The sill plant is an essential component used for a house’s structural framing. In most homes, the sill plate is the first piece of wood in the entire house. The purpose of this element is to keep the house to the foundation.
What Is A Sill Plate?
You can view any existing sill plates from the inside of the house by looking along the top of the basement’s masonry walls or crawlspace. On the outside, these plates surround the wall sheathing and siding.
A sill plate is the bottom piece of the wall structure where wall studs are attached. Additionally, versatile pressure-treated lumber can resist termites and moisture and prevent decay.
The Sill Plate’s Role in Framing
The sill plate consists of wood lumber – usually 2×6 or large. It helps create a flat and even surface for the construction of the framing. Since concrete is uneven, it could cause the studs to reach different heights if they were mounted directly onto the foundations.
The floor frame uses standard joists, which act as beams and run across the foundation walls. The rim joists encompass the ends of the standard joists. Likewise, the band joists lay flush with the outside edges. Together with the plywood, the floor joists complete the floor frame.
Installing a Sill Plate
Let’s check out the course of action for installing:
- Our Crossroads experts will install the plate into the foundation with anchor bolts: large bolts with either a hook or expansion wedge at one end and threading for a nut at the other end.
- The hooked ends of the bolts sit at measured intervals in wet concrete.
- Then, our experts will drill holes into the sill plate at the same intervals so that when the board fits on the foundation, the anchor bolts come through the holes.
- An impact driver fastens the nuts onto the threaded ends of the bolts.
Contact Crossroads Foundation Repair
Today, there’s a sealer placed between the sill plate and the foundation in newer houses. Polyethylene foam seals offer added protection against moisture coming through the concrete or the ground, thereby preventing additional damage.
Indiana Foundation Repair: Find the Right Professional Solution
Almost all sill plates come pressure treated to prevent the wood from moisture and insects. In pressure treatment, the wood is placed in a tank, depressurized, and re-pressurized with a preservative chemical. Our Crossroads team recommends pressure treatment so that the preservatives can penetrate thoroughly into the wood. Contact us today to get started.
