What Sagging Floors Mean for Your Crawl Space
In Davenport, sagging floor problems in your crawl space can lead to problems inside the main living areas of your home. If the floor joists inside your crawl space become weak, it can cause sagging floors inside your home. This can be caused by improper placement of the support beams or by moisture damage that causes the wood to become weak over time.
Sagging floors inside your home are a nuisance and a safety hazard. Trust in our Davenport sagging floor correction experts at MidAmerica Basement Systems to repair your crawl space to even out your interior floors.
A floor joist shows signs of compression due to the heavy weight of the home—and too few crawl space supports.
Inadequate crawl space support leads to sinking floors, uneven floors, and damage to your structure.
How to Fix a Sagging Crawl Space
We offer crawl space jack posts as a solution to your sagging crawl space problem. These posts lift your weakened floor joists back into place for a permanent solution to even out your sagging floors.
What Causes Crawl Spaces to Sag:
- Support columns spaced too far apart
- Moisture and rot cause the joists and posts to become weak
- Columns are settling from weak soil or poor footings
Symptoms of a Sagging Crawl Space:
- Sagging, sloping, or uneven interior floors
- Sinking crawl space supports
- Moist, rotting wood
- Unlevel door & window frames
- Interior drywall cracks
Install the SmartJack® System to Fix Sagging Floors
Our team at MidAmerica Basement Systems installs crawl space support beams to lift the weak floor joists back into place to fix your Davenport home’s sagging floors and moisture damage in the crawl space. We use the SmartJack® System, which are heavy-duty jack posts made of steel that can instantly lift your sagging floor joists and can be adjusted over time if more support is necessary for the future.
A moldy, unsupported girder sinks under the weight of a home due to an improperly installed crawl space support. If not addressed, could mean significant damage to the home.
Benefits of the SmartJack® System:
- Quick installation
- Resists corrosion
- Support loads over 60,000 lbs.
- Adjustable features for additional support
- Addresses the problem soils for permanent support
SmartJack® Installation Process
We follow this 5-step process to install the SmartJack® System in your crawl space:
Before we install the SmartJack® System, a representative will come to your home to conduct a thorough assessment of your crawl space to see exactly where the posts will need to be installed. Once that is determined, our crew will dig a 2’ by 2’ hole and is filled with crushed stone to provide stability for the support jack to rest on.
Next, a pre-cast concrete base, or footing, is installed on top of the stone and provides a solid base for the jack. This helps keep the jack level and supported and will not shift or settle from soil conditions in the ground.
After the bases are prepared, each jack post is measured and cut to the proper size that will work specifically for your crawl space. Each post then goes through a triple-layer coating process to enhance durability and avoid corrosion.
Our crew then assembles each jack post into place and adjusts the tightening to ensure each post provides the proper support for the joists that they are supporting. In many cases, they will lift your sagging floors back into place and close any interior wall cracks.
Once the SmartJack® System is installed, we recommend encapsulating your crawl space with a thick, waterproof liner to avoid water damage in the future. This will help keep your crawl space dry and protect your floor joists from any future rotting.
Avoid These Temporary Fixes:
There are many temporary solutions that some contractors may use to fix your sagging floors. We have found that these recommendations do not provide the proper support that your crawl space needs and will ultimately fail, leaving you with the same problem in the future.
Concrete Columns
Concrete columns can be created from concrete blocks stacked on top of each other and attached together by mortar. This is typically a much slower process because the mortar needs a lot of time to cure and does not allow for any future adjusting if the columns sink into the ground.
Shimming
Some contractors believe shimming is an effective repair method, which uses concrete blocks and wooden shims that are wedged into the top to fill in an extra space. This is not a permanent solution to fix your sagging crawl space and will need constant re-shimming. We recommend the SmartJack® System for a permanent solution.
Light-Duty Jack Posts
There are other types of crawl space jack posts available that are light-duty compared to our heavy-duty SmartJack®. These posts are simply not strong enough to support the weight of your crawl space and may eventually cause your floors to sag again in the future.
Rely on MidAmerica Basement Systems for Crawl Space Repair
No matter what type of condition your crawl space is in, our experts have seen it all. We pride ourselves in only offering the best products on the market that will give you a permanent solution so you don’t have to worry about your problem ever again in the future.
To schedule your free estimate, contact us today! Our service area includes Cedar Rapids, Peoria, Waterloo, Davenport, and nearby areas such as Iowa City, Rock Island, Dubuque, Moline, East Peoria, Clinton.