What Rot

Before I actually started cutting away the rotted sill, I wanted to shore up some of the nearby framing.  The ancient hot water heater I've mentioned in previous postings (Hot Water Detour and Revisit to Hot Water) was installed a lifetime ago and in such a way that has a bearing on the sill work I'm involved in now.

New joist next to sawed-off timber.

In order to get the big stone lined tank into the basement, the installers cut a hole in the floor right inside the front door.  They also cut right through a 7" diameter log that served as a floor joist.  They patched up the hole with some new flooring and tacked a couple of scraps to the freshly cut ends of the log to serve as headers for the severed joist.

The tolerance of wood frame construction for this kind of butchery is pretty amazing.  It really looks like the floor should have collapsed a long time ago, but I suppose between the old plank flooring that's an inch thick, the hardwood flooring above that, and the scrap pieces nailed in as headers, the load that the old floor joist was meant to carry is spread out.

Now I was about to cut into one of the framing members that was probably carrying some of that extra load.  Before I started, I thought it best to replace the severed joist.

The challenge was the space I had to work in.  A mix of plumbing, heating ducts, and electrical wires converge on that spot.  Getting a new joist in there meant removing staples on the electrical wires so they could be moved aside and then threading a couple of 12 foot 2x6 boards through the ducts and plumbing so they could be sandwiched together and mounted. I also needed to jack up the new joist a bit before mounting it in its joist hanger.  It seem the floor had sagged a bit over the years.

With the new joist in, I was ready to start cutting away at the rotted sill.  There's still the issue of the wall studs that are supported by the sill, and how much sill I can cut out without providing support for those. There are 4 in question. The two on either side of the front door weren't getting any real support from the sill because of the rot, so I'm not worried about those.  The two studs on either side of those, however, may be carrying some load.  I'm relatively confident that I'll be alright taking the sill out from under those if I have to.  Again, the wood frame has the ability to transfer its load through the sheathing and across the top plate. It's not like removing one leg of a three-legged stool. It's more like taking 4 legs from a 60 legged stool.  Still, I'll be removing pieces of the rotted beam carefully, and plan on providing temporary support where I can.

handyman