"Tim Fischer" wrote in message
...

"SQLit" wrote in message
...

Me thinks you need a pro to guide you.

I would only be guessing at a solution. I bet your going to be jacking
the
house up to replace the rotted timber.

I'm not even sure what type of a pro you'd call for such a thing. And I
envision it to be very expensive, not so much because it's difficult, but
because it's labor intensive.

I'd be very open to hiring someone to come out and consult me and then let
me do the work, if I could find such a person. But we really don't have
an
extra $2-3K in the budget right now to cover this little "surprise" and
have
it fully done. We're building the new deck ourselves, and this would just
about double the cost of it.

Can anyone answer the following questions:

a) On the gable side of a split-entry house, to what degree are the
framing
members load bearing? It would seem like if this was bearing major weight
that it would be resting on something a little more solid than a single
2x4
top plate (for what it's worth, the 2x4 is also rotted out and needs to be
replaced).

b) Is a 2x10" rim joist in this application a "spanning" member, or does
it
simply rest on the wall below? That is, can I cut out a chunk and replace
it, or does the entire span (from side of the house to the center steel
support, presumably) need replacing?

c) Again in this application, can I safely remove a 2-3' chunk of rim
joist
and replace it without jacking? There doen't seem to be many loads here
on
the gable side -- there's absolutely no noticable sagging with the 1-2'
rotten chunk now... If I do need to jack, how what do I jack against?
I'm
partially under a patio door, but I'd envision attaching a temporary
horizontal member to the framing studs of the house, and jacking between
that and the ground from the exterior? (Again, I'm parallel to the floor
joists, not perp to it).

d) Once again, my new deck will be supported by this member (actually, if
I'd just replace the damaged chunk, it would be replaced mostly by the
old,
non-rotten portions of the original member, and just a 2-3' chunk of
replacement). So everything will need to be engineered so the deck will
be
properly supported.

Rest assured I'm pretty good at knowing when I'm over my head -- but I"m
looking for specific details here. Upon hearing how it's done, I'm
capable
of realizing if I'll need to call in the pros or not. But for now, I'm
simply asking "how would the pros do it"? I do appreciate the sentiments
that I should just call a pro, but now that we've got that covered twice
over, I'd appreciate it if all future replies can stick to the questions
at
hand, and any other project specific details.

Thanks!
-Tim

A general contractor would be who I would call.

As a suggestion forget about the deck until the structure is sound. Anything
else is fool hearty in my mind. But then again I can not see the area your
talking about.