Rotten sill plate behind a 'perfect' deck in Portland, 3 days to fix

Went to reattach a handrail for a client, pulled one screw and the whole corner just crumbled. Turns out the previous guy buried the sill plate 2 inches into wet ground, no flashing at all. Took 3 days to sister in new framing and jack the deck, has anyone else run into this hidden rot when doing small repairs?

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gray628d ago

Had this exact thing happen on a place off SE Clinton last spring, pulled a lag bolt to swap a post base and the whole plate was straight mush, you could scoop it with a spoon. The part that gets me is the deck above passed every bounce test and looked brand new on top. It got me thinking we should be poking around the rim joist and plate with an awl on every "small" repair, not just when something feels off. That little scratch test costs ten seconds and would've saved you three days. Curious how you handled the jacking, did you have to pour new footings or just sister onto what was left?

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