A Floor That Sags, Bounces or Has a Hump in It
A marble rolls to the middle of the living room. The china cabinet rattles when someone walks past. There is a hump along a line through the kitchen, or the whole back of the house slopes toward the yard. Maybe it has always been that way and you have stopped noticing, until an inspector wrote it up or you started planning a kitchen and the tile guy said he would not set tile on it.
I'm Travis Busch, a licensed Connecticut PE. Floors are most of what I do. I come out, find what is under the floor and why it is where it is, and write you a sealed letter that says what it is, whether it is still moving, and what to do about it.
What I actually look at
A floor is the top of a system. The floor tells you something moved. The basement or crawl space tells you what. On the visit I check:
- Where the floor is low and where it is high, room by room, with a level, so the letter has a map and numbers instead of "it feels off."
- The main beam and its posts. What the posts stand on, whether one has punched into the slab or the dirt, whether somebody added a screw jack and what it is lifting.
- The joists. Their size and span, how far apart they are, where they have been notched or cut for plumbing and ducts, whether any are split or sistered already.
- The sill and the ends of the joists, especially on the side the floor slopes toward. Rot and insect damage at the sill is a common reason a whole side of a house drops.
- Bearing walls below and what they bear on. A hump upstairs is usually something under it holding still while the rest settled.
- Whether it is old and finished or new and moving. Old settlement that stopped looks different from movement that is still going, in the cracks, the paint and the trim.
- Bounce separately from sag. A level floor that bounces is a stiffness question. A floor that is low is a strength or a support question. They get different fixes. I wrote about the stiffness side in A beam can pass code and still feel bouncy.
What you get
A signed and sealed letter from a Connecticut PE. It says what I saw and measured, why I think the floor is where it is, whether it needs anything done, and what. When the answer is a repair, the letter is written so a contractor can build it: which joists, what sister, where the new post goes and what it sits on, with a drawing when one is needed. You hand it to your contractor and they price the work. When the floor is doing what an old floor does and is not changing, the letter says that too, and you stop worrying about it.
If the house is on the State or National Register, the repair scope is written the way the state's historic homes tax credit program reads it. That is a separate page: structural repair for historic homes.
What it costs
One fixed price, quoted on the first call before any work starts. Half is due at the visit, check, cash or card, and the rest when the letter is ready. The price covers the visit, the letter with the repair in it, and your contractor's questions while they build it.
When you do not need an engineer
If the house is old, the floor has been out of level as long as anyone remembers, nothing is cracking and the doors still close, you probably have an old house and not a problem. If the floor bounces but is level and nothing is cracked, the fix may be as simple as blocking between the joists, and a good carpenter can tell you so. Call me when the floor is still moving, when there is a hump or a dip that is new, when you can see the cause in the basement and do not like the look of it, or when someone is about to build on it, tile it, or buy it.
Questions homeowners ask
My old house has never been level. Is that a problem?
Often not. Houses built before modern lumber and footings settled early and then stopped, and a floor that has been out of level for decades and is not changing is usually a feature of the house. What I look for is change: a new crack, a door that stopped latching, a dip or a hump that was not there. If you cannot tell whether it is changing, that is a fair reason to have it measured once so you have a baseline.
The floor bounces when someone walks across it but nothing is cracked. Do I need an engineer?
Bounce and sag are two different questions. A floor can be strong enough and still move more than feels right, because stiffness and strength are checked separately and on long spans stiffness is what you feel. That is usually a comfort problem rather than a safety one, and there are framing fixes for it. The visit tells you which one you have.
What causes a hump in the floor?
Usually something under it that did not move while the rest did: a post, a chimney, a bearing wall, a pier that was set after the house settled. Sometimes it is a post or a jack that was driven up. I find what is under the hump before anyone cuts or planes anything.
Will the letter say how to fix it?
When the fix is framing, yes. A sister on a joist, a new post and footing, a beam under a long span: the letter says what to build, with a drawing when the contractor needs one, and your contractor prices it. If I find something I cannot fix with framing, the letter says what I found and who to call.
Can I just have a contractor jack it up?
Lifting a floor that has sat low for years moves everything attached to it, and the question is where that load goes next. A good carpenter will ask the same thing. The letter gives them the answer so they can do it once.
How to book
Call or text (860) 519-6009 and describe it in a sentence or two. Tell me the town, how old the house is, whether the floor is over a basement or a crawl space, and whether a contractor or a sale is waiting on the answer. You get one price and a date on that call. Text me whatever photos you have of the floor and the basement before then and I will show up knowing your house.
Related: A whole-house structural assessment · Water, settling and walls that moved · Foundation cracks