Sunken Second Floor Concrete

The mid century design trend boomed for more than a decade and today many homes from that period are being remodeled to create contemporary spaces that sit on a single level.

Sunken second floor concrete. A slab of concrete can sink for many reasons and with different results. The photos from dallas based traver construction are an example of. A simple fix with a rain gutter system french drain or sump pump can solve this problem. A building can sink at various points or the collapse can be spread across the entire footprint of the foundation depending on where the affected ground is and how large an area it is.

The uneven floors result in separation of the floor from the walls. Weak soil can cause the existing columns in the crawl space to sink or settle often creating a gap between the top of the column and the bottom of the girder it was supporting. If rainwater pools at the foundation erosion is likely to occur. That would be a massively thick piece of concrete and would need to have rebar added so it won t crack and break into pieces.

A sagging floor is almost always a sign of a structural problem and can be the first sign of a sinking foundation that will lead to more damage. Mud jacking can lift a settled concrete slab by pumping a grout through the concrete and pushing it up from below. The process is sometimes called slab jacking or pressure grouting. Place a piece of tar paper on top of the concrete pier and the new post on top of the paper.

If you truly want to level those rooms with the rest of the house it might make more sense to frame the floor with 2x4 s and then create a floor in that way. If the reason the floor sank is due to a rotten post and there was no tar paper you can now see what happens. When this happens there is nothing left to support the weight of the concrete causing it to sink. Now put the weight of the house on the post.

Anyone old enough to remember the dick van dyke show may also recall the lead character s iconic 1960s home complete with sunken living room. Step 1 check the foundation. Sometimes a garage floor will sink or crack because the soil erodes from underneath the concrete slab. This will ensure moisture doesn t come up through the concrete and get to the wood.

Mud jacking is a common term for lifting sunken or settled concrete. Pouring a concrete floor especially on the second story is no job for a newbie. It s a chain reaction. Once the column settles the girder sags and the floors above sag.

The culprit is commonly underground water that shifts the gravel and sand foundation below your concrete.