As the picture shows, the sill rotted from the outside in, damage invisible from the cellar, causing serious cracks in the interior plaster archway over the parlor. The sill damage to this 1850's Tivoli, NY Italianate residence was serious enough to allow the wall studs to "roll" outward, without support. There is no way to tell the extent of this type of damage until the work is exposed. When we got done, the cracks in the parlor closed up and could hardly be seen.

GY Restorations replaced the sill, of course, and most of the parlor floor joists that it carried. In order to do this work, something had to hold up the wall in the meantime. In order to "hang" the wall up where it belonged, we installed a fixed and secure jackpoint, out of a 4 X 12 inch hemlock "spanner", taking the sag out of it as we went. GY Restorations does enough of these sill projects that we have developed our own repair tool for it. Check out the modified leaf spring shown below for shoehorning the studs back onto the sill, where they belong.

Collapsed sill, top of the sill and the studs still fully intact.

We straightened out collapsed wall and held it in place with this jacking system.

Nicolas Yonnone attaches 4 inch thick spanner to the exterior of the collapsed wall as a jackpoint.

Built out of auto leaf springs, we developed this tool for the purpose shoehorning the sill in place. The owner is shown assisting us in our work.

Front elevation, Italianate residence, Tivoli, NY.