I recently bought a house. Along the front exterior wall, the former owners had build up a rock wall flower bed. It was about 1.5 ft high, 26 ft long and 2 ft out from the wall and filled with dirt. Though they had placed plastic between the dirt and the exterior wall, I was suspicious. I dug out all the dirt and tore down the rocks. Sure enough, I could see the bottom 2 panels of wood siding had rotted. So I tore those away with the intent of replacing them (was actually considering re-siding the whole house). Anyway, what I discovered was about 16 feet of the sill plate, as well as the base of the studs and the bottom of the sheathing were also rotten. None of this was detectable from the basement as the previous owners had cleverly finished it (along the side in question anyway). Anyone have any experience with something like this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

How long ago did you purchase this home? Some places have a law concerning pre-exsisting conditions that the previous owner may be responsible to repair. Check with your lawer who helped close this deal. Replacing sill & studs can be expensive and not for the do it yourselfer as you will need to jack up that side of the home from basement joist

You might be able to prevent any new damage by installing what is called a "stem wall". A stem wall is a short concrete wall (usually 4" - 12" high and 4"-6" thick) than is installed at base of an existing exterior wall than basically seals the area from the upper edge of the house foundation to the top of the stem wall. It should act like an extension of the existing exterior wall and provide an additional barrier to moisture.

I'm sorry, I gave you some wrong info... the concrete wall that I called a "stem wall" in the earlier reply to your question is actually called a "flash wall". Flash walls are used to raise the grade elevation of building foundations when the original level is too low to prevent the flow of water, etc. through the barrier that the original footings/foundation would normally provide.

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Originally Posted by ThomasCKeat

how long ago did you purchase this home? some places have a law concerning pre-exsisting conditions that the previous owner may be responsible to repair. Check with your lawer who helped close this deal. Replacing sill & studs can be expensive and not for the do it yourselfer as you will need to jack up that side of the home from basement joist

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Thanks ThomasCKeat. I appreciate your feedback. I'm in BC, Canada. In the "Contract of Purchase and Sale" there is a "Property Disclosure Statement" which has questions such as: "Are you aware of any structural problems with the premises or other buildings on the property?" and "Are you aware of any damage due to wind, fire or water?". The key phrase in all that is "Are you aware..." The vendors answered "NO" and would argue that, though the condition was pre-existing, they were not "aware" of it. Also, I got a home inspection. To his credit, the inspector DID mention that having a flower bed up against the house was not a good idea; that we'd probably want to get rid of it. As well, he said that he could not actually see if there was any damage to the house as 1) there was plastic between the dirt and the house, 2) it wasn't like he could start digging up flowers and ripping out plastic so he could see the effect that it had on the house and 3) inside in the basement, the wall and ceiling were finished so he couldn't see the foundation wall or floor joists where they meet the sill. I read the report and, despite that, still decided to buy the house. So that was the risk I took. Anyway, upward and onward. Thanks again.

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Originally Posted by Kstar4u

I'm sorry, I gave you some wrong info.... the concrete wall that I called a "stem wall" in the earlier reply to your question is actually called a "flash wall". Flash walls are used to raise the grade elevation of building foundations when the original level is too low to prevent the flow of water, etc. through the barrier that the original footings/foundation would normally provide.

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Hey thanks Kstar4u. That is great info. I had not heard of a flash wall before. I think (hope) my foundation wall is up high enough above ground and the foundation grade is sufficient to direct water away from the house although I'm glad you brought it up... that is definitely something I'm going to double check now. Thanks.

Scp, sorry the whole load is yours to shoulder. Good Luck

As Far As Fixing This Your Going To Have To Support The Weight Of Your Exterior Wall, Basically You'll Have To Run A Beam In The Basement, You Could Use A 4x6 Turn It The 6" Way, Use You A Couple Jacks To Support The Load And It Being 16ft Long Your Going To Have To Cut Some Braces To Go Underneath The Beam, To Help Support The Span. After That Take A Sawsal Or Whatever Your Have To Use And Remove The Rotten Band And Sill, As Far As The Studs Go You May Just Be Able To Scab On The Sides Of Them And Renail Into The New Sill.

If You Have Any Basic Carpentry You'll Be Fine, Just Don't Get Overwhelmed And Plan For A Hole Day.
Most Importantly Make Sure You've Supported The Load Before You Cut Anything,
Goodluck
You Also May Just Call A Contractor Out Just To Have Them Explain First Hand So You Could Actually See What Would Be Done.

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Originally Posted by glavine

As Far As Fixing This Your Going To Have To Support The Weight Of Your Exterior Wall, Basicly Youll Have To Run A Beam In The Basement, You Could Use A 4x6 Turn It The 6" Way, Use You A Couple Jacks To Support The Load And It Being 16ft Long Your Going To Have To Cut Some Braces To Go Underneath The Beam, To Help Support The Span. After That Take A Sawsal Or Whatever Your Have To Use And Remove The Rotten Band And Sill, As Far As The Studs Go You May Just Be Able To Scab On The Sides Of Them And Renail Into The New Sill.

If You Have Any Basic Carpentry Youll Be Fine, Just Dont Get Overwhelmed And Plan For A Hole Day.
Most Importantly Make Sure Youve Supported The Load Before You Cut Anything,
Goodluck
You Also May Just Call A Contractor Out Just To Have Them Explain First Hand So You Could Actually See What Would Be Done.

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Thanks glavine! Great advice!

Update: a friend with some construction experience (who knew?. he was actually a school teacher for 30 years!) offered to help. We started in the basement removing about 3 feet of the ceiling where it meets the exterior wall exposing the floor joists above where they sit on the sill. Outside, about 15" above the top of the foundation and 26 ' along the front of the house, we cut through and removed that part of the 3/8" OSB sheathing.We also removed the 2x12 header plate. We then had a clear view of the joists and sill. In fact we had a clear view right into the basement. Good news... the floor joists were unaffected by the rot. But as we suspected, the sill DID have to go. Assessing the situation, we figured the basement wall which had been built in front of the concrete foundation wall would provide sufficient support for the floor joists when we removed the sill. The question was: would the sill simply slide out from under the floor joists? We cut through the damaged sill in various points along the 26 feet. We also removed the nuts of the anchor bolts where the sill was bolted down to the foundation. To our surprise (the good variety) we were then able to remove the old sill with relative ease (alot of it actually just broke apart due to the rot.) Next question, how easy would it be to slide the new sill plate in? On the new sill, we marked where the bolts would go and cut notches at those points. Then, with a bit of gentle persuasion, we pounded in the new sill plate. I ratcheted onto the bolts new nuts with large washers (given the notch job). Then the new header plate was hammered on. I should mention that the section starting at the far left of the house and to about 10 feet in is an addition (this I learned after removing sheathing etc). It has 2x6 wall studs that go right down to the sill plate (I was told this is called 'balloon framing'). Floor joists for that room run perpendicular to the floor joists for the rest of the house. A good number of the bottom of these 2x6 studs were rotten. So, alternating studs, we cut out the rotten pieces replacing them with good wood and supported them by adding 2 other pieces of 2x6, one on each side, and hammering them all together. I believe this is referred to as 'scabbing'. Lastly we replaced the sheathing. So that was that. I have to tell you that what I thought would be a massive job for a contractor costing thousands of dollars ended up being something that a friend and I could do in 3 days for about $100 in materials.

Thanks again to all who took the time to answer! Much appreciated. I will probably be back with another question sometime in the near future... 'til then... take care. SCP

SCP, great post! I'm going through the same thing on a 2nd floor box beam. Hope all is well with your investment. My work is just beginning lol

Great post SCP! Hope the house is well. My work is just beginning lol. I'm going through the same thing, but on the second story of my home. Makes for some added difficulty, but I'm just doing my best. Thx for the info.