Sloping Floors

[Mark A]

Hi chaps,

We viewed a property for sale on Tuesday which requires completely renovating throughout. The upstairs floors are all sloping considerably in different directions and it's very disorientating. I'm talking several inches over a short distance.

The house is semi-detached and is about 100 years old.

If we did purchase the property, how would you remedy the problem, bearing in mind we would want to keep the original floorboards?

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

we had a 400 year old cottage with the same issue. We carpeted! In the bathroom, because the water wouldn't drain down the plug in the bath unless the floor was plumb (camber built into the bath) we had to pull a plumb line as a datum then clamp modern timbers to the level line and scribe where the out of true joists met them on their underside. Cutting 4x2 to that line was a pain in the neck but we ripped them by hand with a spin saw following the line by eye in the end. That meant our new joists sat on the old ones and the scribe compensated for the camber while the tops were dead flat upon which we laid a modern t&g chip floor. If you were able to fix new joists to the sides of existing ones you wouldn't need to scribe them but in our case the room beneath had the old joists visible as part of the ceiling (exposed beams) so the new had to sit on top of the old.

 

[Jacob]

Depends but simple option no1 is to live with it and make minimal adjustments where essential. I did that in my last house but 3. The roof sagged like a saddle too. It looks very quaint and was worth quite a lot by the time it had been improved - without levelling floors or rebuilding roof.

 

[AndyT]

I had a similar problem in our house in the dining room
We wanted to put down smooth oak flooring which would have looked weird if it sloped down 2" across the room.
So I lifted the boards and used a laser level to project a straight line across the tops of the joists. I stood new wood on top of each joist in turn, starting from the far side, and transferred the projected level line onto the new wood. I then ripped along the lines to cut long wedge shaped firring pieces and stuck and screwed them on. Result was a set of level topped joists.
In my case I then fitted plywood, underlay and the oak flooring but you could just replace the boards.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

We used to have a builder's merchant who would cut the fillets for you, but they've long stopped. There's no reason not to cut them on a bench (or band) saw, though - they are only packers, they're not structural and only need to be a few feet long.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Just a thought - if it leaves you a step in doorway, you may well wish you left it alone.

 

[Graham Orm]

Don't touch it. Theres a reason everythings moved. It's probably un-mortgageable anyway.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... and on that happy note ...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wonder, with houses that age and older. I had one house with a slight run in the upstairs floors, and the head of one of the door linings was running 3/4" ... in the opposite direction. You could see it was running 20 yards away. It was put in crooked, nothing else had moved. Builders often didn't seem to care. A late friend, an electrician, who bought a house close to me (and this was the classiest part of town) said one day that if he heard one more person say to him that the Victorians really knew how to build, he'd lamp them.

 

[Mark A]

Hi chaps,

Thanks for the advice! The technique described (clamp, scribe and rip) is exactly what I suspected; however, phil.p's comment above is spot on - if I levelled the floors it could result in steps in every doorway. Not an issue for us personally, but from an aesthetic prospecticive? The house is a rather uninspiring semi, not a 16th century cottage and it wouldn't be able to carry it off.

Graham - I will research historic subsidence in the area right away;however, I was lead to believe properties are only unmortgageable if movement is a current issue?

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Your problem is that it is not really a step - it's two or three inches of trip hazard. You'll trip over it as long as you live there.

 

[Chrispy]

I was once asked to make some blocks to level up a bed because the floor was not level, when I went and looked the carpet was like a trampoline, there must have been a good inch gap between it and the boards really weird to walk on! and the bed needed a good 4 or 5" at the foot end. that really was an old house.

 

[Mark A]

Hi chaps,

Thanks for the advice. We knocked on a neighbour's door over the weekend to find out some more info re the area and he confirmed that there is subsidence along the street from mining.

Lying B*****d Estate Agent Ltd. had the audacity to say to us later: "Subsidence? What subsidence? I've been there several times this week for viewings and can't say I noticed anything..."

It's like a bloody fairground funhouse the way the floors slope from one way to the other; the only thing missing is some distorting mirrors!

It's not worth the hassle so we've walked away.

Mark

 

[Graham Orm]

You did the right thing.

 

[finneyb]

Lying B*****d Estate Agent Ltd. had the audacity to say to us later: "Subsidence? What subsidence? I've been there several times this week for viewings and can't say I noticed anything..."

Mark

And your reply should have been '... Should have gone to Specsavers ...

Brian