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I have been poking around my basement lately, and discovered
that the builders of my house did not use sill plates.
The band joists and floor
joists simply sit atop the poured concrete foundation walls.
Better yet, in the previous owner's sunroom addition, he
placed the floor joists and band joists atop the concrete
block foundation wall. Given the lack of attention to detail
shown throughout the house, I highly doubt that treated lumber
was used.
Is it common practice to
simply not use sill plates? Every book I have on the subject
stresses the importance of selecting appropriate treated,
unwarped lumber to use as a sill plate. It doesn't appear to
me to be optional!
Given the facts, what do I
do!? It would clearly be a major undertaking to add sill
plates to an already-built house. Can I apply wood
preservative to the lumber that is currently in contact with
the foundation? Are there other things I need to look out for
since the wood is in contact with the concrete?
For what it is worth, the
area of the country that I live in is southern Wisconsin.
Thanks!
Steve
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As I was reading your letter, I thought... Hmm, I wonder if he
lives in Wisconsin... And lo-and-behold... YOU DO!
Back in the mid 1990's I
lived in suburban Milwaukee for a while. The house I lived in,
built in 1975, had a concrete block foundation and no sill
plates. I couldn't believe my eyes. I don't know how they
anchored the house to the foundation, I suspect they didn't.
And a house where a friend
lived in Whitefish Bay, an older upper-middle-class suburb
north of Milwaukee, also had no sill plates. That house was
probably built in the 1920's.
I have to wonder just how
common this practice was. Hopefully the word "is"
does not need to be used here.
I wouldn't be too worried
about rot, though. There are millions of houses with plain
wood sill plates, and it's only on the TV show "This Old
House" where the sill plates rot. At least, that's the
only place I've seen it happen. Unless the wood is
really close to the ground, or there is some problem with
excess water in the soil, there is not much risk of problems.
Sure, now that treated lumber is available everywhere it makes
sense to use it for sill plates, but that doesn't mean that
every piece of non-treated wood that contacts concrete is
going to rot. I guess what I would do is just get regular
termite inspections, and make a habit of checking a few places
on the framing to make sure there is no rot. I just poke at
the wood with a flat screwdriver. If it sinks in, you've got a
problem.
I'll bet you never have any
problems, unless a really big windstorm, or a tornado, comes
along. Then you'll understand how Dorothy's house managed to
get airborne and fly all the way to Oz.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
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