Carpets, Lino & Flooring

Original floorboards have bowed upwards/are very uneven. Should I re-lay/replace them?

Anonymous user 09/03/2024 - 2.49 PM

I've just bought a flat in a Grade-II listed building and am discovering it's full of quirks! The bottom of the window frame is a good 3cm deeper on one side than the other, all the doors either stay open or, pushed past a certain point, slam shut because the floor is uneven, and there's a huge bulge in the floorboards in the bedroom. The original floorboards have been sanded and varnished, so it's even more noticeable. I pulled up a loose section of the the floorboard in question and it looks like the joist is directly under the floorboards. Under the joist (and presumably the rest of the room) there's a big 1-2m void. I can't work out if it's the joist that's pushed them up or if they've just warped over the years, but the bow upwards in the middle. (It's easier with a photo but basically the floorboards run horizontally across the room. At the far end, against the window, 3 of the floorboards bow upwards as if someone's pushed the two ends closer together). It could just be another quirk of living in an old house, but if there's a problem, I want to know before I move my furniture in in a couple of weeks. Am I best off getting a flooring or structural specialist out to look at this? It's hard to know where exactly the problem lies!