# Sealing Exterior wall to Foundation



## 01pewterbird (Nov 6, 2009)

Hello,

This is my first post in this forum and I'm just starting to get involved with house repair. I consider myself pretty handy, but any serious projects I've taken on have been on vehicles.

Anyway, I recently purchased a 2 story condo that has a slab on grade foundation. The unit was built in 82 and never had gutters. Upon inspection of the home, it was discovered that the underlayment under the siding was rotted due to the 2 story fall of water and low foundation(probably +-12" from the bottom of the siding to the ground). 

I had the sellers replace the underlayment, apply flashing and install gutters. They used a rubber material that is used for roofing.

I can now reach under and feel that there is solid wood directly under the siding, but in some places, this new wood does not seal to the foundation. In these areas, I can feel behind the new underlayment and touch the top of the foundation and what appears to be some remaining rotted wood(seems to be another layer of plywood behind what was installed).

So I have 2 questions:
Is is typical to have two layers of exterior plywood under the siding?

More importantly, what can I do to seal these areas?
I was thinking of spraying some expanding foam and then maybe applying some sort of j-channel to the bottom to prevent any further splashing. Although, the gutters should now remove the splashing from the equation.

I wish I could post some images, but saw that I'd need 10 posts before that.

Thanks in advance and please let me know if there is anything I can clear up.


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## 01pewterbird (Nov 10, 2009)

Well things are worse then they appeared.

I cut out some damaged sheet rock on the exterior wall and found that the 2x4 that runs along the foundation is totally rotted in some spots.

I'm picturing this as the bottom piece of wood for the framing of the wall.

How would I go about replacing this?

I'd imagine this is load bearing so it would require some temporary support.

I'll be calling a contractor to come out and take a look.

Any input would be great.


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## oldognewtrick (Nov 10, 2009)

I think you should get a structural engineer to look at your issues and write a scope of work for you to get at least (3) written estimates for repairs from reputable contractors. What you have described is probably beyond the average DIYers skill level. An engineers report should only cost a couple hundred dollars but will be money well spent.


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## 01pewterbird (Nov 11, 2009)

oldog/newtrick said:


> I think you should get a structural engineer to look at your issues and write a scope of work for you to get at least (3) written estimates for repairs from reputable contractors. What you have described is probably beyond the average DIYers skill level. An engineers report should only cost a couple hundred dollars but will be money well spent.



Thanks for your input oldog.

The wall is 15' wide with an over sized slider. How much am I looking at to get something like this repaired, outside of the engineers report?

And do contractors typically charge for estimates?


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## oldognewtrick (Nov 16, 2009)

01pewterbird said:


> Thanks for your input oldog.
> 
> The wall is 15' wide with an over sized slider. How much am I looking at to get something like this repaired, outside of the engineers report?
> 
> And do contractors typically charge for estimates?



Hard to give a dollar value over the internet, ask any contractor up front if they charge for their time to do estimates. Some do some don't.


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