Rot in the basement wall, just underneath patio door
IonF
| Posted in General Questions on
Hi all
I found this rotted osb sheet in the basement wall. The rot is right under the patio door, a portion of the vertical osb sheeting is gone and there is also some rot in the floor.
I found this rotted osb sheet in the basement wall. The rot is right under the patio door, a portion of the vertical osb sheeting is gone and there is also some rot in the floor.
The exterior is brick, hard to remove/replace as is underneath a 3 feet high deck.
The cause of the rot was fixed a couple of years ago (installed a gutter and replaced the rotted patio door with a properly sealed one) and whatever is left of the sheeting and the whole area is dry (it was covered with rigid foam from inside), but now I need to fix the rot in the wall. The studs look fine but the sheeting has a big hole and the wrap is shred to pieces
I was wondering if trying to fix this from inside is feasible and a reasonable course of action, and how to do it. I would like to avoid having to remove the deck and bricks, but if that would be a much better solution I would probably have to do it.
Much appreciated!
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Replies
Are you sure it's rot and not critter damage? Water won't wreck housewrap, unless it's tar paper, which can eventually sustain damage. Critters can chew up anything though.
I would make sure water is channeled away on the exterior, and I'd look for any place critters -- especially mice -- could have gotten in behind that brick veneer. Note that critter entry holes can be quite a distance from the nest/damage though, so you'll want to check the entire wall.
I'm not sure of a good way to fix the housewrap. You don't have much room to work with here. Fixing the OSB is as easy as gluing in a panel from the interior to cover the damage.
Bill
Thanks Bill
Rot for sure, the joist above it was rotten a bit too, and when I bought the house there was still the an old deck and door with a rotten frame.
I was thinking about trying to glue the panel from interior indeed, but no clue what do do with the wrap. At least it looks like all is perfectly dry there after removing the old door and getting eavesdrops
You could try taping a piece of wrap in place with flashing tape. I don't know how well that will actually work though. I would do that as a "best effort" repair and not worry too much about it. Put your efforts into making sure water doesn't get in there again -- that's what really matters.
Bill
Thanks again, that's the plan
I often find rot and critter damage go hand in hand. Critter makes a hole, water gets in, wood rots, then critter chews through rotted wood. Lather, rinse, repeat.
There was a serious water issue there from a low roof above a deck. The whole patio door frame was rotten to pieces, so was everything below the threshold. To make matters worse, the deck ledger board was screwed in the brick, keeping everything soaking wet all the time