Floor Leveling and Shims: Bringing a Sloped, Uneven Floor Back Toward Level

It usually starts in the soil under your home. In the Piedmont around Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and the Triangle, clay soils swell in wet seasons and shrink in dry ones, and that repeated shrinking and swelling cycle can settle or shift the original support piers under the crawl space. Once a pier drops, the beam it held loses height and the floor above slopes. Along the coast near Wilmington, Brunswick County, and Leland, a high water table and saturated, sandy soils can soften the ground beneath the supports while the same moisture rots the wood beams and joists. In the Sandhills near Fayetteville and Pinehurst, sandy soils shift and drain differently than Piedmont clay, and on slopes around Asheville, runoff and heavy rainfall can undermine hillside supports over time. The slope feels the same from upstairs, but we identify the specific cause under your home during the inspection.

The first job of floor leveling is to support the framing again and stop the floor from dropping further, which is the priority for protecting the structure. From there, because the supports are adjustable and the shims are precise, the crew can raise the low sections gradually to recover much of the height the floor has lost. How close to flat the floor can get depends on the framing, the finishes upstairs, and how far it has settled, and the lift is done in measured stages so it does not crack the drywall, tile, and trim above. We tell homeowners what is achievable for their specific floor.

Not on its own. The supports and shims carry the framing, so that framing has to be sound for the correction to hold. If a beam or joist is rotted or cracked, it usually needs repair or sister reinforcement first, because supporting and shimming wood that cannot carry the load is not a lasting fix. In the Carolinas, especially in damp coastal crawl spaces near Wilmington and Leland and in homes where moisture has sat under the floor, rot and support failure often go together. That is why our inspection looks at both the supports and the condition of the wood, and why we may recommend framing repair alongside the leveling so the supports have something sound to carry.

Leveling supports the floor again, but it does not change the conditions that caused the support to fail in the first place. In Piedmont clay that drains slowly or in saturated coastal soils around Wilmington and Leland, ongoing moisture is frequently part of the story, both because it softens the ground under the supports and because it rots the wood above them. To keep the floor from sloping again, the moisture that drove the problem often needs to be managed too, which is why we frequently pair floor leveling with drainage, a vapor barrier, or encapsulation. We confirm what your crawl space needs during the inspection.

The price for your home depends on how much of the floor is affected, how many supports and footings it needs, how far it has settled, and whether any framing needs repair first. You receive a written estimate after a free inspection.

See framing repair price ranges by service