Sagging on the main floor??

[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

[Handy]

Presumably this wasn't spotted by the surveyor last year. Has this only happened since you moved in? What is the floor under the tiles made of, wood or concrete? What happens when someone jumps up and down on the sagging area, are there any signs of movement in the main entrance area or in the ceiling of the basement below? If you tap the tiles with a screwdriver handle does it sound different in the sagging area (hollow) compared with the non-sagging area (solid)? If it does then the tiles are loose, but that could just be the tile cement breaking up. If the floor was actually sagging I would expect ceramic tiles to come loose. You could ask some tiling firms for estimates for retiling and repairing the floor, to see if they can identify the problem. Your buildings insurance company may send someone to inspect in case it is structural failure of the floor.

[maflatoun]

Thanks for your response. The floors looked extactly the same last year when we moved in. We didn't get an inspector b/c the house so that we can get a better deal on the house (to beat the competition). Some of the tiles are loose but b/c of the poor tiling job on the subfloor (which is wood and not concrete). Also, when I jump up and down there is absolutely no movement. Also I went in the basement and placed a level on all the joists/beams and they're all perfectly level.

Any other feedback is greatly appreciated :) Thx