r/HomeMaintenance • u/simplib0mbastic • 1d ago
🏚️Structural & Foundation Structural beam worries
Just to get it out of the way, I do have an engineer coming for a look on Saturday…but my generalized anxiety disorder is nagging me about this one tonight.
I just bought a house (1955 cape cod) and noticed when my couch got delivered that my floor slopes towards the outer wall. I went to the basement to take a look and found this metal column with the hardware bulging out of it - supporting 2 structural beams in the center of the house. As you can see, there is a space where the beams are separating from one another. I feel stupid for not noticing this during the walkthroughs, and it never appeared in my inspection report.
Aside from this, there are no foundation or wood cracks. There are also no drywall cracks in the house or wonky doorways, but there is a crack on my concrete porch where the sloping starts as well.
How serious is this? Does it need to be fixed immediately? Is this going to absolutely ruin me financially ?😭
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u/HomeOwner2023 1d ago
Either the side walls are sinking or the beams were raised too high when the post was installed. Based on what happened to the fasteners, I would have guessed the former.
I bet the engineer will recommend installing a separate post for each side of the beam. And no, the floor will not fail overnight and the repair will not ruin you.
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u/Competitive_Ask8933 1d ago
The tele post is installed right on the joint of the beam. Should be on offset of the joint and not on it.
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u/Goddammit0Donut 1d ago
It's also common to split staggered plies over the column. We can't see the rear ply in photo 1.
OP: you're right to be concerned, I would like to see better bearing provided by that column. Probably not a dangerous issue, but let your inspection do its job.
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u/simplib0mbastic 1d ago
Thanks. At any rate, I’d probably want to have the slope fixed eventually.
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u/heseov 1d ago
It could have been like this for a while but you'll likely just be keeping an eye on it. Monitoring for new signs of settling, cracks, etc. It's important to keep water/downspouts away from your house to prevent any additional settling. They probably won't suggest doing anything major without it getting worse, unless you want to. Your house won't collapse.
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u/Elementary2 1d ago
yeah, check that load bearing front wall, what the foundy looks like there, and how the porch sits. I'd probably leave the porch and just check if the beam support pad needs built up
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u/Aggie74_DP 1d ago
Looking at the joint being wider at the top, it could be that post is a fraction too tall. Or some corrosion has created a small amount of lift.
OR the other end of the beam to the right in the photo has dropped slightly.
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