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Mouse House

This house had mice coming in from all around
the perimeter.  The lower courses of siding
were rotten, as were some sections of sheathing 
and rim joists.

The rim joists (along with the walls) had either
shifted off the foundation or were never flush
with the foundation to begin with.

I installed long tapered pieces in a couple areas
to create uniformity and facilitate the next step.

There were gaps between the foundation and the
rim joists, along with countless other points
of entry between boards.



Next two images: installing backing boards
for new sections of rim joist:









New cedar sheathing:





Long tapered pieces for uniformity:




Aluminum Vulkemed over the seam between the
foundation and the bottom of the rim joists:









Made "foundation" boards ("baseboards") out of
1x10 treated lumber, with 1x2 treated furred on.
These boards go over the aluminum sheathing.
Vulkem gets applied at the seam between the top
of the foundation board and the bottom siding
board -- which rests on the foundation board:











East side:  Removing deck boards to get at the
rotten base of the house:





700 16-penny galvanized nails needed to be extracted.
(Someone had used too large of nails.)

Sledge hammer strike on extraction tool was the
first step for each nail, followed by massive
force applied with four-foot crow bar on each nail:





Removed all the joists from this recessed area
to make a courtyard at the behest of the client:










The rotten elements discovered under the decking:








Rotten rim joist:








Replacing section:







On goes the aluminum:









Excavated window wells by removing more
than a foot of dirt from them:





Built window frames and Vulkemed them to the
foundation.  Installed plexiglass and sealed
the bases of the wells with dense crushed rock:








On go the foundation boards:








Sistered on joists and installed 
a ledger board for them to rest on.
Vulkem seals all seams and joints:








A deep layer of paver base is laid down all 
around the base of the perimeter of the house 
to keep mice well at bay.  It's simply the 
first line of defense, as the mice cannot get 
past the aluminum/Vulkem barrier:











Keeping the Vulkem flowing on a cool day:






Impossible to remove old joist hangers, 
so framed right over them:








Installed new decking:










Finalized the paver base:






All sorts of odd repairs associated
with the mice invasion.

Next six images show a cement block
being re-attached with Vulkem:
















New siding going on:






























Pressure washed and oiled the deck:

Just 21.88 per 5-quart container for motor oil 
at Walmart.  Used just 2.5 of those containers:




Flowed on better when mixed 4:1 with mineral spirits:







Just one of many, many messes.  
Hauled away three trailer loads of debris:





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