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: Sagging Floors

Problem

Hover to view diagram.
A
Interior frame walls settled because of excessive load or deficient framing in supporting floor system.
B
Interior frame floor settled at any level.
C
Settled interior column or wall foundation.
D
Concrete basement floor may be relatively unaffected.

In some situations, particularly garages, the concrete floor is supported on a ledge along the perimeter walls; hence if the underlying soil settles, the floor may sag in the center with or without cracking.

Causes

Hover to view diagram.
A
Upstairs frame floor unaffected.
B
Deficient supporting column or beam in basement or crawl-space.
C
Settlement of interior column or wall foundation on compressible soil.Also, sometimes, settlement of basement floor when column or wall are supported on the floor without independent foundation.

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

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).