the rascal

[carly]

hi everyone. just thought i`d show you what the wonderful previous owner did to the joists.they are obviously rotten(in fact one crumbled away to nothing when i poked it). he has put a block of wood underneath it and hammered a wedge in to hold it up presumebly for when the survey was done. it worked though as the surveyor said the floor was ok. the damp and timber survey there might be a problem but they couldnt tell without lifting carpets. they recommended treating it but i thought they were just trying to make money. silly me eh? anyway it only seems to be the one against the exterior wall so how hard is it to remedy please?

 

[Gervase]

Rascal? That's mild! You must be a saint...
As for the remedy, it depends on how easy it is to access the space - it may be a question of lifting all the boards (which, of course, will give you a chance to check all the other joists). Or, if the rot is only in the bit that the, er, little tinker has wedged, you could scarf in a new piece of timber with steel or ply 'cheek pieces' to give added strength and only have to lift a few boards/
Best to get down there with a mirror and a bright torch and check all along the wall...
But you'll also need to sort out the damp that's caused the joist to rot - and as it's happened to one that rests against the external wall, I'd pop outside and check that your soil levels aren't higher than that joist, that you haven't got a concrete path butting up against the wall and that your guttering is sound - and also that your air bricks or other underfloor ventilation aren't blocked.

 

[carly]

gervase. i was trying not to be too offensive on ppuk. if i said what i really thought of him we would have to introduce a watershed. his best trick was to line the walls with two layers of polystyrene, then blown vinyl wallpaper on top sealed round the edges with sealer. the surveyor said there was a possibility of damp. when i removed it there was literally water running down the walls.apart from one or two isolated damp patches we seem to have stopped the water coming in mostly due to the advice on here.