The mystery of the floor mountain!

easilydistracted

Hello much more savvy people that are not going to end up with a project of a house. We have been viewing a series of wonderfully ugly houses due to our sad budget! The latest house has in the living room a rather bizarre situation where the floor seems solid and fine on the surface, but is in a little hill. Does anyone have any idea what this could possibly be? The agent has no idea. The place is old and hasn't been touch since a granny lived there. Most of the floorboards upstairs are also rotten and creaky which will mean replacing a lot I suppose. The original buyer pulled out due to survey. Ventilation bricks being needed have been mentioned, but I'm not sure this explains things. I am taking my builder friend along, but not sure this is even the right trade (and he's more a strange man off the internet than a builder). Oh the joys of being a first time buyer .

G_M

What kind of floor? Wood? Concrete? Is it accessible or covered by fitted carpet?

Sounds like damp but impossossible to say without seeing/investigating.

Ventilation bricks are cheap- the least of your problems.

By the sound of it this is a renovation project, so the detail of what has caused the bump in the floor hardly matters; You're going to have to rip out floor boards, and more, so as long as it is priced accordingly, and you can afford the renovation on top of the purchase price, you're fine.

In fact in the long run, it's the best way - once you've finished the renovation you'll have a spanking new property worth way more than you've paid!

princeofpounds

That'll be the zombies pushing their way up from the ancient indian graveyard underneath the house.

dimbo61

FTB and project ???
Have you got a pot of money hiddern under the bed?
Think rewire, replaster, new heating/boiler/radiators etc, rottern flooring, damp, new kitchen,bathroom,windows etc
If you have no idea and no one in the family who is a builder, plumber, electrician I would run a mile

hazyjo

Could be a dead mouse/rat! :eek:

Or could be a botch job - hole underneath, and someone's nailed a small piece of something over it to cover it?

Jx

ACG

I did read once that some houses in the 60s with concrete floors were filled with basically building rubbish and that if/when water gets in it makes the floor expand and (i have no idea what the opposite of expand is??... unexpand? :-P).

I doubt it will be that if its just a lump in the middle but i thought i would just throw it out there.

Deprem

I have seen this in several late 19th century houses in London, built on soft clay. If the wooden floor is apparently sound, yet the centre of the floor is higher that those parts nearest the skirting boards, then what has happened is as follows: -


The brick walls have settled and sunk two or three inches all round. The floor, supported on rough brick piers sited away from the walls, has not moved but has been flexed as the ends and the sides of some boards are trapped by the skirting boards, and bent over where the piers are.


One solution is to remove the floor and skirting boards and start again, rebuilding the piers, or at least, reducing their height.

DilbertJones

ACG wrote: »

(i have no idea what the opposite of expand is??... unexpand? :-P).

Contract

fishpond

princeofpounds wrote: »

That'll be the zombies pushing their way up from the ancient indian graveyard underneath the house.

.

This sounds like it could be the cause.:eek:

DRP

DilbertJones wrote: »

Contract

that certainly could be the clause of the problem...

adouglasmhor

DilbertJones wrote: »

Contract

Or shrink maybe.