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Buildings naturally settle as they age, but in this story, one tenant wonders what’s really normal and what’s cause for concern.

He’s concerned.

He has notified his building manager about multiple issues he is worried about, but the manager doesn’t seem concerned at all. Now, he’s wondering if he’s overreacting or if his concerns are really valid.

Let’s read all about it.

AIO to the current state of my apartment building or is it reasonable for me to be worried?

I’m a renter in an 4-plex apartment building constructed in the 1960s, and I’ve hit a point where I’m really freaked out about a few things that just don’t seem right.

Every time I bring it up to management, they just tell me the building is old and make me feel like I complain too much, but my observations make me feel like they’re lying to me.

I have zero background in construction or structural engineering, and while I understand that it would be best for me to hire a Structural Engineer I am a renter, so I’m hoping someone here can at least give me a gut check.

He breaks down his concerns.

There is a small creek that flows into a culvert about 10 feet from the NW corner of my building. The culvert runs under the parking lot next to my building, depositing into a larger creek on the opposite side of the parking lot.

There’s a 48″ diameter spot on the far side of the parking lot where the blacktop sinks down at least 18″.

I wonder if the culvert is failing at both ends, causing the foundation of my building to sink and also causing that sunken area across the parking lot.

His bedroom isn’t level at all.

Here are the key things I’m observing in my second-floor unit:

The Bed Slope:

The floor in my bedroom, which is the room in the northwest corner, is so far off-level that the foot of my bed sits on the floor but the head of my bed is propped up on a 2×4 piece of wood just to get the mattress level.

Walking across the room, it feels like I’m walking downhill.

Then there’s the crack in the wall.

The Crack & Bulging Wall:

There’s a growing vertical crack in the drywall at the NW corner that has been there for years, but now it’s getting worse.

Every time I notice the crack has grown, I mark it with a pencil and the date. My first pencil mark is from Oct 2023, although the crack is older than that – Oct 2023 was when I realized I should start marking the progression.

This does sound concerning.

At night I occasionally hear a popping noise and in the morning I look at the crack and see that it has grown.

I removed some wall shelves just before taking the picture of the inside because I’m afraid they’ll fall on me while I’m sleeping. My pillow is 30 inches from that corner.

The wall in that area moves when I lightly push on it, it’s cool to the touch, and you can see that it’s visibly bulging outwards at the top.

This does seem odd.

Sticking Doors:

My doors are constantly changing how they stick, which seems bizarre.

My front door, on the south wall of my apartment, only sticks in the winter.

My bedroom door (parallel to the front door) only sticks in the summer.

But a month ago, I couldn’t either door without pushing my full body weight against it, and then this week, I can close the doors a little more easily.

There seems to be a mold problem.

The Stink:

I always leave my bedroom window cracked open slightly because when I close it, the apartment unit quickly fills with a distinct, sharp, musty smell.

I’ve had chronic post nasal drip and a constant sore throat for years, but they both improve when I travel, which makes me suspect mold in the walls.

He’s not the only one with the problem.

My downstairs neighbor and I has both been dealing with mold issues – I regularly paint bleach gel in certain areas of my apartment even though I run the bathroom fan during and after every shower and have a dehumidifier running 24/7.

Speaking of her unit, she has a long vertical crack in her living room from floor to ceiling.

This is on the west wall of the building, and the crack is roughly equal distance from the NW corner and the SW corner of the building.

I wonder if they actually fixed anything.

Renovations:

Back in 2017, they redid the siding on our building.

When they pulled the siding off the exterior of that same northwest corner wall, the wood sheathing and framing underneath looked visibly rotted and damaged.

I took that photo on Aug 3, 2017. I regret not taking pictures every day during the renovation, but at the time I trusted that they were repairing the dry rot appropriately.

The new siding was up and painted on Aug 31, 2017. We got a new roof in 2022.

You’d think a contractor on site would be a sign of positive change.

The last straw for me:

Last week my neighbor put in a work order for a leak around her window.

I heard a crew doing work up on the roof, including sawing something metal, and then the manager called me to tell me the noise was to fix a leak at her window.

He said their contractor needed to look at that corner in my unit and I complained yet again about the mold, the sloping floor, and the growing crack in my bedroom.

But he doesn’t trust the contractor or the manager.

After the contractor visited, I asked the manager what he found, and was brushed off when he said that the building is old, the foundation settling is normal, the crack is cosmetic, and they can patch it up if I want. And that now that they made that repair the mold should dry out.

He added that they completely fixed the dry rot etc during the 2017 renovation.

But this contractor is a friend of the family who owns this and other apartment complexes in the city, and even attends their Christmas parties, so IDK if his assessment is trustworthy, either.

He’s not sure what to do.

So. Am I overreacting to all of this?

Do these symptoms – especially the shifting doors, the loud cracking, and the massive floor slope – sound like “normal settling” for a building constructed in the 1960s?

Am I justified for being completely freaked out by the cool, soft, bulging drywall?

Does this suggest a possible serious, potentially immediate structural failure that the landlord is actively covering up?

Or should I trust what my landlord is telling me and chalk it up to typical life in an old building?

It does sound concerning. I’d move.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

Here’s some advice.

Another person doesn’t think he’s overreacting.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who documented times of noise spikes and turned their neighbor into a model tenant.

This person thinks he might need to move.

It’s time to look for a new apartment.

I wouldn’t feel safe living in a building with so many probable problems and a landlord who doesn’t seem to take the problems seriously.

The safest and easiest solution is to move. But it still might be worth trying to find a way to report the building if possible because I’d feel bad for anyone else who rents that unit.