1930s house basement with bricks on sill plate?

[M.Cooper61]

I was asked to work on an old house with a full basement, built around the 1930s.. I did an inspection and came across something I've never seen before. There's a single course of gray masonry bricks, about 2.5" x 3.75" x 8", laid directly on top of the 2x sill plate. One of them was removed to run some wiring, and I noticed there's nothing between the bricks and the rim joist.. Does anyone know what the purpose of these might be? It seems like an odd detail. I'm trying to figure out if this was a common practice back then or if it's a later addition. The basement has always been unfinished. I'm thinking what's the best approach for this.. Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[tregzie]

Leveling course, sometimes used to raise the sill plate or provide a base for flooring but its not structural in a modern sense anyway, so if it's not really supporting anything and is sitting loosely, it's mostly cosmetic or for minor leveling

 

[stev3njr]

I was asked to work on an old house with a full basement, built around the 1930s.. I did an inspection and came across something I've never seen before. There's a single course of gray masonry bricks, about 2.5" x 3.75" x 8", laid directly on top of the 2x sill plate. One of them was removed to run some wiring, and I noticed there's nothing between the bricks and the rim joist.. Does anyone know what the purpose of these might be? It seems like an odd detail. I'm trying to figure out if this was a common practice back then or if it's a later addition. The basement has always been unfinished. I'm thinking what's the best approach for this.. Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks!!

okay, that's quite a head scratcher. It's not a standard practice, but it's the kind of thing you'd see in a house where the builder was a bit of a tinkerer.
It may not be structural in the way you'd think, but it could be acting as a very old school moisture barrier, keeping the sill plate from sitting directly on a potentially damp foundation.
If it's a consistent detail around the whole perimeter, it was intentional, and I would be hesitant to remove any more of it

 

[BanditVarkas]

Back in the day, builders sometimes added a brick "belt course" or a small masonry water table just under the framing to visually break the wall/foundation line. It might've been decorative or a drip detail, even if not well executed.

 

[Alan]

I was asked to work on an old house with a full basement, built around the 1930s.. I did an inspection and came across something I've never seen before. There's a single course of gray masonry bricks, about 2.5" x 3.75" x 8", laid directly on top of the 2x sill plate. One of them was removed to run some wiring, and I noticed there's nothing between the bricks and the rim joist.. Does anyone know what the purpose of these might be? It seems like an odd detail. I'm trying to figure out if this was a common practice back then or if it's a later addition. The basement has always been unfinished. I'm thinking what's the best approach for this.. Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks!!

Could be load distribution or moisture break but old builders loved improvising like it was permanent engineering art.