Hey all, obviously GRM is where I go for answers to all questions (and I know there are some here who are very knowledgeable re: construction/repair).
Anyway, I ripped a deck off my house and discovered the rim band (floor joists are perpendicular to it) has some damage. I’d like to repair the rim joist, re-side that wall (and the adjacent wall), and later build a free-standing replacement deck.
A few questions:
Rim band repair: The construction looks atypical – rim band is sitting on the block foundation with no sill plate. From memory, the floor joists are notched and rest on the block as well. This a modest vacation home built in the 70’s –cheapest construction methods used. My plan is to place a beam under the joists in the crawl space and jack up slightly to remove any load from rim band, and then knock out the entire 10-ish ft span of rim joist and replace.
Question 1 – does that sound like a reasonable plan, am I missing complicating factors? Question 2 – Is it viable structurally to just section the rim joist and replace only the bad part (with blocking behind to tie to existing material)? Not my preference, just wondering if viable.
Question 3 – should I use treated wood for the replacement?
Siding replacement: House is sided with T1-11 panels directly on framing, no OSB sheathing underneath. On the 2 walls, I am planning just to replace the panels, but with LP Smartside panels or similar vs plain jane T1-11 for extra rot resistance.
Question - What is the correct vapor or moisture barrier to use between the siding and framing? Not sure if anything was used originally. Tyvek? Or is it more complicated than that? FWIW, the house sits in a mountain cove, so lots of moisture and very little direct sunlight.
Thanks as always
