Termites ate my house

[Phil Addison]

Anyone got any experience of termite damage. Our son has a small ranch-style house (bungalow we would say) in Florida and although had it fully treated against termites when he bought it has now discovered that the little blighters had already visited and chomped through quite a bit of the timber beams. He's now on a steep learning curve of replacing these. It started in an attached outhouse/shed, but as he exposed more wall studs and ceiling beams he's found quite a lot of damage and has embarked on practically gutting the place.

Any advice or comments gladly received.

In the photos below the greenish timber is the new stuff he's put in already. The termite damaged stuff shows as yellowish/white or black. It seems the termites burrowed up from underground and dragged moisture up with them that caused rot, as you can see in places where the wood has disintegrated.

The first set of photos show the shed and car-port. You can see the roof is a very flat angle. The new vertical posts are 4x4", the new horizontal beams two pieces of 6x2 side by side, or 2 4x4's. The car-port extends over the veranda to make a 'lanai' (an area enclosed in mesh to keep mosquitoes out).

next page shows the replaced car-port roof. 's where he discovered damage extends into the main house. most of the interior exposed and plastic sheeting up to protect the remaining living area. some props to support the roof. They are 4x4 posts bearing on the shallow angle of the rafters. I've started to annotate these. last set concentrates on the main beam running through the centre of the house. Its about 19' long and the last 8' or so (on the right) is totally knackered. You can see he's replacing a 7-8' section with 2

2x6's (only 1 installed so far). They will be staggered to join the good piece on the left. The apex of the roof is about 3' above the beam.

He has taking the roof load on two temporary stud walls erected either side of the beam being replaced.

photos to follow....

-- Phil

[Chris Hogg]

There was a termite infestation in a house in north Devon some time ago. Apparently they were introduced in the soil of an imported potted plant. See

Don't know the final outcome though.

[Tony Bryer]

No experience, but major issue here. Do a search on

termite damage site:au

for more

[John Rumm]

A termite walks into a pub and asks..... Where is the bar tender?

(sorry!)

Not sure I have any advice, but it looks like he is on the case. Surprising the amount of damage they can do!

[Andrew Gabriel]

In lots of parts of the world, but very few cases in the UK.

Whilst I've been in California, I have occasionally seen a whole house wrapped in a giant ballon, inside which all the termites are being gassed.

[Phil Addison]

That's exactly what was done 3 years ago on this house, unfortunately the damage must have already happened. The cocoon was left in place for a few weeks.

-- Phil

[Nightjar]

This being in America, can't he sue someone for not spotting the damage? When I bought a house in France, a termite damage survey was a mandatory part of the process.

Colin Bignell

[Tim Streater]

At least in California, you have to declare all salient structural things of which you are aware, when selling. Termite damage would certainly be one.

When I sold up there my house was tented too. The gas they pump in is quite toxic (to all living things), so after that at least there'll be no termites, rats, or (in my case) racoon in the crawl space.

As the gas is that toxic someone has to be there all the while the gas is there (24 hours typically), they usually bring a caravan.

Hey - there's an employment opportunity for some people.

[Phil Addison]

I think they have the usual surveyors get-out clause, that it wasn't visible without removing stuff, worth a double check though.

[Phil Addison]

Photos of the house with and without the gassing tent

can just see the warning notice "Danger Deadly Poisen".

-- Phil

[Tim Watts]

That can't be 100% airtight - how does it work? Do they keep feeding gas allowing for some escaping?

[Phil Addison]

Good question but I have no idea, I was 3000 miles away over here.

[grimly4]

That's the best way to treat Hollywood types.

[Davey]

American 'surveyors' have wonderful get-out clauses that mean they are not actually responsible if they miss anything. And they are careful not to call themselves 'surveyors', they just look the place over and try to justify their charge, by finding something wrong.

[Phil Addison]

Spot-on! This lot declared that the car-port was painted with lead based paint so our son had to get that remediated before he could get the mortgage.

[Nightjar]

In France, general house surveys are fairly rare, but this had to be done by a specialist in spotting termite damage, who came equipped with lots of equipment for looking (and photographing) into otherwise inaccessible areas. The resulting report was a thick document, complete with pictures of just about all the woodwork in the building.

Colin Bignell

[Jules Richardson]

Indeed; when we bought our place in the US they found a couple of things with the electrics - but "missed" a whole bunch of blindingly obvious stuff (which of course I'd seen from having looked around the place myself, and so factored in to a decision about purchase)

cheers

Jules

[Phil Addison]

I think it was more of a wander round poking a screwdriver in now and again :(