I’m finding this hard to describe so I put four pictures in an Imgur album here.
The exterior ‘walls’ around the base of our chimney deserve those scare quotes. The walls extend from the bottom of the vinyl siding to the ground (or are supposed to at any rate). The material is reminiscent of Sheetrock, but of a different material and with some metal screen embedded in it. The walls no longer reach the ground; there are several inches of space between the bottom of these walls, and one wall is no longer fully attached. The result is that there are gaping holes between the outside and the basement—it’s just these quasi-walls, some empty space, then the top of the foundation wall. There are no other gaps between the foundation and the house itself, just here.
So I’m off to Lowes in the morning to get … to get … to get what? When I first noticed the gap I thought a pile of dirt at the base would do, but looking at how the seams are shot as well (and though the side wall is intact it’s falling off), I can’t imagine making a three or four foot high pile of dirt is the right way to go about this. But what *do *I do?
ETA: If this is something I don’t do and I need to call a professional, what type of professional (roofer? Chimney expert? General contractor?) and until I find someone who can correctly fix it, any suggestions as to how to keep the air out for now?
… Okay, not to be an alarmist, but isn’t that a problem?
As for ideas… Couldn’t you build a light wooden, um, half-box, and insulate it? It wouldn’t be pretty, but it would keep the cold out.
Even with pictures, I’m having trouble understanding what is going on here.
It looks like the house is on piers with a crawlspace underneath. The ground seems to have subsided, leaving a gap under the skirting (or whatever it’s called.) We have slabs around here, so I won’t guess about the solution.
In that last pic it looks like the skirt has come away that covers the crawl space. There is what looks to be a 4X4 post that goes into a concrete footing. Is that post still solid to the floor joist and the footing? If so all you need to do is replace the loose piece and put more gravel along the bottom. First make sure that no critters have crawled under the house. If the post is not solidly attached to the house or the footing or if the footing is not solidly in the ground call a general contractor.
Shoot, describing this is hard even with pics. It’s too late to go tramping in the dark (um, my dog ate my flashlight) so until morning I’ll try and describe it some more. (In the meantime I drew and labelled a cross-section in Paint, which I hope will be helpful. I don’t know how to add it to a pre-existing Imgur album, so here it is separately).
There is no crawlspace (though that would be awesome). The vent for the furnace is directly below the fireplace. The furnace vent exits the basement above the foundation. Because the vent and the chimney stick out a few feet from the wall (on the exterior side), a rectangular column was built to contain it. This column runs up the side of the house and all three sides have the same vinyl siding to blend in with the rest of that wall.
At the bottom of the chimney, the siding ends and what looks (to me) to be Sheetrock-ish takes up the rest of the space. I think that just like the upper portion is vinyl-sided to look like the wall, the bottom few feet look like cement to blend in with the foundation. That may be throwing the original pictures off; it’s easy to tell the materials apart standing there, but the pics make everything look identical. The back, non chimney wall is part of the foundation, not the thin Sheetrock-ish boards making up the chimney enclosure (any help with the proper terminology would be welcomed).
The three walls themselves seem to be in good condition. My imaginary fix would be to use magic caulk at all the seams and magic glue to hold the assembly together. A couple inches of gravel topped by a few inches of dirt along the bottom would stop air from entering below.
The sheetrock like board is called wonder board or green board. Basically it’s waterproof sheetrock. If it’s the only thing loose then you’re golden. Reattach it to the 4x4 post with screws. Important thing to remember is to predrill any holes through the wonder board before running screws through it as it is rather brittle. Don’t over tighten the screws. Caulk any seems with an acrylic latex caulk such as Dap’s Alex Plus or White Lightening. Then cover the gap along the ground with gravel similar to what’s there already. Just try your best to make sure that there’s no wildlife in the space between your chimney and the outside wall. That’s probably what caused this is an animal trying to get in there to stay warm. If any of this doesn’t make since to you call a handyman home repair guy. No need for an expensive general contractor. If anything other than the skirting along the bottom looks amiss call a contractor.
If I understand the pictures you have a decorative fascia that surrounds the base of the chimney which by default is a pipe running up the side of your house with a box surrounding it.
If that’s the case and the sheetrock is OK then I wouldn’t attach it to the house. I would attach a “U” channel to the house and let the sheet rock float in this channel. You’re just trying to keep varmits out. However, I would check for any code requirements for this just in case there is some odd requirement but you’re using the original material in this case.
The wonder/green board seems intact, so I believe I’m a nice shade of amber (no way am I going to get all cocky and think I’m golden just yet—that just invites disaster, like caulking my forehead to the ground).
The bottom should be straightforward—gravel gravel gravel with dirt on top. The seams of the board that’s off should be straightforward as well; I can get to the interior surfaces to apply the caulk. For the right-hand side where the wall hasn’t fallen off, do I just caulk the outside corner and smoosh it about? Or do I assume that if one side was shoddy I’ll need to wrangle to wall off in order to redo it?
Oh, thank you very much for the offer, but I’m up in New York, a bit of a commute
If I understand Magiver’s post, you mean instead of caulking the joint between the wonderboard and the house to install a U-channel on the foundation which forms a track for the board to ‘float’ in. But it’s the cold air we’re trying to keep out more than the varmints (and being city-transplants, we kind of like the varmints. Plus, it saves on cat food). Or am I missing something?
I wouldn’t worry about the U channel, looks like your siding would interfere with that plan unless you wanted to change things around some. As to the caulk as you say the inside corner is easy. The outside corner you should run a bead right along the seam where the side piece overlaps the outside piece. If you can get some caulk inside the gap before you screw it down all the way it would show less. Let the caulk dry a couple of days then touch up with matching paint.
It’s hard to tell by the pictures but it looks like the boxed in structure going up the side of the house is sitting on posts which must be sitting on some type of pylon. If that’s the case you have one foundation floating independent of another. This is why I suggested you let if float in a channel (which can be sealed with felt lining the channel.
It also looks like the sheetrock doesn’t go all the way down to the gravel. If that’s the case nothing is sealed from the outside air.
I’m about to head out of the office to go take another look at the structure.
Quick question to help plan the day … they’re calling for morning showers on Wednesday. Does that mean I want to have everything wrapped up later today so it can cure before the rain comes?
Acrylic latex caulk sinks over in about 20 min. Should be good for rain in a couple of hours. And good to the touch in around four. But not to paint for a couple of days so it can completely cure. Fix it today or tomorrow and you should be good. Just wait till you’ve had a couple of dry days before any painting.
Just got off the phone with DAP (awesome customer service). They recommended DAP® 3.0 ™ Window, Door, Trim & Siding High Performance Sealant, gave me a bit of advice about using it, and said it begins being water resistant after just thirty minutes (but recommend at least three hours).
Apart from the skirts below the vinyl siding, that chimney looks just like the chimneys in my neighborhood. They are wood-framed boxes, and just float above the ground. Mine is only a few inches above the ground, but neighbors behind us have a view-out basement, and actually have a full-sized window below the chimney.
Are you the original owner of the house? I ask because I’m wondering in an earlier owner added those skirts. The 2x4s are, I suspect, hanging from the chimney, and not structural.
Have you looked at other houses in your neighborhood? Do they have those added skirts? I suppose the builder may also have added them as a matter of course, and then other houses would also have them.
