Termite Damage & Questional Garage Wall Foundation

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turner270

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Newb here, I discovered some terminate damage in our new-to-us home that will be dealt with/repaired post haste, and wanted to ask about the block foundation at the base of the wall while I was at this. The 2x4 at the bottom of the wall studs (above the sill plate?) is pretty much gone, and will be replaced. The sill plate seems to be OK. I'm curious about the block below that sill plate - should I also have the openings in that addressed? Some of the mortar looks like it is in pretty bad shape in areas, there are noticable openings in it both between the blocks and between the blocks and the sill plate. This is in our garage, and the exterior wall is brick. We have seen no water ingression whatsoever, and no signs of it. Just the termites, and the opening/gaps. I've included a few pictures showing what I'm looking at. Any advice or recommendations is greatly appreciated. Do it once right, right!?

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That foundation and wall looks to be owner built. Is this a garage area or something like that. There is quite a bit of different materials used there. That doesn’t mean its bad or going to fall down. In general any openings to the outside aaare not good and need to be closed up.

Building practices around the country differ a lot and I was surprised the first time I crawled around under a new house in SC how much they did with adding brick in here and there as they did on yours. Quite a bit of the mortar work that didn’t show was also left like yours, but not as rough as the one area you show. I was told that’s how we do it down here.

The pros will be along shortly with lots of tips and ideas for you.
 
bud16415, thank you for the reply. yes that is against my far side garage wall and I'm with you, sure looks like it was built by the owner at some point. I guess the gentleman was making use of what he had or could easily get.

I'm going to go ahead and attempt to fill the holes & cracks in the block and mortar on the inside, and potentially do something to try and make it look a little better. Maybe try to smooth it up and paint it or something. I don't think I could make it look too much worse anyway.

Thanks again.
 
I think you have a good plan if you don’t want to get too fancy. A combination of some mortar where you can and some Great Stuff foam in the smaller cracks. I would be tempted to smooth over it with some surfacing product and then paint it. Do a search there was a good thread a few months back about skimming a garage floor and a bunch of products were listed. If you can’t find the thread ask and I will take a look.
 
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