An interesting project done by Taylor Painting and Carpentry for a long-time client in Haverford was to address the floor in their den. Their floor had been sinking at the outside edge along the wall of French doors. It looked as though 2 or 3 of the floor joists would need to be raised in order to fix the problem. However, once we made our way through the crawl space underneath the floor and started to pull back the insulation it became obvious it was going to be a much larger project.
It turned out that 9 floor joists and the face plate and sill plate were rotten. For those of you who are not familiar with these areas, it is the beginning of the wood framing on top of a room’s foundation.
In order to make wood rot repairs, the entire outside wall must be raised. But first, the alarm system had to be carefully removed and 3 sets of French doors were also removed as they would not withstand the pressure of jacking up the wall. While removing the doors we found that the bottoms of the door frames were rotten as well as the bottoms of the doors themselves. We were able to save the doors using wood epoxy but had to replace the frames. This project took several days, and each day we had to secure the large opening with plywood and plastic sheeting for security and the possibility of overnight rain.
Once the doors were out and stored away, we pulled out the wet insulation under the floor and the flagstone from the outside perimeter of the wall. We then raised the floor using pole jacks, cut out the rotted face plate and sill plate, and cut off the rotten ends of the floor joists. New anchor bolts were cemented into the foundation and the sill plate was replaced using ground-rated, pressure-treated lumber. We repaired the floor joists by sistering in pressure-treated lumber, overlapping by 3 feet using screws, and installing pole jacks under the overlaps. Possibly some degree of overkill, but better safe than sorry! The face plate was also installed using ground-rated, pressure-treated lumber.
The outside stucco walls were crumbling around the bottom edges as the wood sheeting was also rotting. We broke away the deteriorating stucco, cut out the steel mesh and rotting sheeting and put in pressure-treated sheeting. We then covered the sheeting and the face plate with waterproofing house wrap.
The flagstone areas were re-installed and mortared. The stucco was re-applied. The doors and insulation were replaced. The inside wall was patched up. The interior baseboards were put back. Then the interior wall and ceiling were painted. The interior and exterior of the French doors were painted to match the rest of the house. Finally, the alarm system was re-installed.
What started out as a moderate wood rot problem turned into a much bigger issue. Luckily, we had the skills and the knowledge to fix the rotten areas. It made this section of an overall gorgeous Main Line home look great again, and all with as little disruption to the household as possible under the circumstances.
If your home has any sinking floors or other areas of obvious wood rot and you would like to have a professional inspection to estimate the cost of properly addressing the problem with a repair, please call us now! There is no time to waste when it comes to rotting wood! We are also happy to provide exterior painting or interior painting and other types of carpentry work and wood repairs in the Haverford, Berwyn, Wynnewood, Newtown Square, Wayne, West Chester, Glenmoore, Chester Springs, Phoenixville, and Valley Forge areas. Please call us to discuss how we can help. We provide services such as power washing, deck repairs, painting, staining, carpentry repairs, masonry repairs, and many other things not mentioned above!
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