Over the years, we’ve had some water leaking into the basement. Figured it was from the tie-rod holes, and I was right. Demo’d everything because insulation was crap and being in Canada, it gets rather cold!
Patched up the concrete around the perimeter and so that’s one headache gone.
While demo-ing the interior walls of the basement, I of course pulled off the drywall around the walkout patio door.
This is where the fun started. It looks like they (home-owner 25+ years ago, who was also coincidentally a contractor of the builder) kept the double top plate above the door, but yanked out the studs and cut open the foundation without re-supporting the span (house goes up another 2 stories + roof + deck attached to the since-floating rim joist). Figured there’d be something to fix there as the bricks on the outside have always been in poor condition and the drywall always cracked on the inside above the door.
Anyways, I’m fixing it now. Since it’s open, I want to do it right, of course. I have included some photos and am pretty sure of what I am going to do, but wanted to get some other opinions as well so feel free to critisize/comment.
Here is the now:
Like I said, complete crap. They built the door into the basement by a 2×4 and tried to carry the weight back to their excuse of door framing and you may be able to notice the 2×4 sagging a bit.
Here’s what I’m planning:
So essentially, I want to pull anything in the door opening out. Prior to doing this, I will build some temporary support walls behind with some jack posts.
Upon pulling out the current door framing, I want to put a 4×4 steel i-beam in, against the existing top plate (I will remove the bottom top plate as it’s currently double, just for clearance, if necessary). Then, I’ll put a 4×1/4″ thick steel plate on the ground (not shown), and a steel c-chanel on either side of the door opening, cut to fit and anchored to the poured foundation by some wedge anchors on either side to keep things plumb. I’ll likely weld the 4 joints as well while I’m at it – need some practice!
Now, next, I plan to sister the c-channels with some 2×8 pressure treated that will be notched to sit on the plate atop the foundation wall, as well as carry down to new framing on the floor to support the base of the door. This way, I can frame my door on the inside of the c-channels and use aluminum cladding to cover the steel, extending to the brick fascia.