Uneven Floors Explained
Sagging, uneven floors in a newer home might raise an alarm, but homeowners in older houses sometimes attribute them to the home’s natural settling or gloss over them as a part of their home’s character. Uneven floors aren’t just unsightly, they’re often strong indicators of a much more pressing matter beneath the home. If your home’s foundation is failing, or if you have an exposed crawl space, joists and beams can warp, swell, and sag. A floor is only as even as its support structure. So, if the joists and beams upon which it rests are sagging, your floor will too.
The foundation is incredibly important to the stability and structural integrity of your home, but just as important is the ground upon which your structure is built. Different types of soil affect home foundations and slabs in specific ways, and unlike other areas in Alabama where the soil is rich in clay, the majority of Mobile home foundations and slabs are built on Bama, the predominantly loam and sandy state soil of Alabama. Typically, sand-based soils do not absorb water and do not seasonally expand or contract from wet months to dry months. As a result, they remain fairly stable. Still, sand-rich soil is not without its problems, particularly if the ground beneath your home or business was not packed with the proper “densification” to support the weight of your structure, or if the ground around your home lacks sufficient drainage to prevent water from passing beneath and swirling around your foundation or slab, causing the soil to erode. Erosion will cause your foundation to shift, and your home will begin to resettle.
Unfortunately, a building rarely settles evenly; each side will sink or lift to a different depth or elevation than the others, thus the interior floors of your home in Mobile will warp, sag, and become uneven. Potentially, if that movement is severe enough, the shifting can also cause damage to the entire structure and can compromise the structural integrity of the interior walls of your home as well, meaning you’ll need a Mobile-area floor leveling and crawl space repair expert to correct your uneven floor problem and prevent further damage. That’s when you call the expert floor leveling team in Mobile at MDH Foundation Repair. We’ll send our expert technicians to your property to determine the exact cause of your uneven floors and foundation or slab damage. After a thorough inspection, we will consult with you to discuss the repairs that will be needed, along with a fair and honest recommendation for the correct solution to restore the structural integrity of your home.
If you believe your home in Mobile needs floor leveling, contact MDH for an evaluation! Schedule your free consultation today and let’s get underway with restoring your floors to an even footing.