Hi all. First post,
I have what seems, unfortunately, to be a common problem. Looking for advice or constructive criticsm on how to repair.
I went to replace part of my deck, which was installed by a previous owner in the early 80's, and found that there was no flashing worth mentioning and that the sill plate and rim joist are rotted for about the first 20 feet out of the 50 feet along the rear wall.
The house is one story, built in 66'. The part that is rotted is under a 20'X12' kitchen/laundry room addition that was added in the 70's and has a shed roof. There is a 2 foot crawlspace under the addition. The joists run perpindicular to the rotted area. The very end of the joists are also partially rotted but mostly sound except for the very bottom.
I am planning on replacing 8 feet of the rotted area at a time, using this method:
Crawl into the crawl space from the basement through old basement window.(fun times)
Placing a 6"x6"x10 on the well packed gravel floor.
Use another 6"x6"x10' supported by 3 bottle jacks positioned about 18" from the end of the joists to slowly lift the joists while using 4 screw type jack stands to take up the slack as I slowly lift the joists(in case of a seal failing in the bottle jacks).
Then I was going to sister 24" pieces of 2"x10"'s to the ends of the joists to give me something substantial to nail the new rim joist onto.
Chip away whats left of the old sill plate.
Slide a new 8' pressure treated section of sill plate in and then put in a section of rim joist.
Repeat two times more for the rest of the rotted part.
Then attach new ledger board for the deck with tons of flashing.
Is this an acceptable way to do it? Any suggestions?
One other problem. The deck continues around the corner of the addition. Exterior wall that runs parallel to the joists also has some rotting. Can't see how to suppor that. Just try sistering sections in next to the rotted rim joist there?
I am not a carpenter or a professional but I have done just about everything that can be done to a house over the years we have owned our money pit. Hiring a professional to do the job is not an option.
Thank you for your help and suggestions.
Francis K.