Rotted wood under siding

Hey everyone,

I was hoping someone could give me some advice. I am residing my house with Vinyl and I am tearing off the old aluminum that was on the house. I got near my chimney and noticed there was a bunch of rotted wood near the roof on the second story. I kept tearing and it was rotted on one side of the chimney for a few feet down the wall and then it’s fine. Behind the chimney is the same way and the wood is soaked. So I know there is an issue with the flashing around the chimney is my best guess as I haven’t checked

my main question is does anyone know how I would replace the wood behind the chimney. There is about a 2 or 3 inch gap or so. The wood on the house is just rough cut under the old siding and there is two layers of it. The water appears to have only made it to the first layer. And one layer for about a 1 ft by 1 ft section on the side of the chimney had a bunch of holes in the wood. Do I just cover it up and fix the roof or do I need to figure out how to get behind the chimney? Any ideas??

 

It is probably opening a can of worms to try and replace it. But it's hard to give advice when we can't see it, so you might try posting some pictures. But in a nutshell, you just don't want it to continue getting wet, or continue getting worse. So you "could" just cover it all with a good WRB (like Tyvek or Typar) and ensure that the flashing or roof is fixed so that it doesn't continue to leak and get worse.

Vinyl siding should always have a WRB behind it.

 

Yes I am wrapping the entire house with Tyvek and fan fold. I will get a picture and upload it later tonight and maybe that will help some. Thanks for the help!