Bowed Floor

[ScottMan]

We own a 2002 Skyline, 18 months old. We've noticed that the floor in the living room is bowed from the marriage line to the front door, and getting more noticable. You can't really see it but you can feel it. The bow is about 3 feet wide and maybe an inch or so high, and otherwise the room is level and I believe the house is still mostly level. I never find any leaks underneath. If I walk over the bump sometimes I hear the walls and/or ceiling crackle or pop. We had a piano in the living room about 6 feet from where that bow is, but I don't see any signs of the floor sagging there as it was against an inside wall (I don't see any "dips"). We have moved the piano out about a month ago. The house has Novadeck flooring, on a concrete slab, and fairly well vented underneath. Any ideas or should I be concerned?

[Eugene]

It is quite possible that you have a broken or bowed floor joist. This is not a big deal to repair. They can add a new joist beside the bad one. Write Skyline and ask them to check it out. they should, warrenties don't matter in this case, a floor joist is require to last as long as the house stands.
You should also support the floor under the piano, that is a lot of weight concentrated at one area.

[Roy Bonney]

The fact that you suggest the hump is three foot wide, leads me to think that prehaps the staples missed one of the floor joists. If this happens, and the floor humps up, it would be about three foot wide. If you put pressure on the hump, and it goes down, this may be your problem, and an easy fix. Food for thought.

[ScottMan]

Thanks. Next time I go underneath I will look thru the bellywrap and see. The fact that it does not go down when I stand on it, suggests to me that the joist is probably just warped not broken. I may get it fixed.

May I follow up another question? Why along some outer walls (and sometimes along this hump) when I walk towards the outer wall I hear the walls and/or ceiling crackle and pop? What in the floor joist, walls, connections, do that?

[Roy Bonney]

The connections are made, just as you would make them. They are nailed, or stapled, or screwed. If you have a bowed or "high" floor joist, for it to be high in the center, it has to pull loose, somewhat, at the ends. Maybe this slight gap is giving you some noise.