Floor Failure

[John18]

Hi,I am new here.This may not be the right place to ask this but I hope I can get an answer.

I live in a quite old house with my elderly Mom.The floor in her bedroom has been buckled for many years and had gotten worse over some time.

This morning,it fell through from what looks like the bottom of the wall.I looked a little bit but there is a small book shelf and some other things along the wall where the flloor fell.She is ok physically but it has upset her a lot.

I do know that you can see the ground,the floor at the edge seems to be resting on the ground.The floor is still holding on the other sides,at least as far as I can tell.

There is a large area that has pulled loose from what I can see,at least 6-8 ft.

I tried to look from the outside to see if I could see anything but it is winter here and it is hard to tell much.

I am writing to ask if there is any danger in the wall falling off of the foundation where the floor fell through?

It will probably be some time before much can be done,I hope to at least get a tarp or something over the exposed area and keep out the cold.

Is there any danger that we need to look out for?

Thanks for any help.

[cousinbirgco]

Hello John, I would get an engineer or very experienced contractor over to the house as soon as possible. Without directly seeing the problem, it sounds like a very dangerous situation. Usually when joists or the band joist collapse like that, the walls above and roof could also fail.
I wouldn't inhabit the house until you are sure it is structually safe.
Good luck.

[John18]

Double post.

[John18]

Thanks for the response.We are unable at the time to get it looked at,just dont have the money.The floor in the room has been wavy and uneven for about 16 years and kept getting worse.

The room is actually quite small,I am guessing it is around 10 X 16 or so and is almost an extension.It is at the end of the house and adjoins a large porch that is made of concrete.The porch is probably a little bigger than the room is.

The room shares the same roof but the joists are set up a little different than the rest of the house.The room has shorter joists since it is joined to the porch.The bedroom collapsed on the side away from the porch.

The roof on the end is supported by the concrete porch and foundation on one side and the bedroom on the other.

Thanks again for writing.