I purchased a house a few months back and right now in the process of
remodeling it.
Before I purchased the house, the seller disclosed that there were
previous
termite infestation and the house was tented in 2004. I have pictures and
contracts by Terminix on the tenting. However they did not renew their
yearly contract so nothing is warrantied.
Before the sale I also had an inspection done, and the inspection included
a
termite inspection. The inspector went into the attic (the house has 4
separate attic access areas and some of those are not interconnected due
to
a large volume ceiling family room in the middle. The inspector says
there
were signs of previous infestation (termite droppings) but no sign of
current infestation.
I started the project to remodel the house, I mean REALLY gutting over 80%
of it. Taking down walls, sheet rocks, tiles...and practically over half
the space I found termite droppings on the bottom plate between studs, and
when I remove insulation from below to access attic conduits or AC or
something, termite droppings rained down on me. This is not in one spot,
this is in about eleven spots over the entire 3600 SF space, and I have
not
explored many areas yet. There are quite a few damaged rotted lumber,
some
framing, some not, I have been replacing those as I see them, door
headers,
sections of top plates etc...
House was built in 1970, and they attached strips of furring wood running
across each joist/rafter spaced at 18" spart. Then they attach the
ceiling
sheet rock on to those furring strips, seems most of the wood damages were
on those furring strips, which I guess is good news since those are easier
to replace and not structural. I have about 50% of the ceiling sheet rock
down for other reasons, and have since replaced about 30% of those furring
strips due to termite damages, in isolated spots I have examined the
rafters
and joists and they seem to be ok (knock on wood)...but why would the
termite eat into the furring strips and leave the rafters and joists
alone?
or I have not look close enough?
I am wondering what conditions the other 50% of the roof/ceiling looks
like.
I have no need to open them up and go through a ton of work, but I kept
thinking may be I should somehow figure out there may be serious rafters
and
joist damages in areas I have no yet inspected (due to *****s).
So I have these questions:
How can I be sure there is no active termite right now? I have not seen
one
but they could be hiding. First I thought this would be easy. I just
bloom
clean the areas, and if I see new droppings on the floor I be sure. But
that does not work. Last week I bloomed clean one area and this week I
saw
sprinkles of termite droppings on the floor. So there must be termites
right? But I am not sure, it could be the workers banging and drilling
and
cutting in the adjacent room and disturbed the insulation which just sits
on
top and the droppings could be old and just fell because of that...I guess
I
could call a pro and have an inspection. Problem is I have done that
before, and most of the time they don't even try they just look a little,
****ne a flash light to the attic from below and tell you that you need to
tent "if you don't have it now you will have it tomorrow, this is Florida
termites are everywhere", "it's not about whether you have it or not, it's
about whether you want to make sure and have the peace of mind, and get
on
with our program with an annual fee of..."
Even if I don't have termites now, would it be possible to detemine if I
have any serious termite damages that are structural in nature? Obviously
we cannot open every wall and every ceiling and remove all insulation for
a
thorough inspectiom, so what is possible?
The areas I have already got the ceiling down, is there something I ought
to
do? I heard about this foam treatment, you spray on wood and termites
will
run from it, should I do something before sheet rocks are up again?
I have two bathrooms where I have the concrete slab cut open to redo the
drain. The plastic moisture barrier was cut out in order to get at the
drains. Now that the drains are all done I have put all the sand back in,
and before I pour concrete back in, is there something I should do pest
control wise? Subterrainean termites, roaches, ants...should I spray
something or dust something before the concrete slab is poured back?
Sorry for the long message and thanks for any comments.
MC
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