Building Inspector : Termites

A building inspector came to check out our house for termites, 'twas fascinating.

He had a stick like a blind persons stick with a big solid ball on the end and he went all through the roof cavity, all rooms and under the house tapping every bit of wood he could see at approx 3-5cm intervals, it took hours.

He had extensions for the stick to reach into awkward and far away places

He told me that here in Gippsland 1 out of every 8 houses he inspects has termite damage - this was quite surprising for me - had no idea they were that common.

To date I have relied upon visual inspections and can see rotten wood because the paint starts to wrinkle slightly or flake away. He told me that by doing this and not the tapping I could have easily missed termites if they were there. He told me they are intuitively able to stay far enough away from painted surfaces to leave an apparently sound looking empty shell.

Also told me they have some sort of collective intelligence and are smart enough not to hollow out every single stud so that the house has a chance of supplying maximum food and shelter right up until its ready to fall over.

He also recommended annual checkups but I reckon I could do all that tapping quite easily.

Am a bit surprised at all this and was wondering what other folk have experienced with building inspections and termites. .............. and ...... good news .... we didnt have any termites.

Bill

Our pest control bloke is a strange coot, uses a large (~18" long) yellow plastic handled screw driver and cocks his head in a funny way when he taps the wood.

We're inner city suburbia and apparently there is a 300m long nest running down the back of all the houses in our block. - various pest control companies have tried multiple times to poison the nest but it's too big. Any attempt at keeping a firewood stash along the back fence lasts a couple of years before they eat it out.

We've had termite attacks on the house twice. The first time was a couple of years after we moved in and I noticed the old dead woody hibiscus plants in the front garden alongside the veranda contained some termites. A few months later the nearby front veranda boards started crumbling where they were almost on top of the soil. I had to replace about 20 boards and dig out about a couple of cubic metres of soil to allow for adequate air circulation. We had a chemical barrier put in after that.

About 10 years later we did a major extension the blighters came up from the back fence area under the brick paving (termite freeways 8 critters wide leading up to the window frame and 8 critters wide going back) and ate out a bay window and rafters above that. I only picked it up because I leant on the outside corner of the bay window and it crumbled like Violet Crumble.

Fortunately we were able to pin this on the builder for building the bay window frame too close to the ground whereas the plans had 2 more courses of bricks above the ground. After this we also got a new chemical barrier put in - no probs since.

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Also told me they have some sort of collective intelligence and are smart enough not to hollow out every single stud so that the house has a chance of supplying maximum food and shelter right up until its ready to fall over.

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Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me. The main reason they hollow out wood leaving the outside of structure intact is so the wood doesn't lose too much moisture and dry out as this makes it harder to eat the wood.

Had a few termite blokes over the years. None of them were the full quid.

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Originally Posted by dubrosa22

Had a few termite blokes over the years. None of them were the full quid.

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The inspector before the current one was a very small woman who had an unfortunate face like a shrunken head. She had a missing front tooth, chain smoked and had a voice like rolling barrel of gravel. Being small she could get into the narrowest of spaces which was needed because one half of our house has stuff all space under the floors. She was extremely cheery and polite, and could prattle on for hours about nothing. She was only in her early 50's when she passed away, I don't know if it was the poisons or the smoking, probably a combo of both, that did her in.

Worked with a guy years ago, who's brother was a pest exterminator.

He told me in confidence, that his brother would spray water instead of chemicals. The customer was none the wiser.

Learn to do the inspections yourself. It’s not rocket science.

There are probably more complaints directed to consumer affairs (or whatever it’s called nowadays) about termite inspections then any other service. I find it difficult to trust them after a few dealings.

Do an inspection every year. Crawl everywhere in your house and test every timber and check every antcap. The main thing is if you find little tunnels made of chewed up timber which you cannot be sure are historical then don’t touch them and don’t break them up. Get outside help at that point.

Prevention is important too. Remove any old timber under the house. Get old tree stumps dug out and don’t leave decaying trees in the ground. Keep everything under your house and outside around the foundations clear and dry as best you can. Look over the fence at your neighbours properties and make sure they don’t have old trees etc standing. We had a rental property with a ratty old forest redgum which eventually attracted termites which spread to our house as well as two neighbours. The neighbours were not very impressed and I admit it Should have been dealt with years before.

Every house we have owned has had termite damage. Usually it’s historical stuff which has been dealt with. Our current house (recently purchased) has active termites, or so the neighbours tell me. Not worried because we’re pulling it down soon. The timbers of the pergola are so riddled with old damage I can pull them apart by hand.

I would think one in eight is a very low estimate - I’m pretty sure here it is one in two.