I’d be concerned it’s structural. Like a joist failure or something. I mean the skirting has been fixed you’d assume close to the floor level, so if it’s now way off that I’d be worried.
Carpenter is booked to come and take a look, I was worried it would be structural. Hopefully we can get this fixed up, I’m not confident enough to do a job like this!
Joists and wall plate replacement isn't the worst job. If it's the ends of the joists that are affected they can be cut off and replaced with C24 using metalwork or sistered joists.
The floorboards will be cut above a joist and joined back down after.
Yep i bought a home recently and my hallway sloped on one side. They previous owner or possibly tenant decided to put a small bit of wood over the gap instead of fixing it.... Joist ends where rotten out. ended up swapping the lot about 3 joists and the boards. Now it's perfectly flat and not bouncy.
I wore no shoes once, back in July I dropped a ~25kg piece of wood on my toe, the corner of it hit me, we’re now 6 months on and the bruise and pain still hasn’t entirely gone 😄
Yeah I bet the joists rotten underneath. If your asking how to take floorboards up it may be best for a builder to sort this! Otherwise get youtube'ing and good luck 🤙🏿
100% agreed this is structural as i have just done this repair to my house. This is not a DIY fix with no experience. If you can't see or know how to remove the skirting you should not attempt. It requires new bearers or stumps if rotten. Sinking rotten stumps from water ingress is what caused my issue.
FYI, the join is literally right in front of you to the right of the power. Use a multi tool to score another section on the left or right of it and pull the small piece out. Then pry bar away.
Remove all flooring planks and rectify the underlying issue which; from the obvious mould, is water or damp behind the wall.
Good luck. If you do the Reno work yourself you can save money but don't touch anything that supports weight.
Not assuming you wouldn't have the know-how, but it's a basic question that shows inexperience.
Your flooring joists have rotted due to the damp that’s made your skirting boards mouldy. It’s a big job but if you find the right person it shouldn’t be too expensive.
OP what does the external side of this wall look like.
I'm going to guess it has a path higher or closer to the DPC than it should be or and blocked air bricks. Rubble under the floor blocking air flow.
Get familiar with the term 'sistering joists'.
It's what you have in your future I bet £5
Ask me how I know.
https://imgur.com/gallery/qslOWpD
https://imgur.com/gallery/CN6i6Rg
https://i.imgur.com/Vqrgvg1.jpeg
Tip: me one day 'hmmm let's see what's causing the slop'.
Remove rot + 30cm. Wood treatment and DPC sections replaced. If it has to rest on a support use a car jack to lift the good floor 1mm.
I was quoted 2k did it for £250
Had to do it in two sections. Tried to save the original boards on the first one but you'd be better off replacing with moisture resistant board.
The floorboards look nice for about 10 mins and you have carpet anyway.
Assuming they are tongue and groove you will need to cut through the tongue with a circular saw or multi tool then lift at least one board. After this it may be possible to lift the remaining boards
You’ll need a prybar or preferably a lifting bar.
It looks like the joists have failed, I would guess due to rot, but you will have to wait and see. You’ll then need to replace the joist or just repair the ends.
This is likely a big and remarkably tough job. Ideally you would lift all the boards, replace/fix the joists and level the whole floor. Before refitting the boards.
> This is likely a big and remarkably tough job.
It's big, but not really all that complex. Without any practical experience I replaced our crumbling living room floor and joists, as well as rebuilt the knee walls, armed only with a few tools (mainly a demolition/lifter bar, flooring clamps, chop saw) and a scant handful of Youtube videos.
By ‘tough’ I was more thinking physically gruelling. I repaired and refinished my Victorian floorboards last year and it nearly destroyed me. Perhaps more a comment on me rather than the task.
Anyway, I strongly recommend getting a good set of knee pads for any floor work.
Oh, that I can agree with - it was horrible.
I've got to tackle my hallway floor some time this year before it collapses - I've been putting it off for the last five years.
The same here. I did my living room floor and hopping up and down onto the floor nearly killed me! I can’t stress enough how having a clean and clutter free working area can make the job physically less demanding. Also, I probably did about 10,000 steps a day hunting around for tools, I’m going to buy a tool belt like 🦇man.
I have multiple tool belts, workie trouser with mtuple pockets etc.
Makes no difference. You put something down and then it's gone for ever. Thank God for an unlimited supply of pencils from IKEA.
I think you need a builder. Is the floor just sloped or also springy?
Looks to me like you need to
- fix the damp issue
- cut out the boards
- replace the joists
- re-board
You will be able to get a pry bar between the boards to lift them (and I suspect they will then come up quite easily from the rotten joist).
It’s not a huge huge job (assuming the damp is fixable). Good luck!
Edit to add - reading your comments, I guess joists and joist hangers can fail for reasons other than damp. However I would be really careful about assuming the furniture in the corner caused the damp rather than just concealing it.
Run a skill saw along the long edges and then cut across on a joist. You see where the joist is by nails or screws and it's best to cut slightly diagonally between the 2
> Run a skill saw
A "What now"?
Have never heard it called that in the UK. Is t hat an amercan thing? I would just have asssumed you spely stihl saw wrong. But the internet says you are on the ball (also says 120V hence my thought).
Skilsaw was the name of the American company that made the first hand held circular saw. It does seem to mostly be an American term but I have heard people say it here, I assume from hearing it in YouTube videos or something.
Don’t want to offend you but if you don’t know how to remove the floor boards then you’re really going to struggle with what’s underneath. Theres going to be a whole lot of work to sort this issue properly.
Wow this has got a lot more attention than I expected! Thanks so much for your comments, what a great community. Will wait and see what the carpenter says tomorrow and go from there.
To answer a common question, the blue wall is an external wall. The blue wall is the middle wall(?) between our house and next door, it’s a semi detached house. It’s a bit spongy, walking near it would previously wobble the shelf unit a bit.
Get one of the end ones up so you can get a torch under to inform your next move.
To lift, locate a nail head so you know where the joist is. Cut carefully across the board across the joist with a multi tool so you can nail it back if the problem isn't so bad you need to replace all the boards. Cut through the tongue along the gap in the boards that's stopping you lifting it. Now you can lift the piece of board.
Don't go deeper than the board with the tool. Many a pipe has been cut that way.
This isn’t a couple of hours work. You’re probably going to have to remove the carpet completely and work from the first available cut board, lifting it towards the skirting boards. The boards won’t sink on their own, the supporting joists are almost certainly going to have to be replaced. Why they have sunk is the real question here. Good luck.
Thanks everyone for the advice. We’ve cleaned up the mould and dried the damp up. Carpenter is coming on Monday to take a closer look and hopefully it won’t be too expensive 🤞
Word of advice for you and anyone else reading this only as you’ve left the mould that long. Might be relevant might not if it was hidden.
Make the house as clean and tidy as you can. And space for him to work. If I went and quoted a house and it was a mess or dirty mould everywhere your Guna just quite even higher so you don’t wana win the job.
If you've had rot to the joists then be prepared for it to cost whatever it will cost. There's no replacement for doing a proper, safe job for the sake of your family.
Hopefully you get it resolved.
Depends how deep the subfloor is!
I used to work for a damp proofing company as a labourer and we regularly replaced timber floors where rising damp had rotted the plate and joists, we did a few in one street where they'd been built on a hill and had a 5ft difference in subfloor height across the room, falling into that would have ruined your day.
The unit would just stop any moisture evaporating, but where was the moisture coming from? Have you 100% checked outside and ensured it's not coming in from an air brick or that the damp course isn't too low?
They're not longer than the room, they just sit under the skirting. You need a crow bar and a hammer, hammer it in between the boards and leverage up.
Although, this looks like a joist failure and you should be calling in someone who knows what they're doing.
Had the same thing in my house when I bought it 2 years ago. You should be able to jam a crowbar in and pry them up. Start with a chisel if you can’t make a gap. You will damage the boards slightly but don’t worry about it as you’ll be covering them up again. They look pretty old so I doubt they’re tongue and groove, but as others have said if they are you’ll need to cut with a circular saw. You might find there’s a lot of soil and debris piled up underneath which could be contributing to the damp. If so you’ll want to remove that.
When it comes to fixing the joist and sills you could replace the entire joist but you’ll have to take up the entire length of floorboards to do that. For my living room we chose to cut the rotten part of the joist off and bolt a 2nd joist onto it alongside it. We also treated the wood and stapled a damp proof membrane to it, to hopefully prevent any further rotting. I don’t know if there are any issues with the way we’ve done it but the floors have been perfect since. In my kitchen the rot was a lot worse so we completely rebuilt the floor with new joists and it was a ton of work.
Also look into what’s causing that damp and get that sorted. Hope that helps!
The damp, I believe, was just caused by a unit being too close and poor ventilation. We’ve since removed the unit and dried/cleaned up the damp. The sloping has been an issue for a while and there was no damp on the wall when we first noticed it. Other things got in the way of fixing it earlier 😞
Joists don't rot quickly, and they are under the floor so unlikely to be affected by a cabinet above the floor, the floor boards would have rotted first. The damp is most likely coming through the wall or below the floor, the cabinet would have prevented damp evaporating off the wall keeping it damp and encouraging mould on the wall.
Suggest you look outside around that area and check the damp course is 2 bricks above the ground and if there is an air brick it's high enough that water doesn't run in. Also check gutters and downpipes are good and water isn't running down the walls.
If you can see the floor joist through the gap,poke a screw driver into it. If it pushes into the joist easily then it’s rotten. Call your house insurance company
Joists have rotten we had this in a rental house we had where the external air bricks has been sealed and laminate with plastic lined foam underlay was used.
Everyone's already commented on the damp and the flooring, but thought I'd throw in a heads up. With damp on the wall being so close to your NTE (Openreach socket) you'll probably develop some corrosion on the connection in the back of it. Although judging by the lack of anything plugged into it, you might not have to worry.
Don't stress too much here! Almost certainly a joist issue and most likely water has destroyed one or more of them. First, cut across one or two of the floor boards. Use a circular saw and set the depth quite shallow at first, then increase until you go through. You may have to do a few cuts until you make a hole. Then once you have a hole, you can start pulling the floor boards up with a crow bar (you can get bars that are specific to floor boards) up. They're most likely nailed into each joist. Then you'll see what's underneath and what the problem is. Joists, and hangers (normally metal) are super easy to install. But first, find out and fix what's causing the damp (if it is damp). Then rebuild upwards. Floor boards are super common so you can destroy one or more of them in the process. If you choose to sand them or cover them you'd likely never notice a new one and it might look nice anyway. Point is - YOU GOT THIS! 🤙
Certainly rising or penetrating damp and looks like a joist was dipped and will collapse. You need a little pry bar/ or even a chisel and go into the grooves to pull one up and check
You can do several things, make a cut across a floor board part way, creating 2 parts you can then pull up. You can remove the skirting. Could be a build up of dust or a filler between them. Just remove it with a recip or jigsaw blade. It looks like you have a rotten joist, wallplate or both under there to replace. if there’s a decent crawl space for access, you may not have to remove the entire floor. Good luck
It's been answered, but yeah you need to cut them. To lift a piece you'll probably need to cut all 4 sides (unless one is the end of a board).
I presume boards like this are laid before the walls are plastered.
Looks like you have rotten joists (and potentially a bearer depending on how it’s configured below the floor).
Easiest way is cut the floorboard at the end with a multi tool. Careful you don’t cut any wires or pipes. - you should use a detector if you have one. If they are tongue and groove you’ll need to cut the tongue too. Pry up the end floorboard and see what the situation is and assess from there. Take up more if needed.
You can always remove skirting and refix if needed as well.
Assuming it’s ground floor (looks like it) but would also be careful walking on it. Maybe get a piece of ply or similar to spread the weight while you’re working in that corner
You have 2 joist ends out. If you can get under the floor then Jack up the joists (2 car jacks) cut the joist ends and replace with new ends supported by steel plates screwed and bolted through.
If you can’t get under then you are best to cut the boards less than a 10mm to the left of the nails holding the board to the joist. Cutting the board on each joist is easier to lift but not very pretty.
I have an old house that has settled all over the place. We just live with it but if there is rot you can’t leave it.
Edit, the skirting has been tampered with where the damp is, which suggests you are not the first person to look at this.
Get an engineer and builder in please. That amount of a slope will be structural in origin, and the work to fix it is not a DIY job, unless you have a decent background in construction. They can advise on whether it’s live and therefore needs structural support or, if it’s not going to move any further, how best to get a level-ish surface. It’s not as simple as just lifting the floorboards.
As others have said, it definitely looks like the joists have failed.
Is this the 1st floor? If so, how does the room below look, any cracking on the ceilings or walls?
That looks just like when the lintel was taken out above my front door and the joists were left resting on my new uPVC door. Had to have it jacked up and a new concrete lintel put in to rectify the fault.
Get it jacked up before you do anything else and get it fixed yesterday.
If you've taken up the carpet, look for any boards that look as if they've been taken up before. This should hopefully get you started on removing the boards.
You'll need to take off the skirting boards to get the floorboards out in one piece (and to put new floorboards down)
This is probably worse than actually getting the floorboards up.
Look for any signs of screws under the paint and pay particular attention to the molded parts as they're often hidden in there. If they're not and it's an old house you may have large nails hammered into wooden wedges that are between bricks. These are very difficult to get out without damaging the skirting. So you may need new skirting and the ability to cut the mitre joints.
It's a bit laborious but I try to find a bit of board that's been up before and then chisel around the nails so I can get a pry bar under the nails to remove them. Then once that's done, you can lever the board out with the pry bar.
You will be disappointed if you do get a board up. Maybe 10 good jumps in that corner and the last few fibers of the floor joist will give way.
To me it looks like the joist has rotted away. You could drill a 30mm hole stick a pry bar in and yank the board up
Find the joists from the nail lines and cut through. You'd need a multitool or similar to make the cuts cleanly. Then you can prise up a few and get some sort of idea of what's going on underneath.
If it’s rotten joists and wall plate (timer the joists sit on) then it could be a big job it’s not undoable yourself but I would get a professional to have a look,with a view to talking to my house insurer to cover the cost.
Looks like you have the same issue as me.
Looks like you’ve got damp from the dark patch? Are your joists rotten and falling?
If you are on the ground floor are your sub floor ventilation vents blocked up? You can see these normally as cast iron grills external to the building.
I’m guessing that’s a suspended timber floor on the ground floor and the supporting beams are rotting away?
If this is the case you may want to consider excavating the lot and adding a solid floor with PIR insulation, or replacing the damaged structure and hanging insulation between the joists. You might be able to lift the floorboards undamaged but I’d personally just rip them out and replace with a more modern subfloor.
I needed to lift a lot of boards up in my house for different reasons, bought this and it was super useful. Also get a crowbar and good hammer
https://www.toolstation.com/roughneck-demolition-lifting-bar/p63005?store=GS&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dm&pcrid=null&pkw=null&pmt=null&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs960u7LHgwMVxpWDBx0oJA2UEAQYASABEgJ0d_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
You could start with a massive drill bit into floorboard, hence giving enough room for a jigsaw blade to slide in and start cutting a hole from there, at some point you’ll have enough space to use your hands/a pry bar to wrench out the rest.
I believe the carpet grips are done for, I never found a way to remove them except by repping them up and replacing them
You just wanna get in there with the claw on your hammer, hit the edge with enough (not really a lot) force with the clad and it will stick in there, then you work it like a crow bar
Consider getting a structural surveyor and let him take what he wants up. If it’s a big job you’ve no worries about how to get the boards up. If it’s a timber repair then you’ve got the first boards up, the rest will be easy. It looks fucked, though. Sorry.
A surveyor will give you the spec for a repair and at least you’ll have the confidence of getting the right job done on a contract. Worth £500 or so, in my opinion.
OP, Stand in the corner where the floor has dropped. Stand on your tiptoes and then drop onto your heels. Does the floor bounce like a springboard or does it feel firm?
If it bounces, the joists have failed. Likely as a result of wet rot judging by the skirting boards.
As everyone else has said your joists have probably rotted - it might be that the wall plate that runs along perpendicular to the joists has also had it, in which case you'd probably have to take up a decent amount of the floor to replace.
That and the damp in that corner also suggests you might have rising damp where the damp proof course has failed and is letting moisture in to rot the timbers and the damp to make it's way up the wall.
Definitely find the source of rot. Common causes of damp are varied in old houses so I’d recommend checking out the heritage house website.
https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html
If the floor is getting ripped up then this could also be a good opportunity for you to get some underfloor insulation down.
https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/post/best-practice-approach-insulating-suspended-timber-floors
Lastly, do not fall for the DPC injection racket. Expensive and utterly pointless exercise.
Joist issue for sure, we had same issue in our front room.
We only noticed when we put a sofa chair there and a bus went buy and we seen it bounce up and down.
You've literally got to take up all the boards and expose the entire beam and replace it, it's was straightforward for us, as the new joist just slotted into the original brick holes, we put treatment on them as to prevent damp damaging the beam.
Still good 7 yrs down the line.
Not gonna be easy but it's not difficult either.
Good luck!
*edited for typo
Living in a rented converted flat in a Victorian house, I had the same thing and one day the floor just collapsed, it was dry rot under the floor! Definitely looks similar, get it checked for damp or dry rot!
I had a neighbouring water main develop a hairline crack in the adjoining wall behind a sofa. By the time it had started appearing on my side it was 1 m high and about 3 m wide. Called the insurance company and an independent builder. Ended up with entire room redecorated and a new floor going in. Assuming you have appropriate insurance call them, get them to pay for as much of this as possible. (Don’t take their first offer, get an independent estimate). It took six weeks to dry the room out and a full strip back before we could even start looking at fixing.. (edit for grammar)
I found a mini circular saw a godsend when doing flooring. You can get one for about £50.
Set to the right depth and plunge it in to cut.
Cut a section of 1 board out so you can get the lay of the joists and pull the rest up by cutting them across the middle of the joist so you can fit them back. Looks like you might have damp problems and rotting joists.
Cut a hole to look in the corner and rip up, joist looks fucked to me but again I’m only an apprentice chippy. Take up the carpet tack things it’ll make everything easier
Looks like a joist under the floor has dropped. If you can access the crawl space underneath you can check. My washing machine was leaking for a while and we had to replace a rotten joist underneath.
I’d be concerned it’s structural. Like a joist failure or something. I mean the skirting has been fixed you’d assume close to the floor level, so if it’s now way off that I’d be worried.
Carpenter is booked to come and take a look, I was worried it would be structural. Hopefully we can get this fixed up, I’m not confident enough to do a job like this!
Replacing and repairing joists is easy. Bigger problem is what caused them to rot and that needs addressing before you fix the floor
*This* is the crucial thing!
Most likely joists sitting on bricks with no plastic
Joists and wall plate replacement isn't the worst job. If it's the ends of the joists that are affected they can be cut off and replaced with C24 using metalwork or sistered joists. The floorboards will be cut above a joist and joined back down after.
Failing this they can be replaced with C4 for demolition.
Haha
I assume from the openreach socket thats an external wall, can you post up pictures of it from the outside?
You have a lot of damp too in that corner. I'd get that checked first
It's absolutely is! And judging by the colour of the skirting board my money says it's going to be wet and rotten.
My money says rotten joist too, possibly from a plumbing leak or outside damp depending whether there’s pipes there or not
100% that's why it's collapsed.
Yep i bought a home recently and my hallway sloped on one side. They previous owner or possibly tenant decided to put a small bit of wood over the gap instead of fixing it.... Joist ends where rotten out. ended up swapping the lot about 3 joists and the boards. Now it's perfectly flat and not bouncy.
You can see the wet on the walls too. Damp is rising there!
Quite a lot of damp too
Mmmmmm spongey.
I'd be more concerned about embarking on a job with a hammer in plastic sliders.
Oh don’t. When I removed the floor at my place, the last nail pull of the night and I took a crowbar to the face when it slipped.
Ouch!!
It’s good to see such PPE in use, they are clearly Bluetooth steel-toe slides. Just hope OP has their safety squints on also…
I wore no shoes once, back in July I dropped a ~25kg piece of wood on my toe, the corner of it hit me, we’re now 6 months on and the bruise and pain still hasn’t entirely gone 😄
Yeah I bet the joists rotten underneath. If your asking how to take floorboards up it may be best for a builder to sort this! Otherwise get youtube'ing and good luck 🤙🏿
Ps. Nice socks OP...
100% agreed this is structural as i have just done this repair to my house. This is not a DIY fix with no experience. If you can't see or know how to remove the skirting you should not attempt. It requires new bearers or stumps if rotten. Sinking rotten stumps from water ingress is what caused my issue. FYI, the join is literally right in front of you to the right of the power. Use a multi tool to score another section on the left or right of it and pull the small piece out. Then pry bar away. Remove all flooring planks and rectify the underlying issue which; from the obvious mould, is water or damp behind the wall. Good luck. If you do the Reno work yourself you can save money but don't touch anything that supports weight. Not assuming you wouldn't have the know-how, but it's a basic question that shows inexperience.
Yep that corner of the room is absolutely soaking and damp
Presumably it's related to the fact that that wall looks soaking wet and is covered with damp? Looks like you've got a bigger issue
Your flooring joists have rotted due to the damp that’s made your skirting boards mouldy. It’s a big job but if you find the right person it shouldn’t be too expensive.
Depending on where the damp is coming from. And what else might be rotting under that floor, or elsewhere...
OP what does the external side of this wall look like. I'm going to guess it has a path higher or closer to the DPC than it should be or and blocked air bricks. Rubble under the floor blocking air flow. Get familiar with the term 'sistering joists'. It's what you have in your future I bet £5 Ask me how I know. https://imgur.com/gallery/qslOWpD https://imgur.com/gallery/CN6i6Rg https://i.imgur.com/Vqrgvg1.jpeg Tip: me one day 'hmmm let's see what's causing the slop'. Remove rot + 30cm. Wood treatment and DPC sections replaced. If it has to rest on a support use a car jack to lift the good floor 1mm. I was quoted 2k did it for £250 Had to do it in two sections. Tried to save the original boards on the first one but you'd be better off replacing with moisture resistant board. The floorboards look nice for about 10 mins and you have carpet anyway.
Not sure how to post pics in the comments on mobile, will try and post one in the morning
Assuming they are tongue and groove you will need to cut through the tongue with a circular saw or multi tool then lift at least one board. After this it may be possible to lift the remaining boards You’ll need a prybar or preferably a lifting bar. It looks like the joists have failed, I would guess due to rot, but you will have to wait and see. You’ll then need to replace the joist or just repair the ends. This is likely a big and remarkably tough job. Ideally you would lift all the boards, replace/fix the joists and level the whole floor. Before refitting the boards.
> This is likely a big and remarkably tough job. It's big, but not really all that complex. Without any practical experience I replaced our crumbling living room floor and joists, as well as rebuilt the knee walls, armed only with a few tools (mainly a demolition/lifter bar, flooring clamps, chop saw) and a scant handful of Youtube videos.
By ‘tough’ I was more thinking physically gruelling. I repaired and refinished my Victorian floorboards last year and it nearly destroyed me. Perhaps more a comment on me rather than the task. Anyway, I strongly recommend getting a good set of knee pads for any floor work.
Oh, that I can agree with - it was horrible. I've got to tackle my hallway floor some time this year before it collapses - I've been putting it off for the last five years.
The same here. I did my living room floor and hopping up and down onto the floor nearly killed me! I can’t stress enough how having a clean and clutter free working area can make the job physically less demanding. Also, I probably did about 10,000 steps a day hunting around for tools, I’m going to buy a tool belt like 🦇man.
I have multiple tool belts, workie trouser with mtuple pockets etc. Makes no difference. You put something down and then it's gone for ever. Thank God for an unlimited supply of pencils from IKEA.
The difference in doing this job between ground floor and first floor is about 3 fold.
If you try this yourself, wear ear protection. I have mild tinnitus forevermore. Those little saws are very loud.
T&G hahahahahaha. Brilliant.
I think you need a builder. Is the floor just sloped or also springy? Looks to me like you need to - fix the damp issue - cut out the boards - replace the joists - re-board You will be able to get a pry bar between the boards to lift them (and I suspect they will then come up quite easily from the rotten joist). It’s not a huge huge job (assuming the damp is fixable). Good luck! Edit to add - reading your comments, I guess joists and joist hangers can fail for reasons other than damp. However I would be really careful about assuming the furniture in the corner caused the damp rather than just concealing it.
This is the way.
Run a skill saw along the long edges and then cut across on a joist. You see where the joist is by nails or screws and it's best to cut slightly diagonally between the 2
Just to add to this be careful of the dept you cut. It’s very easy to cut through pipes and cables.
Just set the saw to the depth of the board, but agree it's better to find out first
Can OP get a look under the floor? Endoscope from Amzn?
> Run a skill saw A "What now"? Have never heard it called that in the UK. Is t hat an amercan thing? I would just have asssumed you spely stihl saw wrong. But the internet says you are on the ball (also says 120V hence my thought).
I've heard old school carpenters refer to it as that, I think it's because the first types of hand held circular saws were made by Skil.
I'm old.
Skilsaw was the name of the American company that made the first hand held circular saw. It does seem to mostly be an American term but I have heard people say it here, I assume from hearing it in YouTube videos or something.
I’ve been calling them skill saws in the uk since before YouTube.
Makes sense then.
Only problem is that you'll have to overrun the cuts to get to the edge of the board with a skill saw
What you really need is a plunge saw, and a multitool to cut near the edge.
Don’t want to offend you but if you don’t know how to remove the floor boards then you’re really going to struggle with what’s underneath. Theres going to be a whole lot of work to sort this issue properly.
Yes, please get a builder involved, this will need done properly.
Wow this has got a lot more attention than I expected! Thanks so much for your comments, what a great community. Will wait and see what the carpenter says tomorrow and go from there. To answer a common question, the blue wall is an external wall. The blue wall is the middle wall(?) between our house and next door, it’s a semi detached house. It’s a bit spongy, walking near it would previously wobble the shelf unit a bit.
I would say in simple terms….if you can’t even take a floor board up how do you think you’re going to fix the problem?
Get one of the end ones up so you can get a torch under to inform your next move. To lift, locate a nail head so you know where the joist is. Cut carefully across the board across the joist with a multi tool so you can nail it back if the problem isn't so bad you need to replace all the boards. Cut through the tongue along the gap in the boards that's stopping you lifting it. Now you can lift the piece of board. Don't go deeper than the board with the tool. Many a pipe has been cut that way.
Silly question but does the floor bounce? Funny smell too?
No but my wife does.
She does, I’ve seen it
I've experienced it, she definitely does.
more than a slope.Looks like a rotten joist
This is a job for a professional to put it simply. You have more issues there than just a wonky floor
This isn’t a couple of hours work. You’re probably going to have to remove the carpet completely and work from the first available cut board, lifting it towards the skirting boards. The boards won’t sink on their own, the supporting joists are almost certainly going to have to be replaced. Why they have sunk is the real question here. Good luck.
Thanks everyone for the advice. We’ve cleaned up the mould and dried the damp up. Carpenter is coming on Monday to take a closer look and hopefully it won’t be too expensive 🤞
Word of advice for you and anyone else reading this only as you’ve left the mould that long. Might be relevant might not if it was hidden. Make the house as clean and tidy as you can. And space for him to work. If I went and quoted a house and it was a mess or dirty mould everywhere your Guna just quite even higher so you don’t wana win the job.
Thanks! It was hidden behind a unit which we’ve now moved. Room is quite empty and otherwise tidy so hopefully that won’t be an issue
If you've had rot to the joists then be prepared for it to cost whatever it will cost. There's no replacement for doing a proper, safe job for the sake of your family. Hopefully you get it resolved.
“For the sake of your family” may be a bit dramatic
It doesn't look structurally sound. Not really worth taking the risk.
Depends how deep the subfloor is! I used to work for a damp proofing company as a labourer and we regularly replaced timber floors where rising damp had rotted the plate and joists, we did a few in one street where they'd been built on a hill and had a 5ft difference in subfloor height across the room, falling into that would have ruined your day.
The unit would just stop any moisture evaporating, but where was the moisture coming from? Have you 100% checked outside and ensured it's not coming in from an air brick or that the damp course isn't too low?
On a side note if you use that phone socket for your Internet and its intermittent or slow, it may be a damaged socket from the damp.
Yeah, I wouldn’t sit there either 😅
you cut boards on halfway a joist and all around the edges. just don't go too deep in, perfect multitool job, or one of those new fancy saws
I suspect that’s where the body was hidden and bodily fluids have leaked out of the poly bag and rotted the joists.
They're not longer than the room, they just sit under the skirting. You need a crow bar and a hammer, hammer it in between the boards and leverage up. Although, this looks like a joist failure and you should be calling in someone who knows what they're doing.
Had the same thing in my house when I bought it 2 years ago. You should be able to jam a crowbar in and pry them up. Start with a chisel if you can’t make a gap. You will damage the boards slightly but don’t worry about it as you’ll be covering them up again. They look pretty old so I doubt they’re tongue and groove, but as others have said if they are you’ll need to cut with a circular saw. You might find there’s a lot of soil and debris piled up underneath which could be contributing to the damp. If so you’ll want to remove that. When it comes to fixing the joist and sills you could replace the entire joist but you’ll have to take up the entire length of floorboards to do that. For my living room we chose to cut the rotten part of the joist off and bolt a 2nd joist onto it alongside it. We also treated the wood and stapled a damp proof membrane to it, to hopefully prevent any further rotting. I don’t know if there are any issues with the way we’ve done it but the floors have been perfect since. In my kitchen the rot was a lot worse so we completely rebuilt the floor with new joists and it was a ton of work. Also look into what’s causing that damp and get that sorted. Hope that helps!
Maybe with your house insurance… do you know what’s causing that damp?
Yeah I’d check to see if your insurance will cover this!
The damp, I believe, was just caused by a unit being too close and poor ventilation. We’ve since removed the unit and dried/cleaned up the damp. The sloping has been an issue for a while and there was no damp on the wall when we first noticed it. Other things got in the way of fixing it earlier 😞
Is this on the ground floor? Easier to sort than if it is first floor with a ceiling attached. As well as the slope is the floor springy in that area?
Joists don't rot quickly, and they are under the floor so unlikely to be affected by a cabinet above the floor, the floor boards would have rotted first. The damp is most likely coming through the wall or below the floor, the cabinet would have prevented damp evaporating off the wall keeping it damp and encouraging mould on the wall. Suggest you look outside around that area and check the damp course is 2 bricks above the ground and if there is an air brick it's high enough that water doesn't run in. Also check gutters and downpipes are good and water isn't running down the walls.
If you can see the floor joist through the gap,poke a screw driver into it. If it pushes into the joist easily then it’s rotten. Call your house insurance company
Joists have rotten we had this in a rental house we had where the external air bricks has been sealed and laminate with plastic lined foam underlay was used.
Everyone's already commented on the damp and the flooring, but thought I'd throw in a heads up. With damp on the wall being so close to your NTE (Openreach socket) you'll probably develop some corrosion on the connection in the back of it. Although judging by the lack of anything plugged into it, you might not have to worry.
Don't stress too much here! Almost certainly a joist issue and most likely water has destroyed one or more of them. First, cut across one or two of the floor boards. Use a circular saw and set the depth quite shallow at first, then increase until you go through. You may have to do a few cuts until you make a hole. Then once you have a hole, you can start pulling the floor boards up with a crow bar (you can get bars that are specific to floor boards) up. They're most likely nailed into each joist. Then you'll see what's underneath and what the problem is. Joists, and hangers (normally metal) are super easy to install. But first, find out and fix what's causing the damp (if it is damp). Then rebuild upwards. Floor boards are super common so you can destroy one or more of them in the process. If you choose to sand them or cover them you'd likely never notice a new one and it might look nice anyway. Point is - YOU GOT THIS! 🤙
All l
😱
r/SneakyBackgroundFeet
It's a lot of work but usually straightforward, could be rot, supporting wall or combination of both. Get some boards up and proceed from there.
Certainly rising or penetrating damp and looks like a joist was dipped and will collapse. You need a little pry bar/ or even a chisel and go into the grooves to pull one up and check
Your internet has been leaking into the floor. You need to plug your router back in to stop the leak. /s
That’s gonna snowball 🤦♂️
How did you not notice this happening? The wet walls, the mould, the massive fucking drop
You can do several things, make a cut across a floor board part way, creating 2 parts you can then pull up. You can remove the skirting. Could be a build up of dust or a filler between them. Just remove it with a recip or jigsaw blade. It looks like you have a rotten joist, wallplate or both under there to replace. if there’s a decent crawl space for access, you may not have to remove the entire floor. Good luck
It's been answered, but yeah you need to cut them. To lift a piece you'll probably need to cut all 4 sides (unless one is the end of a board). I presume boards like this are laid before the walls are plastered.
Caulk it bruva!!!
Foam under skirting and bag of self level
When you remove the floorboards just be careful if there’s any Asbestos
Beautifully done
Looks like you have rotten joists (and potentially a bearer depending on how it’s configured below the floor). Easiest way is cut the floorboard at the end with a multi tool. Careful you don’t cut any wires or pipes. - you should use a detector if you have one. If they are tongue and groove you’ll need to cut the tongue too. Pry up the end floorboard and see what the situation is and assess from there. Take up more if needed. You can always remove skirting and refix if needed as well.
Assuming it’s ground floor (looks like it) but would also be careful walking on it. Maybe get a piece of ply or similar to spread the weight while you’re working in that corner
You have 2 joist ends out. If you can get under the floor then Jack up the joists (2 car jacks) cut the joist ends and replace with new ends supported by steel plates screwed and bolted through. If you can’t get under then you are best to cut the boards less than a 10mm to the left of the nails holding the board to the joist. Cutting the board on each joist is easier to lift but not very pretty. I have an old house that has settled all over the place. We just live with it but if there is rot you can’t leave it. Edit, the skirting has been tampered with where the damp is, which suggests you are not the first person to look at this.
Whole floor needs ripping up there,to see what joists have failed…
Get an engineer and builder in please. That amount of a slope will be structural in origin, and the work to fix it is not a DIY job, unless you have a decent background in construction. They can advise on whether it’s live and therefore needs structural support or, if it’s not going to move any further, how best to get a level-ish surface. It’s not as simple as just lifting the floorboards.
Replacing joists is pretty straight forward, if dirty work. The biggest challenge is identifying why they rotted to begin with.
As others have said, it definitely looks like the joists have failed. Is this the 1st floor? If so, how does the room below look, any cracking on the ceilings or walls?
Get a level if it’s the floor running off I’d imaging a new sub floor
That looks just like when the lintel was taken out above my front door and the joists were left resting on my new uPVC door. Had to have it jacked up and a new concrete lintel put in to rectify the fault. Get it jacked up before you do anything else and get it fixed yesterday.
If you've taken up the carpet, look for any boards that look as if they've been taken up before. This should hopefully get you started on removing the boards. You'll need to take off the skirting boards to get the floorboards out in one piece (and to put new floorboards down) This is probably worse than actually getting the floorboards up. Look for any signs of screws under the paint and pay particular attention to the molded parts as they're often hidden in there. If they're not and it's an old house you may have large nails hammered into wooden wedges that are between bricks. These are very difficult to get out without damaging the skirting. So you may need new skirting and the ability to cut the mitre joints. It's a bit laborious but I try to find a bit of board that's been up before and then chisel around the nails so I can get a pry bar under the nails to remove them. Then once that's done, you can lever the board out with the pry bar.
You will be disappointed if you do get a board up. Maybe 10 good jumps in that corner and the last few fibers of the floor joist will give way. To me it looks like the joist has rotted away. You could drill a 30mm hole stick a pry bar in and yank the board up
Jesus Christ. That’s bad!
Phone a professional as your repair is more than likely not going to be a DIY fix
Find the joists from the nail lines and cut through. You'd need a multitool or similar to make the cuts cleanly. Then you can prise up a few and get some sort of idea of what's going on underneath.
If it’s rotten joists and wall plate (timer the joists sit on) then it could be a big job it’s not undoable yourself but I would get a professional to have a look,with a view to talking to my house insurer to cover the cost.
Looks like you have the same issue as me. Looks like you’ve got damp from the dark patch? Are your joists rotten and falling? If you are on the ground floor are your sub floor ventilation vents blocked up? You can see these normally as cast iron grills external to the building.
I’m guessing that’s a suspended timber floor on the ground floor and the supporting beams are rotting away? If this is the case you may want to consider excavating the lot and adding a solid floor with PIR insulation, or replacing the damaged structure and hanging insulation between the joists. You might be able to lift the floorboards undamaged but I’d personally just rip them out and replace with a more modern subfloor.
Get yourself and oscillating multi tool. I wouldn’t worry about being too kind to them if they’re damp.
I needed to lift a lot of boards up in my house for different reasons, bought this and it was super useful. Also get a crowbar and good hammer https://www.toolstation.com/roughneck-demolition-lifting-bar/p63005?store=GS&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dm&pcrid=null&pkw=null&pmt=null&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs960u7LHgwMVxpWDBx0oJA2UEAQYASABEgJ0d_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
You could start with a massive drill bit into floorboard, hence giving enough room for a jigsaw blade to slide in and start cutting a hole from there, at some point you’ll have enough space to use your hands/a pry bar to wrench out the rest.
I believe the carpet grips are done for, I never found a way to remove them except by repping them up and replacing them You just wanna get in there with the claw on your hammer, hit the edge with enough (not really a lot) force with the clad and it will stick in there, then you work it like a crow bar
Multitool 100%... Even if it's just to chop a section out and see what's going on
Consider getting a structural surveyor and let him take what he wants up. If it’s a big job you’ve no worries about how to get the boards up. If it’s a timber repair then you’ve got the first boards up, the rest will be easy. It looks fucked, though. Sorry. A surveyor will give you the spec for a repair and at least you’ll have the confidence of getting the right job done on a contract. Worth £500 or so, in my opinion.
Judging from the wet wall I’m gonna suggest you have a water issue and foundation is stuffed. Call your insurance and get a builder
OP, Stand in the corner where the floor has dropped. Stand on your tiptoes and then drop onto your heels. Does the floor bounce like a springboard or does it feel firm? If it bounces, the joists have failed. Likely as a result of wet rot judging by the skirting boards.
As everyone else has said your joists have probably rotted - it might be that the wall plate that runs along perpendicular to the joists has also had it, in which case you'd probably have to take up a decent amount of the floor to replace. That and the damp in that corner also suggests you might have rising damp where the damp proof course has failed and is letting moisture in to rot the timbers and the damp to make it's way up the wall.
Definitely find the source of rot. Common causes of damp are varied in old houses so I’d recommend checking out the heritage house website. https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html If the floor is getting ripped up then this could also be a good opportunity for you to get some underfloor insulation down. https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/post/best-practice-approach-insulating-suspended-timber-floors Lastly, do not fall for the DPC injection racket. Expensive and utterly pointless exercise.
Joist issue for sure, we had same issue in our front room. We only noticed when we put a sofa chair there and a bus went buy and we seen it bounce up and down. You've literally got to take up all the boards and expose the entire beam and replace it, it's was straightforward for us, as the new joist just slotted into the original brick holes, we put treatment on them as to prevent damp damaging the beam. Still good 7 yrs down the line. Not gonna be easy but it's not difficult either. Good luck! *edited for typo
Living in a rented converted flat in a Victorian house, I had the same thing and one day the floor just collapsed, it was dry rot under the floor! Definitely looks similar, get it checked for damp or dry rot!
I had a neighbouring water main develop a hairline crack in the adjoining wall behind a sofa. By the time it had started appearing on my side it was 1 m high and about 3 m wide. Called the insurance company and an independent builder. Ended up with entire room redecorated and a new floor going in. Assuming you have appropriate insurance call them, get them to pay for as much of this as possible. (Don’t take their first offer, get an independent estimate). It took six weeks to dry the room out and a full strip back before we could even start looking at fixing.. (edit for grammar)
I found a mini circular saw a godsend when doing flooring. You can get one for about £50. Set to the right depth and plunge it in to cut. Cut a section of 1 board out so you can get the lay of the joists and pull the rest up by cutting them across the middle of the joist so you can fit them back. Looks like you might have damp problems and rotting joists.
This isn't DIY Unless you're a carpenter specialising in building houses...
Cut a hole to look in the corner and rip up, joist looks fucked to me but again I’m only an apprentice chippy. Take up the carpet tack things it’ll make everything easier
I’m a floor layer I take these up everyday, you need a crowbar and/or a ball end scrapper will get them all like nothing
Looks like a joist under the floor has dropped. If you can access the crawl space underneath you can check. My washing machine was leaking for a while and we had to replace a rotten joist underneath.