Levelling floors in Victorian house

[chad1991]

Hello, my offer has been accepted on a Victorian house in London, but the surveyor has come back and informed me that the floors are not level.

The floors are made from timber and some areas of damp have been identified. Has anyone else gone through this situation? What would you advise, and how much would it roughly cost to resolve?

I live in a victorian house and none of the floors are level, it's fine though - means the marbles all tend to end up in one corner.

@Squidthing

I live in a victorian house and none of the floors are level, it's fine though - means the marbles all tend to end up in one corner.

Is it fine, though?!

Yes it's pretty standard for a Victorian house! Over time the boards get out of kilter. Most people just live with it unless it's really awful.

Damp is again typical for a Victorian house. Depends on how bad. Did you notice it when viewing? What is the cause of the damp? It may actually just be condensation which you can manage through proper ventilation. Getting the wall injected can resolve it if it is true damp - it's not hugely expensive in the grand scheme of things, I think we paid £1k or so a few years ago to do a 3m long bit of wall.

If budget is super tight then a Victorian house is not for you. The biggest worry is probably the roof!

Yes it is fine really! 🙂 just one of those things about older houses. None of the walls in our house are particularly straight either but you only really notice when painting or putting up shelves.

Mines Georgian, wonky everywhere but I don't notice it much

I had uneven floors on the back bit of my house on level 1 and 2. I was doing building work anyway before moving in, so got the builders to remedy it. There was a 10cm difference across a span of 3 metres. It was levelled as a part of the build project earlier this year, I can't be precise about the cost but it wasn't huge.

My house (from 1890) has uneven floors - 7cm difference from one end of the living room to the other. Had a new floor put in when I bought it and was told both hardwood flooring and a concrete surface would need rebuilding the entire construction. Vinyl/linoleum/laminate no problem, they're flexible enough to just go on top.

Getting the wall injected can resolve it if it is true damp

No, no, no, no, no.

www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html

Thanks everyone. Judging by the comments on here, it appears it's fairly common in old homes and not an urgent matter.

Mine is awful in places; I used to really notice when we first moved in, but don't anymore.

In my grandmother's old house the dining table had to be wedged on one side otherwise things would roll off the table. Nothing structurally wrong with the house, it was just wonky. Our old Victorian terrace was wonky too, but not as bad.

My c1890 house is the same. We have to chock up some furniture to level it out, mainly in the corners of rooms and rotate the rugs so they wear evenly.

If you ever want to put in a kitchen or other joinery it will probably have to be custom made as flat pack only works well when everything is square and level.

Our old Victorian had this in the survey (organised by the buyers). There was a bit of deflection and vibration. An underfloor inspection was done - the joists had shrunk away from the floorboards a tiny bit (a couple of mm) over time, no damp, the subfloor was very dry indeed . The buyers were told that if the vibration really bothered them they could hammer some chocs in. Deflection may have been due to a grand piano in one of the rooms. The damp in your report may not be connected.

The buyers were told that if the vibration really bothered them they could hammer some chocs in.

What, like Milk Tray or Terrys All Gold?

Very normal! The walls and floors in my Victorian terrace are all wonky. My house was recently renovated and while some things have been straightened (e.g. door frames) we have left the floors as they are. It’s fine.

Very normal....my house is 1870s and the floor level in bathroom is very noticeable....doesn’t bother me though....we had LVT fitted right through downstairs so the fitters levelled all the floors ....otherwise I don’t think we would have bothered

1890s house, not a straight line in the place, including the floors.
we were told that this would make wood flooring really tricky, but everything else (engineered wood/laminate/vinyl) would be fine.