What is your issue?

Diagonal or "stair-step" cracks in walls and ceilings

Horizontal or vertical cracks and "bowing in" of basement walls

Settled or uneven concrete floors and stoops

Sagging Floors

Symptoms and Solutions: Settlement of Concrete Floors or Stoops

Problem

Hover to view diagram.
A
Upstairs frame floor unaffected.
B
Stoop or porch settled and rotated away from wall.
C
Supporting ledge on wall.
D
Uncompacted fill soil.
E
Settled/cracked concrete floor.
F
Foundation not affected.

Non-uniform settlement of concrete floors or stoops frequently indicates inadequate soil support for affected floor or foundation.

Causes

Hover to view diagram.
A
Soft or poorly compacted fill soil beneath floor or stoop.
B
Thin or defective concrete.
C
In some situations, particularly garages and stoop the concrete is suported on a ledge along the adjacent walls;hence if the underlying soil settles.The floor sag or tip without cracking.

Solution: Re-Leveling

  1. Relevel and reinforce or replace defective framing.

  2. Relevel and reinforse defective beam or column. Sometimes adding one or more columns is more cost effective than renovating the existing ones.

  3. Underpin settling foundation with one of the appropriate foundation underpinning technologies (see solutions for diagonal cracking walls).