Expert: Michael Curry - 3/29/2008

Question
I recently bought a 30-year old house in North Carolina and just found about 20' of rotted sill plate and band joist along the rear wall of the house.  One joist has sunk about 1/2" into the rotted sill and an adjacent double-beam joist supporting an interior wall has started to compress/sink into the sill. It's a 1.5-story frame & siding house on about 3' of brick & block foundation (and dirt crawlspace) below the rotted sill plate.  Apparently the damage resulted from improper flashing of an attached deck.  I can remove the deck, but I don't feel comfortable tackling the sill replacement so I've talked to several guys who do this type of work.  I've received widely-differing methods & prices.  I don't mind paying as long as I know I need what's being offered.  The basic (and least expensive) method is to jack the house up and just replace the rotted sill and band joist.  The most expensive and involved is to do the same thing, but add 3 mortared piers as support for the double-beam joist that is directly below the interior wall.  The justification is that after lowering a house and letting the weight settle back properly, sometimes a joist can snap if it's been bent in the process of settling into the rotted sill, especially if it's carrying a lot of weight.  A medium-priced method is similar, to replace the wood but also add dry-stacked piers parallel to the exterior wall (and perpendicular to the double joist the expensive guy recommended supporting).

Each person seems to contradict the one before (don't drystack the piers, don't add piers at all) and I'm confused.  Since there's over $2000 difference among the estimates, I'd really appreciate any kind of advice I could receive on what is actually recommended for this type of job.  Thanks in advance....

Answer
Hi Mike.

I would probably just replace the rotten pieces as 1/2" is not much in home construction. I don't see the need for the piers if they where not needed before.

Maybe you should get a structural engineer's report ($300-$400) as I cannot personally access the situation for you.

Adding piers will not look good if and when you ever decide to sell.