Sagging floor less than 1/2 inch in 6 feet

[maflatoun]

Hi,

We bought our house last year and a friend of mine pointed out our sagging floors just in the main entrance area (First floor on top of the basement). There are around 5 rows of titles (each spanning 15 titles). The first row closest to the living room is perfectly straight while the second row has a slight downward slope all the way to the last row closest to the kitchen (less than 1/2 inch depth). It looks like it has stablized and it's not sagging any more. Both the living room and our kitchen area is perfectly leveled. Our house is around 18 years old and the tiles don't have any crack or loose grout (except in some parts as a result of poor tiling). What I want to know is that is this a bad tiling job? or sagging? Also if it has stablized do I need to worry about it? It's not noticable at all.

BTW, also there is height fluctuation between floor and the baseboards anywhere from 0-1/4 inches.

Thanks Maz

[Phil L]

Sagging? Worry?

-yes.

if there's any kind of bounce or movement, and if it's a wooden floor under the tiles, then it's possibly joist end rot, possibly caused by inadequate ventilation, get into the basement and check joist ends individually, take a torch and a screwdriver and poke it (the screwdriver, not the torch) into each end.

HTH

[maflatoun]

I did and it's really solid (wasn't able to poke holes). Should I still worry? Any other suggestions?

Thanks Maz.

Phil L wrote:

[Phil L]

If the skirting board has stayed where it was put and the floor has moved downwards, which it has, it goes without saying that at least some of the joists have dropped....why have they dropped? - what was under them that is no longer under them for them to drop? - are there any signs of a packer that has rotted away? What are the joists sitting directly onto?

If the joists are sitting on a solid wall, then this too has sagged, in which case you have nothing to worry about...if there's a packer or spacer which has disappeared, you may need to jack up the offending joists and repack...if the brick/blockwork is solid and in good order in the basement then I wouldn't worry as it's probably just settlement,although why it should be localised to one area and not uniform I don't know.