I'm looking into a second home "up north" in Michigan. The home inspector found rotted rim joists. I have a quote from, what seems to be a good contractor in the area, to replace them. He says you remove the bottom three rows of siding, support the home on jacks in the clawl space, and have at it. My concern is the quality of the home left over. Will the sliding windows still slide easily? Will the doors still shut properly? Will the brick chimney crumble? Will the drywall crack? He says they will not raise the house. Just enough lift to hold it in place. The joists seem to be in fine shape. The only place with rot is the outside rim joist. Is this something I could expect trouble with down the road, or is it as easy as the contractor is trying to make us believe?
We need to decide to buy this house or to move on and look at others. Every thing about this house was perfect, until the inspector came up out of the crawl space. My wife and I immediately developed a sick feeling in the stomach. We want this house, but am concerned about the extent of repair. Can you help us to decide. Home is a nice frame 1120 square foot rectangle. Nothing fancy.
Answer:
You'll need more than just auxiliary support there because the new rim joist will not support properly without something to sit on - a 2X6 ont he flat will do it. That means of course that another 1.75" of jacking will have to take place and there goes that chimney, the doors, windows and probably a lot of the plaster.
