Hello,

I'm renovating a 1900s working man's cottage and have a question about external base boards which I hope that someone might have an insight on.

There are a number of rotten foundation base-boards (in the style hopefully shown in the diagram below) on one side of the house. On the other the weatherboards are buried into concrete which is pretty broken, so we'll eventually rip that side up as well.

We're planning to landscape the side where we're replacing base boards and the dirt will be replaced with paving stones or concrete which will slope slightly away from the house.

It looks like the process for replacing the base boards should be quite straight forward and achievable for a couple of DIYers but due to the age and style of construction I can't find any information online about the best way to repair true to era of the house, to best building practice or a compromise between the two.

The original boards have been partly buried into the soil and there isn't much crawlspace under the house at all.

From what I've read I think my options are as follows:
1. Replace boards down into soil level
2. Fix lowest board into concrete
3. Replace boards leaving a gap above soil level
 
Three seems more sensible, but is there a reason we should consider concreting the bottom in place?

From what I've read it seems we also need to consider ventilation, which I understand can be achieve by spacing the base boards 20 mm apart.

Any advice appreciated.


Thanks!