Floors are regarded as the center of beauty in any house. The use of stylish floor decor may, in a sufficiently great or important way, enhance & boost your interior view. However, with the passage of time, your floor may begin to sag as well as become unleveled. Sagging of floors is considered one of the problems of floating flooring and may severely deprive you of your comfort. If in case the portion of your floor that is directly over & above your crawl space gives off an energetic and lively feel as soon as you walk on it, then there is all possibility that your crawl space has lost its structural integrity, which in turn leads to sagging as well as sinking in the middle.
Causes Of Sagging Floors
- Faulty Floor Support Structure Design: Poor structural support is one of the most common causes of sagging floors. As soon as your floor joists start to lean over because of the pressure and the weight of the overlying material, then your floor will start sagging. The best way to get rid of the sagging floor joists is to install new support structures, for instance, jacks. You should position each jack judiciously while taking care of the bearing weight as well as the strategic location of the joist.
- Moisture Problem: Ascertain or establish whether the sagging of your floor is caused due to the moisture problem or not. If so, then it is important to learn how to dry out your crawl space. It is easy to fix the moisture problem, you simply need to seal the leaks from the outside elements as well as drying out the crawl space. Once you solve the moisture problem, the sagging problem will automatically get solved.
- Settlement Weight: If the reason for your floor to sag is the settlement weight, then it is the best option to install many jacks in order to support the massive weight. Entirely dependent on the extent of the occurrence, you can reinforce the foundation with the help of push piers, which will help keep the foundation stable and safe.
Easy Ways Of Fixing A Sagging Floor
- Troubleshoot: The first step when it comes to finding the area of sag for easy rectification is troubleshooting. Saggy floors are easily seen or noticed, however, you will still need to take measurements from the floor to the ceiling from one side to the other side of the entire floor. The data collected will be very helpful for you to know precisely the points of sag and determine the suitable method to fix it. In spite of the fact that the standard building codes authorize for a certain degree of sinking, you should fix noticeable sags. As another option or possibility, you can use the carpenter’s level positioned on a four-foot 2-by-2-inch board in order to check the extent of the sag. However, a small rolling ball or bottle can also be used on the surface when it comes to checking on the direction as well as the speed of rolling. For immense or heavy sags, the object will move faster.
- Install Additional Beams: Adding steel or wooden beams/jacks will help facilitate proper weight reallocating all over the floor frame, which in turn takes the pressure off the floor joists above your crawl space, as a result reversing the collapsing/sinking effect.
- Install Sister Joists: If in case the floor joists in your crawl space do not have enough support or are too small, you, in all likelihood, will experience a bouncy and sinking floor. This problem can be solved by installing sister joists having an extra joist of equal dimensions, which is also known as the ‘double-up reinforcement’ method. Sistering joists is regarded as one of the great ways when it comes to improving the structural integrity of the floor above your crawl space.
- Overlay The Subfloor: Sometimes, it is possible that the floor above your crawl space could be sagging, but this can be due to a problem with the subfloor, not the floor joists. If your subfloor is composed of thin, wooden boards that can’t bear or hold up the weight of the house, then it is strongly recommended to overlay them with extra structural support material, including plywood boards or Oriented Strand Boards (OSB), due to the reason that both are known for their structural strength.
- Block The Floor Joists: This method involves the installation of rows of wooden blocks betwixt the joists in order to facilitate uniform weight distribution among the floor joists. Blocking is considered the best option that works exceptionally well when the supporting lumber pieces are trimmed out to the same size as the joists they are supporting, and when the blocks are placed or fixed from wall to wall.