Replacing mudsills
 

I have a 75 year old house that is in decent shape. The PO did some
very clever landscaping where he raised the front yard right up to the
second clapboard on the house. I'm pretty sure it's the highest point
in the nieghborhood. The only reason I figured he did this was to rot
the musdills. He also did some clever roof flashing so that all water
that ran off the roof ran right onto the earth built up over the
musdills. That's why I'm sure he did all this deliberately to rot the
mudsills.

Anyway, I need to replace the rotted sections of sills. I am pretty
sure I understand how to replace them. Support the floor over the
sills to take the weight off them , knock out the old sill replace it
with new wood. I have read that you need to splice in new sections
rather than butt them up against each other and I wasn't sure how to do
this. Any info on this. Anything else I should consider?

Thanks for the help.

BTW, I am also fixing all the clever landscaping and drainage.

Replacing mudsills
 

jimbob wrote:
I have a 75 year old house that is in decent shape. The PO did some
very clever landscaping where he raised the front yard right up to the
second clapboard on the house. I'm pretty sure it's the highest point
in the nieghborhood. The only reason I figured he did this was to rot
the musdills. He also did some clever roof flashing so that all water
that ran off the roof ran right onto the earth built up over the
musdills. That's why I'm sure he did all this deliberately to rot the
mudsills.

Anyway, I need to replace the rotted sections of sills. I am pretty
sure I understand how to replace them. Support the floor over the
sills to take the weight off them , knock out the old sill replace it
with new wood. I have read that you need to splice in new sections
rather than butt them up against each other and I wasn't sure how to do
this. Any info on this. Anything else I should consider?

The following link will give you the general idea. It's a little
different without floor joists, but the idea is the same.

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/f...age/rotted.htm

You want to make sure that the sill acts as a single unit and not a
bunch of patched in pieces. You can use half-lap joints to tie the
pieces together, use additional retrofit anchor bolts, a structural
epoxy adhesive or a combination of the techniques.

R

Replacing mudsills
 

Thanks for your reply. The link was very helpful. I'm not sure what
you mean by a half lap joint.

Replacing mudsills
 

On 27 Oct 2006 18:46:07 -0700, "jimbob"
wrote:

Thanks for your reply. The link was very helpful. I'm not sure what
you mean by a half lap joint.


Gee, I never been to a "half" lap joint. BG

Replacing mudsills
 

GWB wrote:
On 27 Oct 2006 18:46:07 -0700, "jimbob"
wrote:

Thanks for your reply. The link was very helpful. I'm not sure what
you mean by a half lap joint.


Gee, I never been to a "half" lap joint. BG

Stick around. Those places usually have a two for one. ;)

R

Replacing mudsills
 

jimbob wrote:
Thanks for your reply. The link was very helpful. I'm not sure what
you mean by a half lap joint.

You're welcome. This is a half lap joint:
http://www.tfhrc.gov/structur/pubs/0...ges/fig115.jpg

R

Replacing mudsills
 

Thanks, that makes sense. Would I lap the board on the horizontal or
vertical face of the board. Of course it would ne much easier lapping
it horizontally (along the 6 inch face of the 2x6).

Thanks.

Replacing mudsills
 

jimbob wrote:
Thanks, that makes sense. Would I lap the board on the horizontal or
vertical face of the board. Of course it would be much easier lapping
it horizontally (along the 6 inch face of the 2x6).

On the flat face. I'd have the joint fall in between floor joists - a
little easier to work that way. You can use the 1 1/2" joist hanger
nails to nail it together, but use some construction adhesive as well.

R