sofar
New member
As I build my garage I'm trying to solve 2 problems:
1. mice/water damage at the bottom of the sheathing that I'm fighting on my 30 year old house. It is some sort of asphalt impregnated fiberboard sheathing and is too close to grade, but plywood is going to rot eventually too. If you try to paint/seal/flash that bottom somehow then you could be pooling water above the seal. This is in wisconsin so occasionally you get 2' snow drifts sitting up against the house and the mice love that area.
2. I'd like to extend vinyl siding down over the concrete by 8" in some places. I put in a 16" block wall due to the slope and have 8" concrete exposed in some areas and 20" in others, and I'd rather not have quite so much concrete exposed for aesthetic reasons.
In the attached picture the first diagram is what I think is the traditional method.
The middle solution uses treated plywood near the bottom and keeps the vinyl siding 1/2" off the concrete, maybe that's enough to attach starter strip since that doesn't bear any weight. I would tapcon the plywood in at the bottom every 32" or so, but you will have a crevice there for bugs.
The one on the right moves the wall framing in 1/2" and lets the sheathing rest on top of the 2x6 treated sill plate. I like this solution the best, the only problem being that the siding is sitting directly against the concrete. I don't see how that will be a problem with vinyl siding despite some people saying not to do that, but if I ever wanted to put another kind of siding on that would be bad. I would use concrete nails or tapcons to put in the starter strip and maybe some adhesive so I don't have to put so many holes in the concrete. The second 2x4 plate allows me to easily build the 2x4 walls on a flat surface instead of putting 2x4 studs offset 1/2" into the treated 2x6.
Does everyone pretty much use the standard method and not worry about it until the bottom of the sheathing rots in 30 years? At that point you might be residing anyways and then you can re-sheath at the same time.
1. mice/water damage at the bottom of the sheathing that I'm fighting on my 30 year old house. It is some sort of asphalt impregnated fiberboard sheathing and is too close to grade, but plywood is going to rot eventually too. If you try to paint/seal/flash that bottom somehow then you could be pooling water above the seal. This is in wisconsin so occasionally you get 2' snow drifts sitting up against the house and the mice love that area.
2. I'd like to extend vinyl siding down over the concrete by 8" in some places. I put in a 16" block wall due to the slope and have 8" concrete exposed in some areas and 20" in others, and I'd rather not have quite so much concrete exposed for aesthetic reasons.
In the attached picture the first diagram is what I think is the traditional method.
The middle solution uses treated plywood near the bottom and keeps the vinyl siding 1/2" off the concrete, maybe that's enough to attach starter strip since that doesn't bear any weight. I would tapcon the plywood in at the bottom every 32" or so, but you will have a crevice there for bugs.
The one on the right moves the wall framing in 1/2" and lets the sheathing rest on top of the 2x6 treated sill plate. I like this solution the best, the only problem being that the siding is sitting directly against the concrete. I don't see how that will be a problem with vinyl siding despite some people saying not to do that, but if I ever wanted to put another kind of siding on that would be bad. I would use concrete nails or tapcons to put in the starter strip and maybe some adhesive so I don't have to put so many holes in the concrete. The second 2x4 plate allows me to easily build the 2x4 walls on a flat surface instead of putting 2x4 studs offset 1/2" into the treated 2x6.
Does everyone pretty much use the standard method and not worry about it until the bottom of the sheathing rots in 30 years? At that point you might be residing anyways and then you can re-sheath at the same time.
