Dry Rot (house, crawl space, contractors)

[spacelord75]

We have had our house for about a year and it is a true fixer-upper (aka, total P.O.S.). One of the things really bothering me has been an existing deck which some moron installed with no flashing against the house. We finally decided to pull it off and see the damage, as well as install a new stone patio. Lo and behold, the rim joist along both sides of where the deck touch the house was rotted! We were able to easily remove and replace one length (as the floor joists did not run into it), but the other piece (the largest) would be almost impossible to replace due to all the reconstructive work necessary to change out. Fortunately, this piece is only half rotted through and is not absolutely pivotal to the support of the house, as all the floor joists have the additional support of resting on the mud sill, which is then on the foundation wall. My question is this - is it absolutely necessary to remove the dry-rotted wood? I know dry rot is a fungus, but if we essentially remove the source of moisture (we will be putting up a stone wall, after applying a vapor barrier and wire mesh) and perhaps even spray the existing damage with a borates product, should we be okay? Eventually I will sister the rim joist from within the crawl space with additional 2x10's to add support under the wall above the rim joist. I need to decide quickly, as the patio is going in now and I don't know how long the contractors will wait to put up this last piece of wall! Thanks for any knowledge/insights.

[BobKovacs]

I'd replace it if I were you. As you said, the wall above is being supported by the joist ends, and the joist ends are being supported by the mudsill, so there's no real danger of collapse if you take the rim joist out to replace it. Both to make it easier and to provide you with an additional level of safety comfort, I'd replace it 4' at a time rather than taking out the whole rim in one length.

[spacelord75]

Thanks for the nudge - I am going to go ahead and have it replaced. It won't remove all the rotted wood, but probably 95% of it and it will give me much more peace of mind

[steve327]

Originally Posted by spacelord75

Thanks for the nudge - I am going to go ahead and have it replaced. It won't remove all the rotted wood, but probably 95% of it and it will give me much more peace of mind

There are penetrating epoxy products widely available...you can search for them on the Internet...any wood whatsoever that is not replaced should be thoroughly impregnated to help the wood resist that fungal activity starting up again, and continuing.

[spacelord75]

Thanks for the tip....ultimately I ended up totally replacing the rim joist, which was not as difficult as I imagined it would be.