Termite venting

[mstens]

So this is more of a vent in many ways than a cry for help. I'm renovating pretty much my enire house since well, it needs it and I'm unemployed at the moment so I have time. So yesterday we're demoing my oldest daughters room to furr out the walls and run conduit for more outlets (the house is single brick construction on top of a floating slab) and I find an active [link:thisdysfunctional.org/gallery/album65/DSC00035|termite infestation]. Fortunatley it's just the framing right up against the brick wall. So I tear that out and call the exterminators. All this really doesn't bother me too much. It's far better that I catch it now than later when I gut the bathrooms (adjoining wall) and then have to go back into the rooms and redo the wall. But now I'm stuck waiting for the exterminators till monday without really being able to make any progress because I know they'll drill, but I don't know where so I don't want to block off access for them. I think the enforced wait when I was all geared up and ready to be painting by monday is gonna kill me.

[Super Ry]

MAN THAT SUCKS!

Sorry Mike - wish I new a good pest co. I could tell ya about - hopefully I'll never need one though. I'll give ya a call over the weekend - maybe haveta bring over a couple of beers to help you pass the time till Monday.

[JohnV]

Bummer, since I live in Louisiana I keep a lookout all the time for the little devils. Just so happens this morning I was moving some wood that had been sitting along side my drive way about 6 feet from my garage corner. The bottom board was infested pretty bad. So I started looking at the base of the garage and found that right at the bottom of the face trim. I got out my saw and started cutting. The termites only had eaten up about a foot but had created a mud tunnel up about 4 feet. Fortunately I discovered it when I did and that the ajoining boards were all pressure treated so only the trim piece has to be replaced.

In my part of the country anything that touches the ground (even if that ground is the concrete slab) we use Pressure treated lumber. On the garage door the door opening is always PT also.

In fact in New Orleans Harry Connick Jr. sponsered a Habitat home and required that it be built all out of PT lumber except inside trim etc... Don't know if it was the old stuff or the new stuff.

Good luck with yours, I'm gonna use PT for the new trim. :D
John

Living in "The Sportsman's Paradise".

[Cody Colston]

John,
In the New Orleans area, they not only have the native subterranean termites, but the more destructible Formosan variety as well. I understand that the French Quarter is being progressively eaten away. Those Formosan suckers will even eat up a live tree. Every year, I read articles in the Times Picayune about someone losing a 200 year old live oak to termites.

I see the "swarmers" every spring around my house. Where there's wood on the ground, there's termites. They are actually beneficial that way, as they help return the fallen wood to the soil. It's keeping the voracious little devils out of the house that is the challenge.

Cody

"The man who never made a mistake, never made anything."

[mstens]

Well, I can recommend an exterminator now if ya need one ;) They're coming out Thursday to drill and treat. I got a list of things I have to have done before then, including pulling the tub out of the second bath so that they can treat in there. Fun fun fun. On the positive side it'll be taken care of soon.