Nate R
Member
Have a house that's about 18 feet wide. A few 2X6 joists spanned the whole width. Double sistered them with 2X8 lumber on one side and LVL on the other after jacking most of the sag out of the joists.
Didn't like the amount of movement we still had, so we decided to support it more. So we're going to make a wooden beam. The plan was to span it across the 3-4 joists that have the long span. Only about a 6.5 foot span for the beam, so it's not carrying much load. The ends were to be supported by vertical members. The vertical ones were to rest on the concrete pad that supports the chimney and on the other side the vertical member would rest on the sill plate.
So I started tearing out the wall to get to the sill plate. Pictured below is what I found:
FWIW: This IS on a gable wall, so it doesn't support nearly as much load as side walls would. As you can see, there's a stud in the left side of the pic. Instead of a sill plate 2X4 layed flat, there's a 2X6 on it's end!? There's also another 2X6 next to it that is rotted out on the bottom and cut off. So 2" of the stud are resting on nothing.
Anyone ever seen a sill plate done this way? I can't find anything showing this would be common. House is from the early 20s, but the lumber seems to be much older. The 2X6 that runs through the pic is in good shape, just the partial inside one is rotted.
What would you do? My thought is to just install another piece of PT lumber or LVL on it's end to match the outside 2X6 and support the stud, and then proceed with the install of the beam and vertical members.
Didn't like the amount of movement we still had, so we decided to support it more. So we're going to make a wooden beam. The plan was to span it across the 3-4 joists that have the long span. Only about a 6.5 foot span for the beam, so it's not carrying much load. The ends were to be supported by vertical members. The vertical ones were to rest on the concrete pad that supports the chimney and on the other side the vertical member would rest on the sill plate.
So I started tearing out the wall to get to the sill plate. Pictured below is what I found:
FWIW: This IS on a gable wall, so it doesn't support nearly as much load as side walls would. As you can see, there's a stud in the left side of the pic. Instead of a sill plate 2X4 layed flat, there's a 2X6 on it's end!? There's also another 2X6 next to it that is rotted out on the bottom and cut off. So 2" of the stud are resting on nothing.
Anyone ever seen a sill plate done this way? I can't find anything showing this would be common. House is from the early 20s, but the lumber seems to be much older. The 2X6 that runs through the pic is in good shape, just the partial inside one is rotted.
What would you do? My thought is to just install another piece of PT lumber or LVL on it's end to match the outside 2X6 and support the stud, and then proceed with the install of the beam and vertical members.
