floors not level

last month

Disappointing outcome of floors where old house joined the new addition and there seems to be a high point along the seam which is making the new part seem lower— perceptible by foot and evidenced by the slope of the baseboard. I suspect the subfloor piece may have swelled as the level of the framing seems to be consistent. Hard to see on the first photo but basically it the line from that closet door to my camera. The second photo shows the spirit level. How hard is it to get this resolved? I can’t have a brand new renovation where the floor isn’t level, right?!!!

Featured Answer

rwiegand

last month

In an old house you can absolutely have a new renovation with a floor that's not level.

Correcting out of level floors can involve jacking the building up as appropriate, possibly reframing the floor joists, with the possibility of cracked plaster and other undesirable side effects. Faced with that, if the building is stable, many people choose to embrace the charm of uneven floors.

Whether or not to fix them was a conversation to have been had with your builder before the project began, it's rather late now. OTOH if you've built something new and the new floor is the piece that isn't level that's a major screw-up by the builder, unfortunatly similarly difficult to resolve.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

Valinta
last month
I would say this is the responsibility of the contractor. Invite contractor in so you can get this resolved before occupying the space. If this is DIY, then enlist the help from a contractor. The floor slant might have underlying issues with the joists.
Related Professionals
Ashburn Flooring Contractors · Cornelius Flooring Contractors · Gallatin Flooring Contractors · Kalamazoo Flooring Contractors · Lombard Flooring Contractors · Menifee Flooring Contractors · Rockledge Flooring Contractors · Salem Flooring Contractors · Woodbury Flooring Contractors · Eastchester Tile and Stone Contractors · Asheboro General Contractors · Banning General Contractors · Norristown General Contractors · Oxon Hill General Contractors · Rolling Hills Estates General Contractors
PRO
Minardi
last month
last modified: last month
What you cannot have is a brand new house, or a brand new floor, joined to an old one, that doesn't show that it originated in an old wonky house. If it isn't a tripping hazard, it's perfectly fine.
PRO
McDonald Enterprises
last month
last modified: last month
Additions that do not have doorway and thresholds are automatically so much more of a bigger problem that requires a much bigger budget than ones that have a separation doorway. What kind of discussion did you have about designing in such a problem? And the money needed to jack everything up and redo the structural?

Old homes call this "character". And they all have it in droves unless you fully rebuild them.
dan1888
last month
Pretty simple. Remove the new addition flooring. Level the subfloor to match the existing old flooring level once the removed flooring is put back down.
rwiegand
last month
"Pretty simple. Remove the new addition flooring. Level the subfloor to match the existing old flooring level once the removed flooring is put back down."

My experience with trying that, admittedly in the days before laser levels, didn't work out so well. It was a lot of shimming and sistering with less than stellar results-- the floor in question had kind of a wave in it, not a simple slope that complicated things. I'm reasonably fearless about trying that sort of thing, but I wouldn't have called it simple. Then when you're dealing with slopes of a couple inches things like differences in the height of the window frames off the floor start to become evident.

A laser would have helped a lot!

When the cause of the sag was a rotten sill that needed to be replaced in any event jacking the building up was pretty straightforward.
millworkman
last month
last modified: last month
What has the builder said about the unlevel floors? How far out of are they? How long is that level, get an 8' level at least.
PRO
G & S Floor Service
last month
The new floors need to be ramped up to the old since it is lower. Not as simple, subfloor work involves tons of work. Work may need to be done on both sides, old and new.You don't know what type of plumbing, electrical or HVAC that's routed through that area that can create a challenge. You are also, dealing with possible foundation material that you will need to work around, like bricks and concrete. If, you're lucky , you're just power planing the old side down.

As mentioned, this should have beeen discussed at the planning and budgeting stage.
la_la Girl
19 days ago
last modified: 19 days ago
^ that is what our contractor did - he increased the slope of the subfloor across our whole dining room so the old flooring met the new addition’s flooring flush. It is imperceptible since it happens gradually over a large area