is my apartment floor going to collapse?

[A.L. Bell]

Will my sagging apartment floor collapse?

I am a person who can barely tell a nail from a hammer who lives in a
beautiful, poorly maintained 1878 rowhouse near New York.

Just about every single interior surface is covered with carpet, tiles,
vinyl flooring, white wall boards, or white ceiling tiles. None of the few
structural-type surfaces I can see have obvious cracks in them.

The stairs on the east side of the building have always sagged toward the
west for the five years that I've been in the building, but it looks to me
as if they slope a little more than they used to. Many of the steps feel
loose.

Upstairs, in the second floor "storage area" (maybe an old parlor?) the
floor seems to sag in the middle. I think the middle might be two or three
inches lower than the sides. I can feel individual planks
(beams??) shifting slightly when I walk in the area that dips the
most, which is under carpet and wood flooring. When I step there, a
wall near the area squeaks. Also, some of the decorative wood features
seem to be pulling a little bit away from their walls. (Maybe a few
millimeters.)

Also, one of the kitchen walls (I think an inner wall) has come down about
a foot or two and is resting on an old heater in the basement.

I was saying that our bathroom floors was about to cave in for a couple
years, and my roommates said I was crazy. Then it turned out that the
only thing left of part of the bathroom floor was the tile and the vinyl
stuff under the tile. All the wood had rotted away, and the landpeople had
to replace the whole bathroom floor.

Now my roommates say I'm crazy to be worried about the second-floor floor,
but it bothers me that I can't see any of the innards of the floor.

I also hate the idea of calling the landpeople unless I really have to,
because who wants to cause trouble if in fact I'm just being an
architectural hypochondriac.

Should I do anything other than seek counseling? If so, what's the
cheapest way to find out whether there's a building emergency without
bugging the landpeople or bringing in a city inspector who might
immediately condemn the building and make us all homeless?

a.l.

--

[David Meiland]

I would be quite concerned about this. If you are not going to call
the city inspector (they would love the part about the wall sagging
onto the heater) then you need to get a contractor to check it out.
You need to determine if you have rot causing this, or if the building
is simply settling at ground level.

all...@zarf.org (A.L. Bell) wrote:

---
David Meiland
Oakland, CA

**Check the reply address before sending mail

[sif]

If it were me, just for my own peace of mind, I'd want to know. Also, I'm
curious about these things. You *could* pay a contractor to take a look, as
one poster suggested, but be aware that unless it's someone you know well,
you may not get an objective opinion (hey, everybody's looking for work).
Ask friends with no vested interest if they have any handymen/builders among
their acquaintance who'd take a look at it and give you an honest opinion.
I've gotten some great advice from retired contractors in exchange for a
round of drinks. Squeaky floorboards and minor floor sag is common in older
framed buildings and probably not a major concern, although a deep sag could
spell trouble. The movement of your kitchen wall of the distance you
mentioned (a foot or two?) strikes me as more serious -- that's a long way
for a wall to travel without having had some sort of failure somewhere. Get
it checked out. It could be nothing, but you'll sleep better with the
facts. -- Sif

A.L. Bell <all...@zarf.org> wrote in message news:usCV5.34$04.505@read1...