Moderation In All Things

13 May 2023

I have found doing repair work on most things involving rotting wood or peeling paint comes down to deciding when to stop. The difference between what's good and can stay and what's bad and needs to be removed is not clear thin line. It's a big, wide, gray line with fuzzy edges. There's a fair bit of rotted wood around the roof area I'm working on. Something needs to be done!

This section of wall had a rotted stud, and some old loose fill insulation that was blown into the stud cavities through holes drilled through the siding.

Removing the old stud would mean detaching it from the bead board  on the interior, so I decided to leave it in place. I sistered it on both sides, then replaced the old loose fill with Rockwool batts.

The studs and rough window frame are also rotted around and under the north facing window of the back bedroom. 

I've replace the center stud and sistered the two studs on either side. I made a new bottom for the rough frame and judiciously applied some spray foam to fill voids in the rotted wood.

Odd find on the old roof decking. A knot hole in the board...

was filled with a peg, held in place with a nail. Why did they go to the trouble of doing that?

I've started framing for the new roof. It will slope down from each of the three sides that face this porch area. The plywood with paint streaks is just scrap that I'm using to retain the blown in insulation over the dining room.

I'm going to leave what's left of the old porch roof for posterity, and because there's no good reason it needs to be removed. You can see in the upper right corner of the photo that I've sistered the studs under the window, but not replaced the bottom of the window frame. The wood's all rotted there, but the two sashes are still in the window, so I don't want to repair the window sill until we can remove the sashes.