Your Questions About Termites Damage They Cause
Sharon asks…
Is it termites again?
Last year I had termites and it was evident by holes on the wall and pellets on the floor. Now I am finding tiny holes in the wall that were not there before. They are perfect circles and usually show up in three’s but I dont see any pellet or things like wings that would classify it as termite damage. ANy other bug or environmental condition would cause this?
Well the termite damage was on the window sill and door frames. The holes I have now are on the bedroom walls.
admin answers:
Beetles tend to make slightly larger holes on the way out. If they are termite holes, they will normally be plugged with what looks like mud (but isn’t). Groups of three is unusual but groups of holes are often made when they are getting ready for a flight, so this is not one to be ignored,
Call the company back that did the last lot of work. Hopefully they won’t want to charge you to check.
Nancy asks…
flooring in bedroom buckled?
water damage caused hardwood floors to buckle. the subfloor was eaten up with termites and big holes and dark coloring on the subfloor. landlord’s friends came in to fix it. they are only going to patch the subfloor with the holes and then lay carpet. don’t they have to put flooring under the subfloor. if they put carpet under the subfloor, i would get bugs, etc. coming from the plywood. is this legal.
admin answers:
I think what they are doing is perfectly acceptable. They need to strip off all the bad subfloor and then replace it with new plywood and make sure the joints between the sheets of plywwod are tight. Next should come a carpet pad then the carpet itself. As long as the plywood is nailed off properly and there are no spaces between the sheets, and they’ve gotten rid of any termites, this is a proper fix.
Lisa asks…
FHA legal recourse? What can I do?
Examples of conditions that still require automatic inspection, but not limited to:
Standing water against foundation, or excessively wet basement
Hazardous materials on site
Faulty mechanical systems: electrical, plumbing, or heating
Structural failure: settlement or bulging foundation walls
Examples of conditions that may be of risk to health and safety of occupants or soundness of property that continue to require automatic repair, but are not limited to:
Inadequate access/egress from bedrooms to exterior of home
Leaking or worn out roofs
Structural problems such as foundation damage caused by settlement
Defective paint surfaces in homes built before 1978
Defective exterior paint on homes built after 1978 where finish is unprotected
A. TOPOGRAPHY
(3-2)
Proper topography and site grading can be important elements
in preventing wet basements, damp crawl spaces, erosion of
soils, and overflowing sewage disposal systems. To ensure
proper protection, the appraiser must analyze the
relationship of street grades, floor elevations, and lot
grades. If the foundation or its bearing soils may be
affected by seepage or frost, the dwelling is unacceptable
unless the surface and subsurface water is diverted from the
structures to ensure positive drainage away from the
foundation.
2. Hazards
The property must be free of all known hazards and
adverse conditions that:
o may affect the health and safety of the occupants
o may affect the structural soundness of the
improvements
o may impair the customary use and enjoyment of the
property
These hazards include toxic chemicals, radioactive
materials, other pollution, hazardous activities,
potential damage from soil or other differential ground
movements, ground water, inadequate surface drainage,
flood, erosion, excessive noise and other hazards on or
off site.
4. Drainage
The site must be graded to provide positive drainage
away from the perimeter walls of the dwelling and to
prevent standing water on the site. Signs of
inadequate draining include standing water proximate to
the structure and no mitigation measures such as
gutters or downspouts.
8. Defective Conditions
A property with defective conditions is unacceptable
until the defects or conditions have been remedied and
the probability of further damage eliminated.
Defective conditions include:
o defective construction
o poor workmanship
o evidence of continuing settlement
o excessive dampness
o leakage
o decay
o termites
o other readily observable conditions that impair
the safety, sanitation
The items outlined in VC-7: Structural Conditions, are
meant to alert the appraiser and the lender to the
possibility of defective conditions. These items are
readily identifiable characteristics that could
indicate one of the defective conditions.
9. Ventilation
Natural ventilation of structural space – such as
10. Foundations
All foundations must be adequate to withstand all
normal loads imposed. Stone and brick foundations are
acceptable if they are in good condition. The
appraiser must review the conditions in VC-8 for
evidence of conditions that could indicate safety or
structural deficiencies that may require repair.
12. Roof
The covering must prevent moisture from entering and
must provide reasonable future utility, durability and
economy of maintenance.
14. Heating
Heating must be adequate for healthful and comfortable
The appraiser must note and make a repair requirement
for any health or safety deficiencies as they relate to
the subject property, including:
o broken windows, doors or steps
Peeling interior paint and broken or seriously cracked
plaster or sheetrock require repair and repainting
These are the FHA appraisal rules that I have looked up. This is a long story I don’t have the time to tell but I can prove they lied to me about a bunch of stuff.
The issues here are I have a flooding basement coming in from the foundation. I have seriously damaged plaster walls. I have broken unsafe cement oustide. I do not have gutters. My furnace vent pipe was red tagged my eletric is not up to code. (60 amps maxed out before I got here.) My hot water heater broke withiin 3 months dunno if i Can do anything about that. Therefore I have no hot water or heat. I had a room full of fiberglass pipes and two bats among other oddities from floor to ceiling in the basement when I got here. They did not show me this room when showing me the house and I didn’t see it bc of lighting in basement. There is evidence of continuing settlement as my doors don’t even shut because the doorways are so crooked and the floors as well. The wood is coming up in the kitchen underneath thetile. Just a lot of stuff the l
Oh and my roof had a piece on the ground the day I moved in when they told me i had a good 10 to 20 years left on it HA!
admin answers:
You need to contact an attorney. You may have additional rights in the state that you live in.
Richard asks…
Where would we be without insects?
For example:
the spider taught us how to weave
the ant taught us how to design hills and build tunnels
the cricket taught us how to play the castonets
the centipede taught us how to tap dance
the termite influenced us to make wood glue to repair damage caused by them
the fly influenced us to go fly fishing with sticky paper
the firefly became useful in power outages
bees are the first species to have a honey
Can you think of any?
There really isn’t a category for this kind of stuff, so I put it here.
admin answers:
Einstein said civilization would only last four years without bees. So, I’m guessing we wouldn’t be here without insects. However, I could do without fleas.
Robert asks…
Wouldn’t it be fun to see the following?
Termites and carpenter ants are known to be wood damaging insects.
Just suppose that the carpenter ants do what carpenters do, and that is repair the damaged wood caused by the termites.
Or, maybe they try to, but we don’t know for sure.
Have fun with this one
This question doesn’t really belong in Home and Garden, so it is here. Have fun.
admin answers:
It’s like being in a union, they create work, they do the work, they wreck the work, to create more work. Wow, you have just discovered the insectian mob and union labor interactive community.
You’ve now fallen onto something, perhaps you should put both into an Ant Farm…. See which survives.
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