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I found out the floors in my condo sink 7 inches to the center over a 25 foot space.

I am wondering if maybe the floor joists are beyond repair ?

They want to put a pilar and beam under this to “stop” the sinking but I worry about everything above me.

We think a header or structural beam was removed 20 or more years ago and now it’s just getting worse

For safety I wonder if there is anyway to repair a 7 inch drop ?

I feel like the only correct way and safe way is to guy rehab the whole tier but what are your thoughts.

The doors are all square so it looks like the sinking happened and they forgot to put a pilar underneath so it keeps sinking.

Wouldn’t the joists be warped at 7 inch drop ?

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  • Please edit your question to post photos
    – Rohit Gupta
    Commented Aug 27, 2023 at 23:54
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    Is it a dip(always there) of 7 inches or does the floor sink 7 inches when you are walking on it? If it was me I would want out of there, hopefully with them giving me my money back.
    – crip659
    Commented Aug 27, 2023 at 23:55
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    What floor is your condo on? How may floors are above you? How many below? Can you access the structure below your unit? Is this a wood frame building? How old is the building?
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Aug 28, 2023 at 1:08
  • It's a condo...you must have neighbors...do they also have floors that are so out of level?
    – Huesmann
    Commented Aug 28, 2023 at 12:02

2 Answers 2

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7-in is a lot, but not unheard of. But whatever caused the sinking, you need to find out what it is.

Is this on a first floor, and you have access to the basement? Take a look. It could be that a Lally column was removed and a girder splitting, or that the joists are undersized for the span, etc. etc. Why do you think that removing a header could cause this? As in a floor below, removing a header to a door frame? How could a "structural beam" be removed without the house collapsing? The beams I know have joists attached to them.

Yes, 7" drops can be repaired. For example, if this happened many years ago, say when the house was built 50 years ago, and then stopped, then you could just live with it. Or remove the floors and sister the joists and put new 3/4 subfloor and a new floor. Or, if the case is that a girder split, you might able to jack it up. Beware that if this happened over decades and the house is still moving, jacking the house will cause all sheetrock and plaster to crack. And the door frames were indeed redone, you'll have to redo them again.

Are the door frames plumb and square? That suggests that the house sank, they repaired, and it stopped sinking.

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There is a 7 inch drop in a floor of a condo.

Any additional information is confusing and probably moot, because this is something that a structural engineer MUST be consulted about.

Any information or suggestions from those on this site would be a guess.

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