Sill plate replacement is often overlooked by homeowners. The sill plate we are referring to is the lumber laying directly on top of your existing foundation wall. Most homes experiencing this problem have an untreated pice of wood. Meaning it's very susceptible to rotting away due to moisture or an infestation of termites. The entire exterior skeletal frame is dependent on this pice of wood to maintain a proper structure ensuring a properly maintained home. If your home was built before the 1990's most likely your homes sill plate is not protected by pressure treated wood.
Over the years if your sill plate is exposed to water moisture or termites, your homes sill plate will eventually rot out. This pice of wood keeps all of homes exterior joist and studs level, not to mention your floor. In many cases going out to our customers homes they will experience a sinking home sensation thinking it's their foundation but in reality it turns out to be their sill plate. This is a good thing because in many cases it's less expensive to fix a sill plate than a sinking foundation. Only a true professional will know the difference between a sinking foundation and a rotting sill plate.
American Foundation Repair has repaired thousands of rotted sill plates. We are the most experienced team in replacing rotting sill plates. The new sill plate will be pressure treated lumber, a preservative process added to the lumber at the lumberyard. Once the wood is treated it is termite resistant and fungal decay resistant, just a fancy way of saying, the wood will also be waterproof too. Most outside decks now are built using treated wood.
Sometimes but not often when a sill plate is rotting so is your face-board and will need to be replaced or fixed too. This is the pice of wood at the exterior base of your home. You can't see it from the outside cause it's covered but from the inside you can see it if you pull out your insulation. It's the square looking wood in-between the joist. A lot of waterproofing companies who use carbon fiber straps will attempt to connect their straps to the face-board. This is a terrible idea, because the connection will continue to pull on your face-board causing it to rip it open allowing for rodents to come in through the ripped open hole.
Finally we can also sister joist at weak joist locations where floors are sagging. The joist are the pice of lumber that run across from your foundation wall to your beam. Sometime they run the whole span of the basement and other times from beam to foundation only. We can sister joist in crawlspaces or in basement too. Reinforcing with new wood on either side of the existing joist is the process called sister joist. This process can help straighten a broken or weak joist and can assist in straighten sagging floors.