old house - studs on bearers - bearers water rotted

[zongatron]

Hi everyone,

Sorry about the mess of a post but this is complex with several sections of bearer, with different things going on, so i had trouble organising the info.

I have an unusual situation in an old house whee they have poured a slab out the front of the house right up to the weatherboards (see photo 1 & 2).
This is a 60's house and the slab has been there a VERY long time.
Upon inspecting under the house they have poured the concrete through the gaps and onto the bearers of the front wall of the house and in between studs encasing some of the studs in concrete.
My understanding is in the old days they put the studs on these bearers instead of a top plate.
The bearers in question happen to run parallel to the joists (across the front face of the house).

Above one of the rotted bearers all the studs have been removed as their is a large sliding door there now, essentially with nothing under it (aside from some air and concrete) And it works fine with no bounce or spring and it appears they have just put some timber beneath the sliding door as a plate.

Generally, over time in heavy rain water has made its way between the weatherboards and concrete and rotted out some of these bearers leaving a couple of studs basically floating in mid air - This is how I found a couple. I packed under them to firm them up.

So now, essentially most of the bearer is rotted away and the studs are either 1 - floating in concrete or 2 - not on a bearer anymore, but packed from the concrete to the stud with like a shim. (photos 3-11)

In any case - Nothing appears to have moved in the front wall. All the doors and windows work fine. So it seems there has been little impact due to the studs being encased in concrete anyway or the rest of the house frame supporting everything to date.

Due to financial reasons i cannot remove the exterior cladding and concrete and redo the bearers correctly.

I am hoping for some creative thinking might find a way I can repair this from under the house - or patch it up to keep it going another five or ten years.
I have been here 5 years, and nothing has worsened or changed in that time.

Solutions?
My thinking is that as the bearers are only supporting studs its no huge problem if the bearer rots away because the studs that are encased in concrete wont move anyway. There is a concrete beam running the length of the wall as a type of footing beneath all this.
So i could even cut away the rest of the rotted bearer there and then simply put a chunk of hardwood between the top of the concrete beam and bottom of stud to hold the individual stud, as if its then resting on a footing. Or even box in some concrete, between the bottom of the stud and the concrete beam, so the stud is then sitting on the concrete? Then one day n the future this could all be removed to start fresh
This could nearly solve the whole thing, and just visually inspect every six months for termites and water issues?

It seems the real main issue 1) would be the exterior corner stud, where the bearer is still half there but definitely is on its way out (photos 12-14). I though could I even just pack this with concrete, so there is concrete beneath the stud?

And 2) a small section of bearer which has joists and studs which I have no idea how to tackle except brace the joists, and pull it out hoping the studs don't move? Then slide another bearer in (but the exterior corner stud is at the left end of this short bearer)(photo 15)

And lastly a bearer that is very slowly disintegrating st one end, which only has studs but is checked out out to go under another bearer.(photo 16-17) there is a joist right up against this bearer so I could actually drill through the joist into the stud and screw a stainless steel screw through the joist into the stud to hold eachstud. Then try and cut out the rotted section of bearer and simply slide another one in as the studs shouldn't move?

What a mess.

Again, saying just get a builder out to do it properly doesn't help as inflation and interest rates rises has meant there is no money left for anything for the foreseeble future.


Thanks for any ideas

Zonga

Sorry!, i dont know why all the photos have gone sideways, they are correct orientation on my computer.
I tried to fix them but they wont load up straight. If anyone has enough time or interest just message me and i can email you the photos.

1 - Exterior.jpg2 Exterior.jpg3 - Example of stud on bearer with concrete.jpg4 -sliding door.jpg5- sliding door.jpg6 -sliding door.jpg7 - sliding door stud.jpg8 - stud sliding door.jpg9 - sliding door 1st stud.jpg10 - stud concrete bearer.jpg11 - sliding door above 2.jpg12 - external corner with stud.jpg13 - external corner two studs.jpg14 - external corner stud on top.jpg15 - floating bearer with stud on top.jpg16 - bearer supporting only studs.jpg17 - barer supprting studs.jpg

[droog]

Pretty hard to work out from the photos and could be wrong but my take.
You have bearers and joists, with the bearer underneath the joists, I suspect there was a concrete slab poured outside this construction.
Along comes some handyman that builds an extension, lays a bottom plate but installs it vertical on the concrete slab and rebates the studs onto this bottom plate.
Maybe then or possibly later someone pours concrete up to the bodgy construction.

Any repair work is irrelevant without understanding what the various components are intended to support. If the rotted components are not supporting anything structural then treating with chemicals to keep insects and rot away until proper repairs can be completed is probably the best option.

[zongatron]

Hey droog,
Its not an extension, all original house.
Yes the joists are on the bearers, but then around the perimeter where the bottom plate should be is a bearer too. So on the perimeter the studs come down below the joists onto this bearer(plate) The third photo shows this, how the studs come down beside the joists.
Photo 6 and 7 adn 8 shows how this bearer is actually on a concrete strip footing which is set in between the concrete stumps of the house. (then the studs are sitting on this bearer)
photo 10 shows again the stud coming below the floorboards and the joists to sit on the bearer (which is at a height of all the other bearers)
Photo 12 again shows it all pretty well.
Hard to tell when they are at right angles though.

But yes, apart from the stud in the external corner, there might not be too much to worry about?
Thanks didnt think of chemical treatments....

[droog]

I am not saying the construction is modern but there is 100% visible different stages of construction in the photos attached.

”extension” maybe the wrong term, changes, modifications or enhancements may be a better term.
The construction in not “original house” as constructed.

[zongatron]

Okay. Yes,I can see that now.
Seems to be probably the addition of the sliding door and the slab onto what would have just been a house on stumps.

[droog]

Okay. Yes,I can see that now.
Seems to be probably the addition of the sliding door and the slab onto what would have just been a house on stumps.

At least two concrete slabs on top of each other.
What is that ~20mm strip on top of the slab that the outer bottom plate is sitting on, looks in the photos as chipboard / yellow tongue ??

[mic-d]

you could at least try and orientate all the photos correctly. and some wider shots for general orientation would be useful

[zongatron]

Hi mic,
Yes sorry about that, ive tried five times to fix the photos. I don't know why it did that. They are straight on my computer obviously.
I tried tilting them 90 on my computer hoping they might reload straight but they still loaded up 90 degrees off.
I have no idea whats going on there as i've put photos on before and they just load up normal.

Not sure what the outer bottom plate is sitting on.

Spending some more time under there it seems that all those bearers are supporting is some wall studs.
And only about three studs in total.
And these are pretty well encased in concrete.

I think id be pretty confident in just chipping away the remains of the bearers, and that the studs wont move as all the weatherboards, and the "encased in concrete" should just keep them in place.
One of them is already just floating in air (the one i've packed underneath) so thats a good sign they wont move.

Then just tidy it up and slide in some replacement bearers to keep it going.

[droog]

Hi mic,
Yes sorry about that, ive tried five times to fix the photos. I don't know why it did that. They are straight on my computer obviously.
I tried tilting them 90 on my computer hoping they might reload straight but they still loaded up 90 degrees off.
I have no idea whats going on there as i've put photos on before and they just load up normal.

Have a read here:
https://www.renovateforums.com.au/sh...ht=orientation

When you take pictures on a phone it saves data regarding the orientation, you need to edit the picture and re-save it to update the metadata. Simple rotate of the image may not update the required data.