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There's a house down the street from me that is an "as is" house that has been foreclosed on. I went with my realtor and we looked at it and i noticed that it has a rotted sill plate at the back of the house were the piping for the hose comes out. Anyone know about how much it would cost to hire someone to jack the house up and repair the sill plate?
The house was built in the 1970's is 2-story and about 1700sqft and sits on a crawl space.
I went and relooked at the back of the house. The rotted section appears to be about 8ft long, and about an inch deep and only at the back section of the house. Approximately from the hose past the entrance way of the back door to the utility room. There are other sections that are also exposed however they have no visible rot. So i guess I would be replacing the back section only?
I don't know anything about houses, so I'm sorry in advance lol.
I can tell you that if you can see it from the outside, it is a lot worse on the inside. It may be JUST a small section of sill plate. However, it also could be rotted into the joists, the sub floor, into the wall studs, and on and on.
Get a contractor or a home inspector over there to crawl under and see what is really going on there. It is not likely it is confined to a 8' section.
is it on a slab or does it have a crawl space, or does it have a basement?
if you are on a wood subfloor structure, regardless of what you have seen, you have additional damage.
Assuming you have a slab floor, and you are seeing just the edge of the sill plate, the job, for an 8' section, would entail the removal of a foot or two of siding and sheathing over the damaged area. nailing a 2x 10 or 12 horizontally to the exposed studs, and jacking up the wall very slightly, and blocking it in place. You then take a sawzall with a nail cutting blade and cut the nails from the studs to the plate. You remove the nut from a foundation anchor bolt (there should be a bolt every 6 ', so there should be one, perhaps two in that 8' section). If there is no foundation bolt, I would remove another 6' of siding on each side of the damaged area and locate the ones on either side. If there are NO anchor bolts I would install "Red Head" type bolts every 6 ' with one on either side of the repaired area, and two on the replaced portion of the sill plate. If there is an anchor bolt in the section you re removing, I would cut it flush to the slab. cut the bad portion of the sill plate from the res of the sill plate, and remove it. Check for termites. If there is termite evidence, and not just rot, check the studs around where the evidence is for both termites and rot. Replace any termite damaged studs. If none of the studs have rot or termite damage (best case scenario) then slide the pressure treated plate over an intact termite shield and caulk the inside edge where it meets the concrete. Lower the wall down onto the new, anchored, caulked sill plate, and toenail all studs down to it. Add hurricane clips at each stud. Replace the sheathing, cover with felt or building wrap, and replace the siding.
Best case scenario, you get it done in one hard working day. Worst case, you discover the moisture attracted termites and you now have a major home repair that will take 6 months and twice what you paid for the house.
Oh yeah, did I mention that you make sure you locate the source of water that caused the rot in the first place? while you are in there, make sure all the water lines are solid. If it is galvanized pipe, it is time to look at replacing the plumbing. Remember, although the life expectancy of galvanized pipes is about 50 years, that is pretty much the maximum life.....with REALLY soft water. Minerals in water react to the galvanizing creating scales that over the years will completely clog the pipes. So the harder the water or the greater the mineral content the lower thelife expectancy of the pipe. so make sure your pipes are solid before you cover up the wall.
Sounds like lots of fun, eh? You could have a great deal or you could have a money pit.....that is why they call housing investment a risk, though, isn't it?
Rotted sills are the type of jobs I never would give a fixed price on. Neither will most other folks that are in that type business. Usually it is the type of job where you get a best guess, (which is worth not much), then a contract for time and materials.
Type of situation where once you get into it, things have a way of going South. You start out to replace a lil rotted wood and wind up way into the walls. Those bugs have a nasty habit of having reservations and a ton have moved in. Especially them carpenter ants, they do love wood with water supplied.
I remember one I did and I thought it might take a couple of weeks, 5 weeks later it was sort of done. Everything that could go wrong did. Yup, never bid one of those puppies fixed price. The PS is you never really know how bad it is until you start jacking and opening things up. Them handy peeps specials sometimes are not what they seem.
I am sick to my stomach. I have a 3 story and sill on side of house - about 60 feet rotted. Now I see that one bedroom window sill is also rotted (wood on side of window) weird not bottom or top - middle of wood. Anyways carpenter wants to put 20 jacks up and needs to jack the house up slowly? Can this be done with 3 story and I have son living on 3rd floor apt - I live on 1st. I am afraid - could house fall in while doing? I worked so hard - just retired and now have this major problem. Do you think anyone would buy it cheaper and do work?
I am sick to my stomach. I have a 3 story and sill on side of house - about 60 feet rotted. Now I see that one bedroom window sill is also rotted (wood on side of window) weird not bottom or top - middle of wood. Anyways carpenter wants to put 20 jacks up and needs to jack the house up slowly? Can this be done with 3 story and I have son living on 3rd floor apt - I live on 1st. I am afraid - could house fall in while doing? I worked so hard - just retired and now have this major problem. Do you think anyone would buy it cheaper and do work?
Don't get overly worried about it as nothing is worth getting sick over!
Yes any house can be jacked up. I've seen some pretty amazing things done. However, whenever you move a home outside of its normal position there is always a potential to cause other cosmetic damage such as cracked sheetrock, skewing door and window frames, etc. Before you proceed with this I would recommend that you have a Structural Engineer review the damaged sill plate, and other potential issues that might be occurring with it. The Engineer can then not only provide an opinion of what is occurring to cause the damage but also prescribe the best procedure for repairing it under your circumstances.
I do not mean to belittle your carpenter at all as the carpenter might be the best in your State. However the Engineer might be aware of an entirely different and available procedure that does not require jacking the entire home up to repair the sill. You might save money on the Engineer's repair method as well. What is also important is to identify the cause to make sure the repairs themselves are not damaged by the original cause.
As for someone else buying it and performing the work there is always someone that will, IF the price is cheap enough. If they are smart though the buyer would also bring in an Engineer to advise them of the cost and what the original cause is. Either way you might lose more not knowing by not hiring your own Engineer.
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Bring your wallet......
