Hello. I am new to this forum. I hope I can make my post make some sense, and hopefully this is the right forum, although it might be more appropriate in the foundation or flooring section.
We just bought our first house. It is only 15 years old. When I toured our house before buying, it was completely empty. I never noticed sloping floors because I was more concentrating on the overall look of the house. During our inspection our inspector made mention of how the floors had a slope to them in the kichen due to some spilled water that had rolled down towards the dining cove area at the end of the kitchen. I still didn't give anything much though....my mind was going a mile a minute with other thoughts as this was our first house purchase.
Our inspector didn't turn up anything majorly wrong with the house. And I even wanted a structural engineer's assessment due to the terrain our house is built on (on a hill, that slopes dramatically down just past the back end of the house.) The structural engineer gave it a green light too, and his report stated that no structural repairs should be needed to our house. Minor settlement had occursed by the notation of some cracks in the brick veneer and mortar, but I was told these were very common and I should just tuck-point them so that moisture wouldn't get in.
Once I got moved in, I then started noticing imperfections more, and the floor was a huge one. Our house is a slab foundation.
About halfway across the living room (carpeted), you can start to feel the floor pitch downwards......the carpet from the living room butts right up to the tile in the kitchen floor, upon which you can see where the floor tile just past the end of the kitchen counter starts to pitch down as well. It is not only noticeable walking across, but I can visuall see it as well. The floor then pitches downward again about halfway across our master bedroom which is beyond the kitchen. It's like the floor slopes and then levels back out in sections.
I have a 4 ft level, and I placed one end at the end of our living room. I had to raise the damn thing 1 inch to get the bubble level! I slid the level down 4ft from the starting end, and I had to raise another 1/2 inch. So there's 1.5 inches of slope in just 8 ft!
My immediate thoughts were some type of foundation issues. However our drywall had no common signs of foundation issues with any kind of cracks. The bottom trimboards all look original, and are straight. Windows open and close fine. Doors close fine. The brick around the fireplace in the living room all looks straight and level. Visually, most things look perfectly fine.
I had one foundation company come out, and he could find nothing majorly wrong that needed fixing. I asked him about leveling the floors and he warned me that it could get very expensive and messy. He said I would have to tear up all the kitchen tiles and replace, and possibly have to re-cut the door frames that leads to our back wood deck and raise the door up. He told me and I quote "If I were you, and it bothered me that much, I would just sell the house." This left me very distraught.
I decided to get a second opinion and called a different foundation company. This second company tried to sell me on these push-piers because when they took a self leveling laser level, he showed me on the outside of the back end of the house was lower than the front half.
He asked me if this was something I wanted to fix right away and I told him I wasn't sure.....as soon as I said that it's like he was done with me, and I was wasting his time. He never addressed the issue about my floors sloping because what he was trying to sell wouldn't have corrected the issue I really was concerned about.
So here's the thing with me. I'm pretty OCD about things being straight and level. It is driving me insane that my floors slope like this. I am pretty convinced the house was just built this way.....the floors were like this before they started framing because everything else is visually and structurally fine from what we can tell.
I'm not sure why the builder would have left the floors this way, but I really want it corrected. The problem is that almost all the resources I've found on the internet, and companies I've found when I do keyword searches for "floor leveling" almost all have to do with foundation issues. Well I'm pretty convinced at this point I don't have a foundation issue, and that I just need to correct the sloping from the top.
How would this be achieved on a large scale to include half my living room, the end of the kitchen, and going into our master bedroom? I am not even sure who to call, because foundation companies don't seem to be the answer for me.
My wife doesn't understand why this makes me upset. She is fine with the sloping floors. I really love my house overall, but I HATE this part.....and it's aggrevating to the point where I can't enjoy living in my house because I'm constantly thinking about the imperfection. I appreciate any advice, thoughts, and suggestions.
We just bought our first house. It is only 15 years old. When I toured our house before buying, it was completely empty. I never noticed sloping floors because I was more concentrating on the overall look of the house. During our inspection our inspector made mention of how the floors had a slope to them in the kichen due to some spilled water that had rolled down towards the dining cove area at the end of the kitchen. I still didn't give anything much though....my mind was going a mile a minute with other thoughts as this was our first house purchase.
Our inspector didn't turn up anything majorly wrong with the house. And I even wanted a structural engineer's assessment due to the terrain our house is built on (on a hill, that slopes dramatically down just past the back end of the house.) The structural engineer gave it a green light too, and his report stated that no structural repairs should be needed to our house. Minor settlement had occursed by the notation of some cracks in the brick veneer and mortar, but I was told these were very common and I should just tuck-point them so that moisture wouldn't get in.
Once I got moved in, I then started noticing imperfections more, and the floor was a huge one. Our house is a slab foundation.
About halfway across the living room (carpeted), you can start to feel the floor pitch downwards......the carpet from the living room butts right up to the tile in the kitchen floor, upon which you can see where the floor tile just past the end of the kitchen counter starts to pitch down as well. It is not only noticeable walking across, but I can visuall see it as well. The floor then pitches downward again about halfway across our master bedroom which is beyond the kitchen. It's like the floor slopes and then levels back out in sections.
I have a 4 ft level, and I placed one end at the end of our living room. I had to raise the damn thing 1 inch to get the bubble level! I slid the level down 4ft from the starting end, and I had to raise another 1/2 inch. So there's 1.5 inches of slope in just 8 ft!
My immediate thoughts were some type of foundation issues. However our drywall had no common signs of foundation issues with any kind of cracks. The bottom trimboards all look original, and are straight. Windows open and close fine. Doors close fine. The brick around the fireplace in the living room all looks straight and level. Visually, most things look perfectly fine.
I had one foundation company come out, and he could find nothing majorly wrong that needed fixing. I asked him about leveling the floors and he warned me that it could get very expensive and messy. He said I would have to tear up all the kitchen tiles and replace, and possibly have to re-cut the door frames that leads to our back wood deck and raise the door up. He told me and I quote "If I were you, and it bothered me that much, I would just sell the house." This left me very distraught.
I decided to get a second opinion and called a different foundation company. This second company tried to sell me on these push-piers because when they took a self leveling laser level, he showed me on the outside of the back end of the house was lower than the front half.
He asked me if this was something I wanted to fix right away and I told him I wasn't sure.....as soon as I said that it's like he was done with me, and I was wasting his time. He never addressed the issue about my floors sloping because what he was trying to sell wouldn't have corrected the issue I really was concerned about.
So here's the thing with me. I'm pretty OCD about things being straight and level. It is driving me insane that my floors slope like this. I am pretty convinced the house was just built this way.....the floors were like this before they started framing because everything else is visually and structurally fine from what we can tell.
I'm not sure why the builder would have left the floors this way, but I really want it corrected. The problem is that almost all the resources I've found on the internet, and companies I've found when I do keyword searches for "floor leveling" almost all have to do with foundation issues. Well I'm pretty convinced at this point I don't have a foundation issue, and that I just need to correct the sloping from the top.
How would this be achieved on a large scale to include half my living room, the end of the kitchen, and going into our master bedroom? I am not even sure who to call, because foundation companies don't seem to be the answer for me.
My wife doesn't understand why this makes me upset. She is fine with the sloping floors. I really love my house overall, but I HATE this part.....and it's aggrevating to the point where I can't enjoy living in my house because I'm constantly thinking about the imperfection. I appreciate any advice, thoughts, and suggestions.