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I just bought a house in Massachusetts that was built in 1963. The house is sided with cedar clapboards. The lot is flat, and the floor of the garage is only a couple of inches above grade. The walls of the garage are stick framed and sit directly on the garage floor. Consequently, the sheathing on the garage exterior is only an inch or two above grade. The corner boards and trim between the garage door openings is punky. Naturally, I’m concerned about insect infestation.
Any ideas on how to address this? The lot can’t be easily regraded. Advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Joe
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Hi Joe,
The easy answer is to dig out around the garage about a foot or two and replace with clean crushed stone. Make sure that you never have vegetation growing near the siding and maintain a regular maintenance program on the wood siding.
Gabe
*I thought of an idea once when working on a renovation. My idea was to sheath the bottom of the wall with cement board and apply portland based stucco. The surface would be slightly less durable than real concrete, but would still be plenty tuff.What I wanted to do was get the sheathing up higher, and still maintain floor levels inside. I would assume a moisture barrier behind the cement board would be in order. I have yet to see this detailed anywhere - but food for thought.You could always jack the wall, cut off the bottom two feet, and build a brick or thin concrete block kneewall under the studs. If you already have rot to repair this might be a good way to do it.-Rob-Rob
*I would follow Robs plan except only go with 8" of block and a new PT bottom plate.
*I have some friends with exactly the same problem and suggested the inserted knee wall (OK ankle wall) solution. Problem is they don't like the look of it from the exterior and prefer the appearance of sheathing going almost to grade. Stucco over cement board looks the same as a parge coat over the block, i.e. a foundation.Anybody know if there are there cementitious clapboards or shingles that could be installed as the first few courses over a block knee wall?
*Fiber-cement?What does code require -- only a few inches of clearance? Our neighbors are only about 2" off the ground which makes me very skeptical. We have a 4' elevated foundation, a great design except for handicapped access.Do y'all think the rot here is due to wicking of moisture through the concrete or splashback? Or maybe just careless watering of the yard? The untreatedtrim on our garage was devoured by insects inside of a year because of splashback and poor drainage.
*It seems simply academic to discuss the water source - it's just always there period.I think hardiplank would be good at grade level - or on the whole thing. You also could saw off old rot, sister PT studs and new PT plate, sheath (if it is sheathed) cover with ice&water shield then add hardiplank.So the cement board and stucco wasn't that far out after all huh?-Rob
*Hey, I love masonry where water is concerned, especially for stuff touching the ground. Wood just doesn't like being left out in the rain... Not so wild about plastic though.
*....... think kneewall is the way to go, too except that I 'd use concrete. Set rebar pins in the existing slab. Pour on wall at a time, leaving a keyway for the next section. Reuse the forms for the following section. You'll have to build a chute and backsplash because of the narrow opening between the form and bottom plate. Set up your anchor bolts before the pour. Pour a little past the bottom of the bottom plate and vibrate to eliminate voids.
*If the sheathing is "punky" but has not yet started to crumble, you might consider one of the penetrating epoxy products that are made to restore dry-rotted wood. I used it on some punky ceiling beams that extended out past the exterior wall and it rendered them waterproof. They do look rather like they are epoxied -pretty plasticky - but if your clapboard is painted, it shouldn't look too bad when repainted. Basically, the epoxy is the consistency of water and soaks in or is injected into holes in dry wood where capillary action allows it to penetrate for a ways into the wood. It is not exactly cheap; however, it should be less expensive than building an "anklewall". The product I used is listed at: http://www.rotdoctor.com/house/Hmain.htmlThey have a price list somewhere on the site. There are also other similar products.
*All the advice given so far seems to be good, but I say that if its been there almost 40 years and has only a little rot the best thing to do is cut out the rot and replace it with pressure treated wood. Termites will tunnel right over concrete to get to wood anyway so you have to inspect for them no matter what you do. Then follow up on the previous advice about keeping vegetation away from the siding, and doing something about the drainage.
*Hardie Plank
*I just finished doing a project much like Rob described. In our case, the house was set so low to the ground that the bottom course of the old aluminum siding was partly underground in some places, so we obviously didn't want to put the new siding on (cedar shingles like a Martha's Vinyard style) starting that low.After stripping off the aluminum, I dug down about two feet all around the foundation, then attached 3x5 concrete boards. The lower two feet covered the masonery foundation and was attached with fairly thick coat of thinset mortar, and the upper foot was attached with construction adhesive and roofer nails into the rim joist. Also replaced the next two feet of sheathing with a belt of pressure treated plywood to discourage any critters that might try to make their way in.Next step was a parge coat of mortar, then backfilled. From the outside, it is as though the masonery foundation now reaches a foot above ground before the new shingle siding starts.Incidentally, I was amazed that we found only a couple of spots of moisture damage during the rip-off, and those sections we replaced with PT lumber.Here is Pennsylvania the toughest part was the digging, but I came up with enough rocks to build a stone wall for a landscaping project.Good luckJay
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I just bought a house in Massachusetts that was built in 1963. The house is sided with cedar clapboards. The lot is flat, and the floor of the garage is only a couple of inches above grade. The walls of the garage are stick framed and sit directly on the garage floor. Consequently, the sheathing on the garage exterior is only an inch or two above grade. The corner boards and trim between the garage door openings is punky. Naturally, I'm concerned about insect infestation.
Any ideas on how to address this? The lot can't be easily regraded. Advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Joe