can anyone please shed some light on me as to why a house would be built without a sill plate?? and is there any retrofitting for it?

Skunkape, I'm a residential contractor and I can tell you that I can't think of one reason why someone would leave off a sill plate. It would be 5 times more work to leave it off than it would be to put it there. You'd have to shim all your joists to get them level, not to mention anchoring them all to the concrete foundation. I can't imagine why anyone would do this. I suppose if you were looking to retrofit, you'd have to jack your house up and install one, then let your house back down on it. Not exactly a weekend job. Have you actually seen a instance of where someone didn't have a sill plate?

It's a new one on me, too. Hard to imagine any reason to do so.

If you don’t have a sill plate, I would guess you don’t have a band joist? So the house is probably 80+ years old? My question if this is right. What is going on that you need a sill plate? Is the foundation shifting? If so what kind of construction is it. And what is the problem with it? Pictures would be a big help.

wow, thanks for the responses. Ok its a house that my wife and i are 2 weeks away from closing and both really like. The house is fine in all aspects including foundation, framing etc.. except for the home has no sill plate!! it was built in 1947 and its on hollow blocks, not sure if there filled or not. all the joist are resting soundly on the foundation and have been since 47 with no signs of crushing, rot or anything, they look great all around. the have 2 of those adjustable jack type things that may help out but it is fine everywhere else and for all i know im making a big deal out of this but i know it seems very unusual to not have a sill. question. would this kill me when/if i sell this down the road? assuming its still in fine shape? because i really believe it is solid but worry about proving that to someone else! thanks a lot for the posts.

Sounds like you are making a big deal out of it. But, I don't blame you. If the house has been there that long with no problems, I is very unlikly it will have a problem.

I agree, it's probably never going to be a problem. Once in a while you see weird things. I worked on a rehab of a house built probably between 1910 and 1920, which had 5/4 x 10 floor joists. After looking at 2x10's for about 50 years, those things looked like sheets of paper, but they worked, and we just put new subfloor on them, and they'll be good for another 80 or 90 years.

thank you all very much for the advice i can't tell you how much it has helped. I think we are gonna buy the house despite that. It seems to me if a house's foundation and structure are sound, with our with out a sill plate then why should i worry. Now ill just have to convince the next paranoid person like my self that trys to buy when we sell!! thanks again

My wife and I just bought a 104-yr old home. It is the balloon-frame style of framing. While investigating mice entry points along the foundation, I noticed that my house has no sill plate either. Instead, along the wall of the foundation, there are two joists spaced about 4-inches apart. I had a half-inch gap between the outer joist and the foundation over about 18 inches. I stuck a flat metal square in and ran it along the top of the foundation and hit what I'm assuming were the wall studs. Seems odd that the studs would be directly on the foundation and not a sill plate as the load would not be distributed other than a point contact force. Either way, the foundation is in great shape. I'm glad to see that my house isn't the only one without a sill plate.

Note. House is in the Chicago suburbs. Maybe more are like this too.

And I do not have the slightest clue as to how the framing is anchored, if at all, to the foundation. Good thing that we don't have too many major earthquakes in this area of the country.

thats funny. After i bought my house i found about half a dozen others without them around here (pittsburgh, PA)as well!! I can tell you this, after franticly searching the web for info on this after deciding we wanted the house, i sleep sound at night. Plate or no plate the foundation is as solid as they come and theres no stress on the joists. and its been like that since 1949. so thats all i need. Also, other than the fact that yes it ties the house to the foundation (mud plate does a fair job of that on my home) the second most common reason i hear for it is to protect against rot/termites etc...So let me ask this....termites eat at my sill or my joist aren't i in some serious doo doo either way?? wouldn't both require lifting home to replace wood? hmmm maybe plate would be easier but both seem horrible.