I'm in the process of replacing my living room carpet with bamboo flooring. The subfloor is a concrete slab. When i pulled up the carpet, i discovered the floor around an outside door is damp and the sill rotting. I knew there were some issues there which i though was caused by hole in the rain gutter and/or rain splashing against the door and leaking in, but i patched the hole and put on a storm door months ago. The current moisture content of the wood is about 20%, so i think i still have a problem.
My next guess of the cause is my deck. The deck boards come up directly to the house (against the brick foundation), and the sill sits directly on top of the deck boards. The ledger is directly against the house and also is in contact with the ground. I'm thinking of trimming the ends of the deck boards back 1/4" - 1/2" from the house (maybe with an oscillating tool to avoid having to pull up all the boards), fill with a backer rod, and caulk. I would replace the sill, make sure there was a small gap between the deck and sill, and caulk that. Does that sound like it would remove most of the moisture problems? I know moving the ledger back with some spacers probably would be a better solution, but that would require dismantling and rebuilding most of the deck.
Thanks!
My next guess of the cause is my deck. The deck boards come up directly to the house (against the brick foundation), and the sill sits directly on top of the deck boards. The ledger is directly against the house and also is in contact with the ground. I'm thinking of trimming the ends of the deck boards back 1/4" - 1/2" from the house (maybe with an oscillating tool to avoid having to pull up all the boards), fill with a backer rod, and caulk. I would replace the sill, make sure there was a small gap between the deck and sill, and caulk that. Does that sound like it would remove most of the moisture problems? I know moving the ledger back with some spacers probably would be a better solution, but that would require dismantling and rebuilding most of the deck.
Thanks!