Hello! We recently had a house built – it’s been about 5 months since we moved in. Our floors are loud, creaking, spongy, and uneven when walking on them. Uneven to the point that our LVT has lifted in certain places from weight being placed on uneven surface. We’re currently fighting with our builder stating that what we’re feeling in our subfloor isn’t normal – there is something wrong. We’ve had multiple of their company representatives come out and try to explain away the issues, citing deflection, and that floors will move because we have a large open space.
We also have a TON of movement in certain subfloor boards that you can see from the basement. Here’s a link to a video I took on the basement while someone just walked back and forth on the floor above. Those floor boards are moving pretty good. The floor being walked on above is cheap builder grade carpet with 8lb 15/32″rebond-memory padding if that makes a difference. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1edoUxzqxggB2nNOUcUxgZXWxyw10cr0z/view?fbclid=IwAR2cqw1keDOKPSonTSRxP-88MJpHoRabt4B_cSljyoFxxW11kY2AZRRg5gc I’ve also attached some pictures showing the tongue and grooves that look like they’ve maybe broken off in certain places, as well as visible holes in the subfloor boards from the basement.
We did have a separate flooring guy come out and look, and he confirmed the floors were spongy, and his recommendation was to replace the subfloor completely, or put 3/16″ subfloor over the existing, because there is concern with damaging joists if they replace the whole subfloor. Our builder is stating our flooring guy just wants our money, and that there is nothing wrong.
Any advice? We’ve reached out to several contractors to get more opinions, but we’re having a hard time getting any responses back – construction is booming right now around here, so I thought maybe I could get some opinions to see if we’re just being overly cautious and picky. I just do easy home improvement things, this goes way beyond my ability and knowledge.
Thank you for any advice!
Replies
Is there blocking between the joists? If not someone needs to install it. That should take a lot of the movement and sag out. Once you do that you can run a bead of spray foam down each side of the joists to glue them to the sheathing.
Thanks for the reply! There is blocking in some areas where it looks like they tried to patch some holes, but not in most. I assume we'd have them put blocking between the joists and screw them into the joists themselves, not the subfloor? The blocking in place now is screwed (or nailed, actually) to the subfloor.
Will doing that be enough to remove the sagging and bounce from the floor along with the spray foam? Seems unreal to me that we're dealing with this in a brand new house and our builder refuses to see there's an issue.
Without knowing the joist spans, the specs for the joists, or the live and dead loads on your floor, it's hard to say whether what was built was correct. There are a bunch of options to help stiffen it up; there are six in this article: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/pdf/021184090.pdf. One not mentioned here is what I've heard called a stressed skin panel - essentially sheathing the underside of the floor. Ideally you'd remove anything that can be moved from the room before sheathing the underside of the joists, otherwise any sag created by stuff in the space will get locked in. What you'd create, essentially, is a torsion box. Important to use glue as well as fasteners.
Yikes, I hadn't watched the video. Doesn't look at all like a joist issue. That sheathing looks like it's made of rubber. Do you have a shot of the grade stamp? I see part of it in #5, but can't tell exactly what it says. Regardless, doesn't look like it was meant for floors outside of maybe a dollhouse.
Haha. Yeah - it's pretty crazy, and it's like that all over! I am out of town to get you a picture, but they did say is was 3/4" when they first came out and confirmed it was the proper material. We're starting to wonder if the wood is just damaged - though I don't know how that happens for an entire house. :/
one question is what is moving? is the subfloor moving on the I-joist or are the I-joists flexing? I'd try reaching out to the yard who supplied the I-joists and bring up the problem with them. They may have an engineer available who can check the specs on the installation - thinking they wouldn't want their product to be improperly installed.
good luck
Thanks for the response. In most places, it's just the subfloor moving, but there is some movement in some areas of the joists. (That specific area if you step just right will drop the joists down. Thanks for the suggestion - I'll see if I can explore that route!
A. Subfloor sheathing is too thin at that joist span to carry the weight of the person walking above, in the video.
B. Doesn't seem the joists are flexing but then again, there's a lot of camera movement.
C. Electrician ran his wire through the joists at a less than optimal placement.
Take the weight off the floor. Remove two rows of sheathing at a time and replace with 3/4" sheathing rated for subfloors. Glue and screw new subfloor to joists.
Frankie
Thank you! I'll talk to them about this suggestion!
I agree with Frankie, just be sure you use a tongue and groove product to tie everything together. I like using Advan-tech for flooring (for what it's worth)
my other thought is to add another layer on top of the existing - glued and screwed down, however, doing so will potentially cause problems with your trim.
are the I-joists 16 O.C. , 24 O.C. or something else? check the sheathing/flooring span rating to be sure it matches up as well as being sure the I-joists are appropriate for that spacing.
Good luck and keep "us" posted