An Unlevel House

So you think your house is unlevel, or someone has suggested you pay for a level inspection on your home, and now you're considering your options. What should I do? Should I get a level test done on my home? What will I do if it is unlevel? Stop and ask yourself a couple of questions.

If you put on roller skates, do you head for the door?

If you do, common sense tells you that it is unlevel; you don't need to pay someone to tell you that.

Secondly, what are you going to do about it? The answer to that depends on more questions you need to ask yourself.

Did I buy it this way? That might sound silly, but we inspected a home on stilts where the builder was off by two inches on the flooring subframe span across the width of the home, and never caught it. And they built the entire house without correcting it. You really could roller skate across the floor. Someone bought it, and it didn't seem to bother them.

Did this suddenly happen, or has it been a gradual process over the years? Has it been a gradual process that has suddenly progressed quickly? Generally, most homes will have some unevenness to their flooring after a period of time. This comes from the natural settling of the home as well as earth movement, lumber compression, etc. The average house will weigh somewhere between forty to eighty tons, without household possessions and the foundation. If your house is built on a slab foundation, it can add greatly to that weight, i.e., the slab our house is built on weighs around thirty-five tons. Your home possessions can weigh somewhere between five to fifteen tons. So, when put together, an average house can weigh quite a bit.

If your house is built on a slab, the process of trying to raise it is incredibly difficult and expensive.

If your house is on piers or raised, it is still expensive and difficult. Both scenarios are only for highly skilled professionals and out of the realm of people not skilled and versed in it.

The attempt at either type of house lift comes with a high risk. It is usually only done when the soil underneath has become unstable (such as a washout from water above the surface or hydrostatic issues from groundwater), or due to foundation damage.

Houses that have settled over a period of years have found a place where they are comfortable, and don't take kindly to wanting to be moved. There is a high probability that you will end up with ceiling cracks, wall cracks, window breakage and binding, plumbing leaks, and a whole plethora of issues depending on the lift amount. Sometimes, there is nothing to do for the situation. We worked on a three-story home built in the late 1800s where one corner in the rear had sagged about four inches. It affected the house from the bottom to the top. There was nothing to be done to rectify it. Cosmetic cover-up on the interior was the only option.

A house or flooring that has suddenly sagged from a level position or was gradually settling and suddenly dropped , needs to be investigated immediately. There has been a failure in the foundation, framing, or the ground soil underneath. Again, and I repeat myself, if this is the case, it is only for highly skilled professionals.

Now, if there is a sag in the middle of a slab floor, many times this can be helped by foam injection, which will attempt to lift that particular area. The same can be said if it is a floor in a raised home that has slowly developed a sag; many times an attempt can be made to raise that area by lift supports from underneath. These types of repairs are not the same as trying to level a house by jacking or pinning methods.

Most people will put up with unlevel floors unless a home is at risk and requires lifting or pinning to be done for the safety of the occupants and stability of the home. If it has become an urgent situation as described above, contact a professional in the field. However, use caution with someone wanting to sell you a level inspection; diagnosing true foundation issues as compared to common settling is a skilled profession and not a sales pitch.

A tip from your friends at Gold Ribbon Home Inspections.