So I tore out a couple layers of flooring and found that my sill plate and most of the floor joists are completely rotted at the ends in the box. I decided to replace the sill and joists from a combination of angles from above and below in the crawl space. My question is can I sandwich a 2x10 block cut to the size of the back of the box and toe nail it to my new sill and floor joists in lieu of tearing out from the outside and messing up my siding?
Sill floor and rim joist replacement
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If you don't want to touch your siding, then first open up more ceiling and see how much the damage goes. As long as you got rid of the water, you want to add good wood to where the loads are. The rim joist and the floor joist. Sill does not have to be replaced. Cut the sill out between the joists. If the subfloor is still good, you can tap in a block tight against the rim. That will support the upper floor sill plates and the wall studs. you can sister a good floor joist. You can also build a wall under the floor joists to support them. You can put blocks between the floor joists where nails will hold but as close to the foundation as possible. This is if the damage is local, within about 8'? You want to find dry lumber, use construction glue and predrill and screw. Blocks can be nailed but I'd use the airguns. You don't want to be pounding on the parts. Those are roots. You have a serious problem with landscape grading.
Joined
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37,499 Posts
The right and easiest way would be to remove the siding.
the entire house looks just like the pictures I posted. Every joist save one or two is rotted on all four exterior walls including sill and some of the rim joist. The house is a small one story cape with two small loft bedrooms. The siding is two sheets of ply, insulation board and rough sawn cedar batten. It is not easy to get off. I like your input regarding the acceptable methods for localized mitigation but my concern is when I go to sell a house inspector will eat me alive. I've been considering jacking the gable ends to replace sill there and slowly doing the floor joists along the front and back as time permits. Do you guys have any idea what I'm looking at cost wise to hire the job out?
Joined
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60 Posts
You are going to have to get all the rotted lumber out no matter what. The photo looks really bad. In that spot, probably the siding and sheathing are the only things holding your floor up. Without really seeing it, sounds like you are looking at tearing out the floor from the top, temporarily supporting the old joists from below where possible (temp beam) where possible, maybe work on 8-10 feet at a time, tear out all the bad stuff, and reframe. Probably sister new pressure treated joists to the old ones. Depending on dead load calculations, they may have a few or more feet of space where they are sistered. A structural engineer and a framing contractor should look at it, and you should follow their recommendations, if you are concerned what a home inspector might think. There is a chapter in my remodeling book, "Psychotic Remodeling," where a pregnant woman goes to bed and wakes up when an entire end of the floor falls into the crawlspace in the middle of the night. Their floor was not as bad as yours. Also, you may need to consider venting that space, looks like it is not properly vented.
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