I’ve been asked to fix a problem with an older home built in the 1940’s.
The home has approx 6″ wood clap board siding and it begins at ground level and dirt from the yard rests against the siding. This is a bad situation, although it’s common with older homes and especially older garages, and as you probably know siding should “start” at a height of at least 8″ or so above ground level.
Any suggestions on how to remedy this situation.
Wood at ground level attracts termites, invites wood rot, etc.
Please provide ideas that would be aesthetically pleasing and will not detract from the looks of the home.
Replies
Quickest fix is to remove the siding up to desired height and seal in a replacement with a PT or other moisture resistant sill apron.
Has the siding or sill plates shown evidence of rot?
u r not a feckless dastard
Edited 10/1/2005 1:31 pm ET by rez
Thank you Rez and yes there are places where the wood siding has rotted.
I guess I could go around the house with a screw driver or some kind of probe and figure out how bad things are.
Thank you for your recommendation about using pressure treated wood as a replacement for the siding.
After you take care of any structural problems, how about using Hardi-plank for the first few courses? Once it's painted, it's indistinguishable from wood claps...(use the smooth, not the faux-wood-grain.)
Hardie plank has a clearance to grade requirement too...
Thank you kate for you suggesion about the Hardi board. I think I could install the Hardi board and it would blend in perfectly and no one would ever notice the repairs.
I'd like to add one thing to the mix here. I'd like to do this repair in a way so that If the house goes on the market to be sold at some time in the future, it will need to be able to pass inspection with a Home Inspection or an Appraiser (for example with an FHA loan).
I guess the other thing is, I still feel funny putting pressure treated wood or hardi board and then piling dirt against either one.
If I dig the dirt out around the house that would be a mistake because rain water would accumulate around the house and would not drain away from the home.
Now you're getting out of the quick fix mode and getting into processes more costly and laborious.
Perhaps a pressure treated ply coated with a cement based product might ease your mind or, gasp, digging down to see is the footer extends out far enough to catch a lip to brick up to your desired height.
Be a shame to go thru the idea of a new footer just to brick up that short height around the perimeter of the building
u r not a feckless dastard
Thank you matt - the band around the lower section would look really good. Thank you.
Several years ago I heard about a situation such as this and an FHA appraiser required the seller to hire a landscaping contractor to "scrape" the yard and remove 6" or whatever in order to provide clearance and positive drainage.
The yard & grass were ruined and I would like to find something other than scraping the ground and ruining the yard.
The yard is cheaper to fix than the repair cost of having to rebuild the entire house due to rotted sills, studs, siding, and mold throughout. You are being too short sighted. The only fix is to start with getting the wall up out of the wet soil and I can gaurantee you that nine times out of eight, it is cheaper to grade down and install french drains than it is to jack the house up.The hardie boards won't rot but they are still not approved for ground contact. primarily because they wuill wick water up, and any freeze/thaw action will cause delamination.
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A common detail on historic homes was a band around the bottom with a water table above.
Look at the lot24.jpg picture from this posting: http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=63152.1
On this house it is 1x8 HardieTrim with a PVC drip cap above, but it just as well could be a PT 1x8. If you were to use PT 1x8, 1x10 etc, check around for KDAT PT lumber. It takes paint better than regular PT lumber.
I had a situation a couple years ago similar to yours on one side of the garage but there was no dirt it was the sidewalk. What we did was cut the rotted sills and bottom of the 2x4's high enough and the mason came in added a course of block and then we added the new sills back in.
The best solutions are fix the yard or what Framer said. personally I had the same problem at my own home and I had the whole yard dug down and sloped away.