www.homeinspectioncarolina.com While at a home in Charlotte, NC Patrick Waddell found widespread termite damage in the house. Termites love to come up through the foundation wall and the concrete slab on stem wall foundations. They find the soft baseboard and start to eat there. They will work their way around the room often eating up to 1 away from the paint. Once they are done with that wood they will typically move into the walls and the framing. If you or someone you know needs a home inspection, please call us at 704-542-6575 www.askthecharlotteinspector.com
www.homeinspectioncarolina.com Let’s talk about termites in houses with a crawl space. By far the most likely place for termites is the floor joist adjacent to the dirt filled porch or stoop. If you can crawl under your house (preferably with a flash light) Crawl up to the back of the front stoop and pull insulation back if there is any. Look for mud tubes or termite galleries in the wood. (Termites eat the spring wood so it looks like pages of a book when they finish with it). Look for the mud tubes coming from the ground at the porch, foundation, and pier walls. The reason dirt filled porches are hot spots for termites are that it is dirt all the way up to concrete surface. Since termites come from the ground they are in close proximity to the wood (cellulose material). Compound that with the fact that during original construction a lot of builders throw waste wood and food bags here because they know it will be capped off. This gives you a recipe for termites a few years down the road. Make sure you have no wood debris on the ground. Check around the outside perimeter of the house for mud tubes along the foundation wall. If you have a garage, check for mud tubes around the foundation walls. Once inside the house check for swarmer wings around the windows (swarmers usually swarm toward a light source). www.homeinspectioncarolina.com
This is how effective the Bulwark product’s are. This is the morning after one treatment. Carpenter ant colonies contain mass numbers. Many products are useless in fighting carpenter ants due to their high sensitivity to chemicals.
www.charlottenchomeinspector.com Charlotte Home Inspector Preston Sandlin of Home Inspection Carolina recently taught a CE class for the Superior School of Real Estate in Charlotte North Carolina entitled “What’s Bugging You” This is a new elective offered by the Charlotte Real Estate School. It covers the standard NC termite letter or WDIR (Wood Destroying Insect Report) The limitation and implications of the report as it relates to the real estate transaction. They also cover all the wood destroying insects including termites, powder post beetles, old house bores, carpenter ants, and carpenter bees. In this poertion of the class Preston teaches about carpenter ants. http
Mail this post
