Rot, Mold, and Cob Webs

The last few days were very busy, long, and tiring days. It really all began a couple of weeks ago, Chad and I had walked around the back of the shed looking for the kids. Chad leaned against the back wall and realized that if he tried to, he could push his hand through the siding. Yep, it was completely rotten. Normally we never go back there, so we had not noticed the problem before.

This week the weather turned clear and nice, so Chad jumped on the chance and planned on replacing the rotten siding. Wednesday night after work we headed to the hardware store to get the needed materials. He began pulling off a small chunk of siding to find that everything underneath was rotten too. He made the decision to take the next two days off work, and the project began.

Thursday morning dawned cloudy, but no rain; so we began to peal off the siding. This was also the day of Brett Banks funeral up in Anchorage. All day I could not keep my mind off Tiffany. I wish that I could have been there with her, but my place was here helping Chad. The missionaries came by for a few minutes to pull down the rest of the siding. You know that it is really bad when it all crumbles in your hand and the wall comes down in handfuls. Step one was done, we could now see the extent of the damage, and the need for another trip to the hardware store.

We consulted with our neighbor, who does construction, and a friend from church. The plan began to form. First we would need to replace the rotten beam that was holding up the floor joist. We could rent a couple of jacks and jack the floor up while we pulled out the old and put up the new. Instead we got a 2x12 inch beam in behind the old ones and braced it up from behind. This meant crawling around under the shed to get this beam up. Chad is not a fan of spiders or their webs, and we found a lot.

Getting the first support beam in actually took most of the first day. So Friday morning we were ready to start pulling the rotten one out.

And put the new one up. We now have 3 2x12 boards nailed together. We used pressure treated boards so that we will hopefully never have to do this again.

Next we needed to replace the rotten footer beneath the rotten studs. We also had to cut out part of the floor that was also rotten. In the beginning we had hoped to not have to pull down the whole wall. That meant moving food storage and taking down the shelves. In the end that actually seemed like the easier option. So, while Chad made yet another trip to the hardware store, I got busy moving everything off the shelves and began taking the shelves down. Chad got back with a new electric drill, and we had the walls done in no time. (This was the only tool he had to buy for this project. Amazingly we already almost everything else that we needed. We did have a drill/screw driver too, but it was battery powered and Chad was tired of charging batteries.) So each armed with a power drill, we tackled the walls.

Then we cut about 7” out of the rotten floor. Most of the studs were no longer even attached, but were just hanging from the header.

Next Chad used his handy fence he made to rip down the ply wood to patch the floor up. And we got the new floor put down.

Then we began replacing the studs one at a time.

I was not just the camera man on this job. I was getting down and dirty with it from the beginning, but I asked Chad to take one picture to prove it.

Finally we had the floor in, the footer replaced, and studs that were actually attached.

By this time it was about 9:30 at night. We were able to put the 2 x 12 cap piece to seal up the floor joists.

A huge apology to the neighbors as we were still using the power tools until about 10:30. I know that it doesn’t look it, but when the sun comes out it stays out. We finally were ready to put up the siding and seal it all in for the night. Over twelve hours of work, but we defiantly had something to show for it.

We still had another hour of clean up just putting all the tools away, but it was nice to have the deck to work on. We had lots of room to work and we had things scattered all over the back yard.

Saturday came, but we were not done yet. We had made quite the mess with all the demolition.

With the kids help we got it all cleaned up. We loved having a big old truck, to help haul everything off.

Chad cut down the tree branches that had been against the shed wall. These had been the culprit behind the whole rotten mess. The branches against the wall kept the moisture and rain from ever drying out. Cutting these down should keep this from happening again. As he cut we began to see more light filtering through into the yard and he got excited and began limbing more trees. Now he starting to thing about what trees we can get rid of completely.

When we began this project we had no idea all that it would in tale. I know that if we had known we may not have undertaken it ourselves. Once we started we just took it one step at a time and it all turned out. We got the whole project done in less than three days, and we did it all with just the two of us.

So what is our next big project? Shingles. Anyone want to help.