I must apologize if this has ended up in the wrong forum section.
As always when renovating, you encounter small surprises that are almost never positive, and now I have managed to find one...
A little background info about the house: it is from 1980, slab on grade, and tiled areas have a floor construction with:
1. Uninsulated concrete slab
2. Leveling (sand)
3. Foam plastic
4. Reinforced concrete layer
5. Tiles
I am in the process of renovating a utility room and after chiseling away the tiles, we noticed some dark spots around the front door that smelled a bit like the devil's offspring (cat pee). To address this, I chiseled away the concrete layer at the front door and noticed that the urine had penetrated through the concrete, under the foam plastic, and impregnated the sill.
Now I'm wondering a bit about how to best resolve this.
The idea is to cut away the damaged sill between the studs in the doorway and replace it with a new sill, then rebuild with foam plastic and concrete, or alternatively skip the foam plastic and fill the entire gap with EPS. But how do you attach the sill then? There are no standing studs resting on it, and you'd want the sill to be completely isolated from the slab with sill paper/sill strip without screws or similar going through it, right? Another novice concern is whether it could affect the stability if there is no sill between two studs in the outer wall.
I am attaching a picture of the mess in case it helps:
if it can affect the strength if there is no sole plate between two studs in the exterior wall?
no, there are many houses that do not have a sole plate under the front door
there is space on the inside to attach the new sole plate piece with bmf-angle on the sides
I thought I'd update a bit after I tackled the matter over the weekend; everyone likes pictures even if it's not a massive project, right?
Sill removed and previous sill insulation replaced with sill paper. It was reassuring to confirm that even though the house rests on an uninsulated slab built in '79/'80, unimpregnated sills are lying on a capillary-breaking strip. It also turned out that some of the damage to this part seems to have come from outside, so the threshold flashing probably hasn’t completely done its job either.
New sill piece in place attached with nail plugs and built up for the door frame.
Secondary sealing in place to guard against moisture entering this way again, also studs for fastening exterior panels under the door in place.
Frame and door in place, if you’re observant you can see that the distance between the studs under the door has shrunk a bit and the insulation is gone, this is what happens if you’re careless in ensuring that the opening measurement was right the first time
New exterior panel in place along with a new flashing for the threshold. So far, only primed panel from the building supply store, but now I'm pondering what color to aim for. Originally, the panel next to the door opening was the same yellow as the rest of the wall, but I think it gives a nicer framing to let these remain white, what do you all say?
All in all, the removal to the door being in place without new panels and flashing took one day.
