Why Are My Floors Sagging?

If the floors in your home are sagging, uneven, or they feel bouncy, you could have a problem with the supports in your crawl space. The most common issues with crawl space supports and joists are: 

• Dampness, Rot, and Pests 

If dampness gets into wooden supports and joists in your crawl space, you will soon notice sagging in your floor. This is because damp wood loses some of its structural integrity and begins to rot. What’s worse, as this support fails, it will put more strain on other supports and your floor, leading to deeper issues within your property. Furthermore, rotting wooden supports in your property are sure to attract pests like cockroaches, mold mites, and even mice. 

Wooden supports in particular are vulnerable to pests like termites. These tiny critters can cause havoc in your home if you don’t catch them quickly. While most pests rarely cause serious damage to the structure of a property there are some notable exceptions. Termites, of course, are a perfect example of this because of the damage they can do to wood, but there are others. Other pests can do damage to your home, of course, but they present a much more pressing danger to your health and well-being. 

Cockroaches, for example, leave droppings everywhere, and this can lead to airborne particles that cause respiratory issues and skin infections. 

• Structural Damage 

Structural damage can come in a number of forms when it comes to sagging floors. Sinking columns are just one example, but they are one of the most common. If the soil in your crawl space is not strong enough to hold your support columns and withstand the weight being transferred from your home, they will begin to settle or sink into the ground. The most obvious sign that this is the problem is a space between the supporting column and the girder it supports. 

A column will generally stop sinking once it finds firm ground, but by this point, the girder above will often have begun to sag. As such, sinking columns have pretty much the same effect on your floors as wider foundation problems like settlement, though they are far easier to address than larger foundation problems.