I'm a little surprised your house didn't have one when it it was built, unless a former owner removed it. Are there any signs of this where the inspector said you should put the beam? Any odd marks on the beam overhead, or on the cement floor?
This will improve the comfort and usability of your house for you now, or at least prevent it from detiorating any more. If you let this go, and it sags even more, no buyer will want it, because they will think that they will have to put a ton of money into the house. And they'd be right.
You *MIGHT* ask the engineer if you could VERY SLOWLY jack the post up over time. Maybe you can remove some of the sag and make the house more livable. I know that when I walk across an uneven floor, I tend to notice it. You might be able to do something about this. By "very slowly", I mean something like 1/10th inch every 2-3 months. But ask the engineer about this - don't do it because someone on the internet said it might work!
I wouldn't worry about what a potential buyer will think, unless you bought the place with the idea of flipping it for a profit. I'd be more worried about making it more livable for me, if it was my place.
2007-12-20 07:43:40 · answer #1 · answered by Ralfcoder 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not necessarily. My parents house has two steel supports in the basement. It was like that when the house was built. If I saw one like that in your crawlspace, I would probably assume that it had been there all along.
Noticing the sloping floors AND the steel post might raise questions, but not any more than the sloping floors would have on their own. If you just ignore the problem and the floors sag even more and cracks start appearing in the walls and stuff you will have much bigger problems than a steel post in the crawlspace.
2007-12-20 09:30:05 · answer #2 · answered by Brian A 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would get 2 or three more opinions before you do anything. Don't do what the first guy tells you to do. I have been down this road before.
Considering that the house is only 20 years old and it is dipping already, I'd be afraid there is something going on in the ground (shifting or something to that effect) It's not normal. If the ground is shifting, the steel beam is only going to be a quick fix for the sagging.
Honestly, get another few opinions and weigh all your options.
2007-12-20 07:34:39 · answer #3 · answered by Mkath 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would think the post would show potential buyers in the future to think, ok, there was a problem that has been fixed. Your house inspector should have caught this defect before you purchased the house and you could have made it an issue with the sellers to either fix it or give you a discount for the cost of fixing the problem.
2007-12-20 07:36:46 · answer #4 · answered by ♥♥The Queen Has Spoken♥♥ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If an expert advised you to put in the steel post, I'd do it--but perhaps you could put sheetrock or stucco or something of the like to make it fit in better with your surroundings. It would still obviously be there, but perhaps less obvious a "problem area" if you make it look like it was always intended to be there, rather than to fix a problem.
2007-12-20 07:34:34 · answer #5 · answered by Alex M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You must tell any potential buyer about this defect anyway. The post won't scare them as much as the structural defect will.
2007-12-21 11:34:52 · answer #6 · answered by John himself 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that the post should be OK, get several (at least 3) professional opinions first.
2007-12-20 07:33:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah. It could raise questions, but what is the alternative?
2007-12-20 07:32:28 · answer #8 · answered by Billy Shat 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋