Your Exceptional Life

We’ve all heard about termite reports.  Sometimes they’re called pest reports or just “the termite”.  They are reports completed by licensed professionals after they have inspected a property.  There are limitations to what an inspector can find.  They don’t have X-Ray vision or any super secret tool that discloses the presence of bugs.  They inspect the eaves and if there is a crawl space they’ll crawl under the house to determine if there are any areas of concern down there.  A leaking toilet, tub or sink is an excellent place for critters to find their way into the wood in the home.  Dry rot needs to be corrected.  Termites and beetles need to be exterminated.  Fungus needs to be eradicated.

I like to have my sellers do their termite inspection before the property comes to market.  That way any issues are found and dealt with in the beginning.  If I know there is $12,000 termite damage at a property, I’m going to suggest my client either corrects the problems or adjusts the price to reflect the termite report.  Recently my client found out that there was damage in one of the bathrooms and the floor needed to be replaced.  This is actually common.  The floor will be replaced before this property comes to market.  This will protect my seller from potential buyers muscling the price down because of “unseen” matters.  The termite will be clean on this property when it comes to market.  My seller is protected.

It’s helpful to know what to look for as a homeowner.  When I purchased my home there was $11,000 in termite damage.  In the case of my home that included the presence of subterranean termites in the garage.  I took the property subject to the damage in the bathroom because I was going to remodel anyway.  I asked the seller to deal with the subterranean termites by having a licensed professional treat the property with Timbor or a similar product.  This particular property is pretty wooded.  I have 19 trees here.  Actually 17 now, two have died and I’ve cut them down.  They were both infested with termites.  There are a lot of termites in this neighborhood.

Your termite company will reinspect your property every year for a nominal fee, generally $75.  That’s cheap compared to replacing timber chewed up by bugs or damaged by water leakage.   I had my property reinspected last year and it was clean, however last Sunday I looked up in my garage and saw this.

That is what’s called a “tube”.  Tubes are built by the termites from particles of soil, wood and debris.  I’d seen some debris on my workbench a couple of weeks ago, but I looked up, not forward.  I thought it had come from the roof of the garage.   This house had been treated three years ago and reinspected last year so I knew it was recent.  I immediately called my termite company and asked them to come out.  They’ll be here on Friday.  Then I set out to figuring out what happened.

One of the things the termite company will tell you is to be sure there is no wood to ground contact.  There isn’t at my house. The concrete foundation sets above the ground in all places.  Last night I set about finding the point of entry.  There it is.

That’s what’s called a shelter tube.  That allows the termite access to food as they cross the foundation to the wood of the house.  The good news is because I am diligent in checking my property, I caught these guys quickly.  I painted this house last October and they weren’t there then.  Since October this appeared on the side of the house.

California law does not allow a termite company to come out and treat a property without an inspection.  I’m absolutely certain that this is a termite infestation and the Inspector will arrive here on Friday and say “Yep, them’s termites”, but the State requires an inspection.  Once the inspection is complete, the treatment will occur next week and that will be the end of them for a while at my place.

If you live in an area where these are prevalent, it is imperative that you are vigilant in protecting your home and your investment against termite damage.  The $750 treatment I will pay for is peanuts compared to the damage these pests can do to the home if left unchecked.  It’s one of the easiest ways to save money when it comes to your investment.