It's not the mudsill that is rotted, it's the rim joist and sole plate and two king studs around an exterior door. Now here's the odd thing, the mudsill is behind the rim joist. The rim joist is sitting on the brick foundation. I've pulled up three pieces of my deck to look at this from the front and crawled under the house to look at it from the back. Doesn't look rotted through, but a screwdriver will go in about an inch in the worst part. The rot is about a 5 ft section. I want to replace this. How?

Can I pop the door out and fix just that section from the top of the floor down? Who knows, fix the opening to be square again? Or do I have to jack the house up and slide it in, etc.

It also doesn't look pressure treated, looks like plain old white pine 2X10.

And about the nonexisting sheathing, the void goes up to about 10 ft, just below the edge of the roof for the bay window. A 22" w x 10' h space where no plywood sheathing is, only the particle board insulation the colony of tiny black ants seem to really enjoy.
Why is this? Is there a logical reason other than they ran out of plywood?

I'm not as surprised by these oddities as I should be since my husband and I discovered that the shower pan was attached by nailing it to the inside of the shower and to get to the jacuzzi tub's pump/motor I will either have to cut a hole in the exterior of the house or rip out the entire tub. And there are no cut off valves for the water in the master bathroom. And this was a model home!

FYI - If you spray paint pvc trim with Krylon's Fusion paint first, most latex paints will stick better.

Ill Start With The Simple Question First, The Motor Access, It Is Code To Have A Access For The Motor. I Don't Know How The Plumming,electrical Passed Without The Access, It Need To Be Big Enough To Get The Motor Out, You Can Go Back And Have This Done, At No Charge Because Of What It Is,

Next, The Black Board, This Is Used As A Substitute For Osb, Its Cheaper, But Has A Better R Value, What Is The Real Reason, Money, They Say A lot Of Money By Using This , One Black Board Is I Think Like 6.00 Will Osb Will Be Anywhere From 10 To 15, Depending On The Season.
But It Fine To Have It There, The Main Places You Need Osb Is On The Corners Of The House To Provide Stablity, And Keep Things Square While Your Framing, The Black Board Want Hold The Studs Straight And Plumb.

As Far As The Rott, It Sounds Like This May Be At A Door, If It Is, You'll Need A Sawzal To Cut The Rim Joist Out, As Far As Supporting It, As Long As Both Ends Your Cutting Out Are Resting On The Foundation There's No Need For Support There Because It Is Being Supported Already, And There's Really Not A Neat Looking Way To Do This, It Will Look Like A Patch Job Unless Your Wanting To Remove All The Nails Out Of The Joist And Replace A 16' Piece Or So. You Will Need To Brace The Joist That Are Affected, A Simple 2x4 Plate Underneath The Joist Will Be Fine For This, And The Ground Place A Nother Plate 2x4 Is Fine Here, And Just Cut You Some Short Studs To Span From The Ground Up To The Joist, Once This Is Done You Can Cut Out The Rott

As Far As The Studs That Were Rotted If There Attached To A Header There More Involved, If Not, Just Cut The Bottoms Where The Nails Are, You'll Need To Pull The Siding Off So You Can Get To The Top Where There Nailed Also , But Becareful While You Pulling On This Not To Damamge The Sheetrock On The Inside, Most Likely You Have To Put Some Screws Back In The 2 Studs After You Put Them In, Just Patch Over Them With 3 Coats Of Drywall Mud.

A Nother Option Is Just To Cut Out The Rott From The Top, If The Rott Is Only Say A Few Inches Down Then Id Take A Skill Saw And Cut Out Just What I Needed, And To Replace It Rip A 2x4 Down To The Same Thickness And Use 3
' Screws And Coutersink Them Into The Rim Joist, Hope This Helps

Thank you Glavine. I just noticed you're in Winston. I'm in Cary. To think with all the rules Cary has, I'm not sure how this house passed inspection. It does have some peculiarities.

lzt

I don't know about the R value. I guess if it was put there in one piece, but this stuff is a bunch of small pieces with some pretty big gaps (over an inch in some places). Looks like scrap piecing. Now I know why that area is so susceptible to outside temps.