I'm not even sure if this is the right forum, since it's more a masonry-ish question, but here goes.
I am in the process of refinishing my walkout basement, and I have a major "challenge" that I am at a loss as to how to solve. The foundation at one corner of the house has sunken quite a bit, enough that somewhere under the 1st layer of ugly tile, there is a crack in the slab and a noticeable slope to the floor. This, per se, isn't really the big problem. The house is roughly 40 years old, and I have been in the house for just over 5 years, and the foundation movement occurred well before I moved in. It was noted on the home inspection I had done (hard not to notice the slope), and he had concluded (I'm not sure exactly how/why) that it had probably been that way for a long time. Now that I've ripped off the old wall paneling and drop ceiling and am down to the actual block foundation and studs, etc., you can see that when the walkout door was put in - the basement was not originally a walkout, but was made a walkout probably close to 20 years ago - they compensated for this and the basement door is framed in such a way that over the 30" of its width, there is a change in distance to the rafters of close to an inch! The door, however, is perfectly level, so this tells me that the foundation movement happened prior to the installation of the walkout. I have also not noticed any significant new cracks in the drywall/paint upstairs at that corner since I've been there.
On top of the slope from the foundation movement, it also appears that when the house was built they just plain poured the slab off of level.
If I swing the walkout door from closed to fully open, the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor goes from about 1" or more to 0.
It actually will start to bind on the floor when opened near 180 degrees. And the floor keeps going up from there. How on earth do I level it out over such a large area, and with such a dramatic change in height? And then, even if I get that level, I'd have to blend that into the rest of the floor, which is still level and smooth? Wow, this doesn't sound pleasant.
Any advice is appreciated!
I am in the process of refinishing my walkout basement, and I have a major "challenge" that I am at a loss as to how to solve. The foundation at one corner of the house has sunken quite a bit, enough that somewhere under the 1st layer of ugly tile, there is a crack in the slab and a noticeable slope to the floor. This, per se, isn't really the big problem. The house is roughly 40 years old, and I have been in the house for just over 5 years, and the foundation movement occurred well before I moved in. It was noted on the home inspection I had done (hard not to notice the slope), and he had concluded (I'm not sure exactly how/why) that it had probably been that way for a long time. Now that I've ripped off the old wall paneling and drop ceiling and am down to the actual block foundation and studs, etc., you can see that when the walkout door was put in - the basement was not originally a walkout, but was made a walkout probably close to 20 years ago - they compensated for this and the basement door is framed in such a way that over the 30" of its width, there is a change in distance to the rafters of close to an inch! The door, however, is perfectly level, so this tells me that the foundation movement happened prior to the installation of the walkout. I have also not noticed any significant new cracks in the drywall/paint upstairs at that corner since I've been there.
On top of the slope from the foundation movement, it also appears that when the house was built they just plain poured the slab off of level.
If I swing the walkout door from closed to fully open, the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor goes from about 1" or more to 0.
It actually will start to bind on the floor when opened near 180 degrees. And the floor keeps going up from there. How on earth do I level it out over such a large area, and with such a dramatic change in height? And then, even if I get that level, I'd have to blend that into the rest of the floor, which is still level and smooth? Wow, this doesn't sound pleasant.
Any advice is appreciated!