OT termite question

[1930artdeco]

This is slightly off topic so if it needs to be deleted that is fine.

I gutted my room and found old termite damage. Is there anything to treat the wood with that needs to be done before rewalling? My house is made of redwood and the damage is at least 30 years old.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Highbeam]

No bugs, nothing to kill. Is the structure still sound?

 

[1930artdeco]

A far as I can tell it is. I will test it tonight when I get home. They hit the crown 2x4's in between my room's ceiling and the attic. So I don't have the $$$$$$$$$$$ to fix it if it is bad. In that case I am up the Amazon with no floatation system at all.

Mike

 

[Kevin54]

Take an ice pick and start jabbing the 2x's. If the ice pick goes all of the way through, then you will need to add some new 2x's in.

How do you know that the damage is 30 years old and not recent?

And if there is no serious damage, then you don't have to do anything, as long as you know how old the damage is. But for safety's sake, I would get periodic termite treatment done to the house.

 

[rlitman]

First off, you want to be sure there is no current activity.
You can look for frass, listen with a stethoscope, or use bait stations.

Any wood that is eaten should either be replaced, or sistered to be sure the structure is sound. I'd be sure to replace with pressure treated lumber, and use hot dip galvanized nails (because pressure treated is corrosive). You can also spray existing wood with something like Timbor.

Poke around with an ice pick, or a screwdriver. Check everywhere.

If you can gut the room, and re-rock it, you have the skills to cheaply fix this issue.

 

[Casey69]

definitely check to make sure there's no current activity. treating the place with everything exposed gives the exterminator a lot more leeway in applying treatment. the stuff they have out now (termidor?) is supposed to be great.

did you seen any activity when you removed the wallboard? termites look like little maggots & i saw them a few times when working on my house. they'd quickly burrow themselves back into the wood though.

 

[Dale1962]

termidor is very good. check to see if any mud is in the wood and if its wet then you may have active ones. I inspected a house for termites once, poked the baseboard with a knife. about 3 ft of paint fell off in the shape of the baseboard, no wood left just paint. I used to work for terminix doing termite work.

 

[1930artdeco]

I did some poking around and found out a few things:

1) They hit the lathe more than the structural timbers.
2) The crown 2x4's have some damage but are structurally sound-thankfully!
3) The corner 2x4's at the bottom have to be cut out and swapped. Only about three feet worth.

So, is there anything I can treat the wood with (over the counter wise) or do I need to call out an exterminator for those chemicals? Here are some pics of the damage.

 

[Bear]

You can get generic Termidor here
http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/taurus-sc-insecticide

 

[southalabama]

All the research I did pointed to Termidor or the equivalent listed above.

As I recall it has some strong fumes

 

[Angelfire]

I discovered I had termite damage around the window openings of my home when I did a remodel. They are horrible in NM. Anyway, did quite a lot of research and what I found was the Termidor/Phantom/etc... products are good for between 6-10 years. They typically are placed into the ground around the foundation of your home. Termites cross this and carry the poison back to their colony and it is destroyed. I did this as a preslab treatment for the addition and around all the stem walls. For wood/studs/etc...a borate solution is typically used. I went with a product called Bora Thor I believe with is a generic version. You want something with borate and glycol to it penetrates the wood better. Treat everything up to about 2' off the slab. All the products had good directions on mixing ratios, how to apply, etc... In my mind, a treatment with a borate solution on your structural wood would be the course of action while you have the walls opened up, followed by an application of Termidor/Phantom/etc (buy the generics..much cheaper!)... around the exterior.

 

[JakeKohl]

I did some poking around and found out a few things:

1) They hit the lathe more than the structural timbers.
2) The crown 2x4's have some damage but are structurally sound-thankfully!
3) The corner 2x4's at the bottom have to be cut out and swapped. Only about three feet worth.

So, is there anything I can treat the wood with (over the counter wise) or do I need to call out an exterminator for those chemicals? Here are some pics of the damage.

The lathe is probably spruce which is candy to them. My old house has spruce molding and I once had them boiling out (just pre-flight) of some molding behind a curtain on an old sliding glass door where I couldn't see it. I had to duct tape the molding to stem the tide and keep them from over-running the house. Fortunately, in this case, my house is concrete block and brick and the only wood I have is in the window and door casings.

Fun story; I had several extermination companies come look at it. Terminex wanted to screw poisoned wood to my molding and let the termites take it back to the nest...then put bait stations around the house and for me to pay them an annual monitoring fee. This is a nice business plan for them but not me. Besides that, it wasn't proactive enough - I had duct tape on my molding and I wanted the bugs gone now. On a second sales call when I wasn't home, they were talking to my wife. When she dismissed their push by pointing out that our house was concrete, they attempted to scare her by suggesting that if we didn't treat the termites their way, they could get into the kitchen cabinets. Her response was classic: "Look dude, I'm already getting a new set of french doors thanks to these termites, they can have at those old cabinets too".

I ended up using a guy that opened up a number of holes every few feet in my exterior brick around the entire perimeter of my house. They then pumped in gallons of termidor in each hole and patched them back up. The termites were dead and gone almost immediately.

 

[Standard Gas&Oil]

All the research I did pointed to Termidor or the equivalent listed above.

As I recall it has some strong fumes

I own a pest control company, Termidor is actually odorless. If you want it treated right have a professional inject the areas with Termidor with a foam injection system. Save a copy of your invoice incase you sell your home in future proving that it was professionally treated otherwise during a home inspection the inspector will call for it to be treated by a state license pest control operator.

 

[GRX]

I own a pest control company, Termidor is actually odorless. If you want it treated right have a professional inject the areas with Termidor with a foam injection system. Save a copy of your invoice incase you sell your home in future proving that it was professionally treated otherwise during a home inspection the inspector will call for it to be treated by a state license pest control operator.

^^ Good advice. Dealing with a termite issue in my home as I type this and all you said rings true with my recent personal experiences.

 

[b-body-bob]

Sorry for kicking this old thread back up, but can anyone offer advice on how to tell if there's current activity when a nest is found?

I bought a distressed property and found that termites have made a party out of the door and related framing. It's all opened up now and I want to ensure they are dead dead dead before I put in fresh tasty new wood and close it back up