Hi Guys,
I just finished replacing a couple of rotted rim boards and discovered that the entire house was built (mid-60’s) without any mudsills. The rim board and floor joist sit on the poured foundation and are grouted in place. No anchor bolts anywhere. Now I have to put on a porch (deck and roof) and I am concerned about the header connection to the rim board. I am particulary concerned about the outside joists that will carry the load from the roof. It seems like I can’t trust the rimboard at all with the missing mudsill and no anchor bolts.
I have two possible solutions. First, tie the header with through bolts directly to the joists using Simpson anchors. Or secondly, add piers against the foundation and tie the header to these piers instead of the rimboard just like the pier/post/beam connection at the opposite end of the joists. Any thoughts or ideas?
Thanks, PA
Replies
I'm a fan of the pier idea--no connection to the house, especially in your case where the "quality" of the existing rim and so on are questionable. Also, framing the deck separately stops any water penetration and subsequent rot. Lastly, if anything goes wrong with the deck, it doesn't affect the integrity of the house.
I just put a PT porch on a house and used PT posts down to frost line. The previous porch had sunk at the edge away from the house, so the steps pitched downward and were dangerous. They had tied the concrete porch to the concrete foundation and had filled the center of the thing with dirt and rubble and piled dirt against the rim joist (ribbon), which was rotting. They had sided around the porch and water had gotten into the framing because the joint between porch and house was not flashed and so on. Now the vinyl siding on the house has now been extended and covers the old connection and sheds water off--there is about a quarter inch air space between the new porch and the house.
Danno,
Should the piers on the house side be set directly against the existing foundation or seperated? I do not have enough height between ground and interior floor to run a beam supported by posts and cantilever the joists over the top of it. Instead the beam will actually be the joist header and sit on 3-4" high posts attached to the concrete piers. The beam then has to be pretty close to the house. I suppose I could extend the existing footing (only a crawl space under this part of the house so they are not down 8-9') pour the piers and pin them to the foundation. Does that sound reasonable?
Thanks for your help, PA
Sorry to be late in getting back to you--since you posted to "all," I didn't get a notice of the post. Anyway, I don't see a problem with what you propose (extending existing footing and adding piers).
Another thing that was suggested to me, but you may not have room for it are those pyramid shaped "Dek-blocks" that just rest on the ground. (They are about a foot tall.)
When I posted about my porch reconstruction, several people here mentioned digging holes below the frost line and using those blocks as footings for the wooden (PT) posts. Sounds like you have everything sort of "opened up" and the equipment to do it, so that would be an option, but then too, you could use "Big Foot" cones and Sonotubes or some other system to make concrete piers from the frost line up to as tall as you need them.
Go with the extra piers. I did my deck that way 16 years ago.
No flashing needed, no water getting in, no siding to re-do.