House with sloping floors

[Nat C.]

I viewed a house today with some serious sub-flooring issues. The house is built up off the ground and the plinths underneath are clearly collapsing. The tile floor inside is still in good condition but the floors slope up and down. Can anyone give an idea about methods and cost for fixing this? Can you simply add additional plinths to give structural support or does all the flooring need to be ripped up to rebuild the sub-flooring? The property could be a cash cow although the structural issues could also put a huge hole in the budget.

[David S.]

I think you are referring to pier and beam construction?

There are companies who solely do foundation work/house leveling.  Their methods are the following: they jack up the house to get it level and use some type cement cylinder as support, in this case since it is pier and beam, below the supporting piers (or slab if it was concrete).

The costs depend on how bad the ground is and how many cement cylinder they use.  Also, it appears that some of your piers need replacing.  Most of these repairs that I have seen were less than 10k, with many being around 5k.  I would definitely consult with at least 3 of these types of companies before proceeding.

As a side note, many homeowners and investors strictly don't buy houses with foundation issues, so you make get a great deal.