Termites the other Carpenters working on Dad's garage

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

Termites the other Carpenters. Well I guess I never really knew how much damage termites can do. My dad who is 87 was pulling the siding off his garage. Told me that he has a small termite problem. He had the siding pulled off and one sheet of plywood. What I saw was let’s just say bad real bad. From what I could see the termites had eaten 95% of the sill and just about every stud up roughly 2'. Kept telling him its bad and it was going to be a lot of work to repair.
Brief history, the garage is about 40 years old. Did not have a pressure treated sill. Full frost wall with the area under the slab set up for a passive solar heat storage. 2x4 walls with sheetrock on the inside plywood with 12” wide Masonite siding. The wood walls only is about 4” from the ground.
After seeing that the studs were not supporting much behind the first plywood sheet he removed first thing to do was brace the wall up from the inside. Next up was to strip the outside wall. The bottom layer of plywood was removed, and all the insulation was removed. As you can see in the pictures I don’t know how it was supporting the roof.

I know you guys like pictures so I will be posting the repairs.

PoorOwner · Nov 17, 2017

you didn't notice any mud tunnels before it got to this bad?

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

PoorOwner said:
you didn't notice any mud tunnels before it got to this bad?

Framing was only inches from the ground. Never had that problem at my house and my dad is 87.. I dont think it was on his radar

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

Few more pics of what was found. We decided that we would try and work with the Sheetrock as opposed to ripping it all out.

cdestuck · Nov 17, 2017

Do you think the other walls are ok? What made your young dad pull off the siding to begin with?

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

cdestuck said:
Do you think the other walls are ok? What made your young dad pull off the siding to begin with?

He wanted to replace a few pieces of siding that were pretty worn. 12" Masonite 40 years old it has seen better times. Siding is out of production and not on the market anymore.. What was he thinking!!!

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

Start of framing. 2x6 glued, screwed and nailed to the top plywood.

PoorOwner · Nov 17, 2017

are you going to get treatment for the soil etc, they are going to munch on the new studs

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

On going progress includes installing 1/2" plywood on the inside. This will serve 2 functions. first it will be used as a form for a concrete wall. The bottom of the plywood is protected by plastic and held to the concrete with tapered pressure treated block. Since the inside of the garage had sheet rock after 40 years it has seen a few dings. The plywood will cove the bottom 4' now and provide additional protection.

1/2" Hilti anchors were installed with threaded rod to pass up through the concrete wall that will be poured.

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

all taken care of now. Thanks for asking

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

Raised the concrete wall by 10 inches. Used the old plywood to make a form for the outside wall. Used 1/2" pvc sleeve to slide a 3/8" rod through to the inside plywood. This will allow me to slide the rod out after the pour. The concrete mix was a 5000 pound mix with an additive for extra strength. A ******** was used to get rid of any air.

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

Sill seal installed with new pressure treated plate. 1/2" bolts securing the new wall in place. New studs, insulation and plywood glued and nailed

Jlbc212 · Nov 17, 2017

Termites will eat right through pressure treated lumber. Some may die of the wood treatment from eating it, but there's a whole army of termites with wave after wave of invaders.

69gp · Nov 17, 2017

Jlbc212 said:
Termites will eat right through pressure treated lumber. Some may die of the wood treatment from eating it, but there's a whole army of termites with wave after wave of invaders.

Well hopefully with another 10" of concrete between the ground and any wood that will help.

Angelfire · Nov 17, 2017

Far from a termite expert but here in the arid desert, they are notorious but will only go after wood if there is a water source. For whatever variety we have, keep the wall dry, no termites.

n20junkie · Nov 17, 2017

I think they can walk up the concrete. They will make tubes out of mud up the concrete and it becomes a termite highway.

Chemicals, and lots and lots of chemicals.

pcmeiners · Nov 18, 2017

Termidor, if you can buy it in MA. Kill all pest for approx. 10 years or more. It work, takes about 3 weeks before it kills termite/ants.

https://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/can-use-termidor-sc-in-ma-qa-14617.html

Ebay has it.

Jlbc212 · Nov 18, 2017

n20junkie said:
I think they can walk up the concrete. They will make tubes out of mud up the concrete and it becomes a termite highway.

Chemicals, and lots and lots of chemicals.

The fact that termites will build mud tunnels up the side of a concrete wall combined with the fact that most of the United States is prone to having termites are the reasons why I would never place foam board directly up against the foundation and right up the wood sill. The termite tunnels will be hidden behind the foam board insulation.

AMCguy · Nov 18, 2017

Wow. I looked at those first few pictures and thought your dad's garage was hopeless. I'm impressed what you have managed to pull off. Great work.

Irish Mike · Nov 18, 2017

Nice job on the repair! In Hawaii, the whole house is framed out of treated material, plywood and all...... Or treat with Termicide, the green smelly stuff.....

Bert_ · Nov 18, 2017

I'm no carpenter so someone please correct me if I missed something but I'm pretty sure you created a hinge in that wall with the way you connected the new section of wall. Or does the plywood stiffen it up enough?

hangfirew8 · Nov 18, 2017

Yes it is all about moisture. Termites can't eat dry wood.

Unfortunately many garages and sheds are built to draw moisture from the ground, not prevent it. End grain on concrete or dirt, no drip edges/clearance on T-111, siding, no inner wall convection, etc.

-HF

Irish Mike · Nov 18, 2017

Bert_ said:
I'm no carpenter so someone please correct me if I missed something but I'm pretty sure you created a hinge in that wall with the way you connected the new section of wall. Or does the plywood stiffen it up enough?

The solid blocking nailed to the existing ply and new ply is sufficient. Both sides blocked with ply top and bottom would be even better.....

timewarp · Nov 18, 2017

Irish Mike said:
The solid blocking nailed to the existing ply and new ply is sufficient. Both sides blocked with ply top and bottom would be even better.....

Even better would have been to run the new lower studs up alongside the existing upper studs (sistering them) rather than creating the joint in the middle of the structure of the wall.

69gp · Nov 18, 2017

timewarp said:
Even better would have been to run the new lower studs up alongside the existing upper studs (sistering them) rather than creating the joint in the middle of the structure of the wall.

This was a bearing wall. I thought that it would be better to make a good bearing surface. Glued screwed and nailed. plywood on both sides of the joint to stiffen it up I dont think its going to go anywhere. On the back wall I did sister the studs in. I will have a few pics of that later today.

69gp · Nov 18, 2017

Bert_ said:
I'm no carpenter so someone please correct me if I missed something but I'm pretty sure you created a hinge in that wall with the way you connected the new section of wall. Or does the plywood stiffen it up enough?

This was a bearing wall. I thought that it would be better to make a good bearing surface. Glued screwed and nailed. plywood on both sides of the joint to stiffen it up I dont think its going to go anywhere

69gp · Nov 18, 2017

AMCguy said:
Wow. I looked at those first few pictures and thought your dad's garage was hopeless. I'm impressed what you have managed to pull off. Great work.

Thanks.

69gp · Nov 18, 2017

Irish Mike said:
Nice job on the repair! In Hawaii, the whole house is framed out of treated material, plywood and all...... Or treat with Termicide, the green smelly stuff.....

Thanks. He did have the soil around the garage treated.

01-7700 · Nov 18, 2017

Nice work and great effort especially since it was not planned.

Jlbc212 · Nov 18, 2017

Termites will eat dry wood, damp wood, pressure treated wood, and even sheet rock and plastic.

Git · Nov 18, 2017

I thought the same thing about the 'hinged wall' when I saw it....

Anyways, I use the 'generic' version of Termidor - Taurus SC and you can buy it on Amazon. We don't have much of a termite problem, but it works great on ants and other bugs in SoCal

Taurus termiticide is a generic version of Termidor SC, with one difference being it’s a little less expensive (around 10%), it does contain the same fipronil 9.1% active ingredient as Termidor SC

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058DGMKG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Amazon also sells Termidor (almost double the price - $73 versus $40)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015X6E0LU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

69gp · Nov 22, 2017

Back wall work included removing the bottom sheets of plywood, cutting all good studs back 15-1/2" and cutting the balance of damaged studs 6" above any sign of the damage.

69gp · Nov 22, 2017

Concrete form work. The concrete forms are only 3.5" thick. The concrete used is a custom blended mix that is incredibility strong. The concrete has a super plasticizer for superior strength.

69gp · Nov 22, 2017

Sill installed, studs in and insulation.

69gp · Nov 22, 2017

Plywood installed on the back wall. The top finish of the back of the garage was done with Texture 111. The bottom edge has seen better days. The damage was from water and not my little carpenter friends. Decided to cut this out and install a trim board here along with a drip edge over the top.

69gp · Nov 22, 2017

Used 12" LP Smartside smooth siding. Matched perfectly to the 12" Masonite. Installed new door. Almost done. Just need to add paint.

01-7700 · Nov 22, 2017

did you say this garage was solar? where is that?

nice job all around

Bert_ · Nov 22, 2017

69gp said:
This was a bearing wall. I thought that it would be better to make a good bearing surface. Glued screwed and nailed. plywood on both sides of the joint to stiffen it up I dont think its going to go anywhere. On the back wall I did sister the studs in. I will have a few pics of that later today.

I'm happy to see other ways to do stuff. The only way I've ever seen it done is to cut the existing stud, cut a stud to fit tightly below the old one, and sister a new board alongside that spans the joint.

davo727 · Nov 22, 2017

I bet Dad is happy.

69gp · Nov 22, 2017

01-7700 said:
did you say this garage was solar? where is that?

nice job all around

The solar system is a passive hot air system. The garage foundation is 4' down with a 3" concrete slab that rest on top of the footing. the void from that slab to the underside of the garage floor is about 3'-6". In that space under the garage slab there are stones of various sizes from say 6" to 20". I know I washed and placed them there with my brothers a long time ago. So the way the system works is there is duct work that goes from the roof down to the bottom of the footing. The war air heats the rocks and retains the heat. This radiates up to the floor. During the winter I don't think it goes below 45 degrees in the winter time. And that is here in New England. Its old school but it works. I used almost the same setup up in a sun room in my house only It has a trombe wall. The stone area below the room is 8'x18' x 4' deep. But I got my wife to wash all the stone for that. With one small fan moving the air around that room does not go below 55 degrees during the winter as long as I do not go longer than 3 days with no sun. The no sun would be from snow building up on the roof windows.

Termites the other Carpenters working on Dad's garage

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