Expert: Dave Johnson - 10/26/2007

Question
I think I have a major problem. My house has a crawl space that is always damp or wet. I had a water faucet that was broken on the inside of the crawl space and didn't know it for a while. Now I have a rotted area. I don't know what the term is, but the area that is damaged is the bottom plate of wood that sits on the block wall. Any ideas on how to repair this or the type of professional I might need to call?

Answer
Hi Rose,
The plate you have rotten is a "sill plate". Unless its a long rotted area, any competent builder can lift the building enough to take off some pressure and replace it.
While they are in the space, you may want them to lay a poly sheet over the earth floor to stop any slow decaying as moisture escapes from the soil. Disregard this if your crawl space has no earth exposed...
Best of luck, Dave