Termites!!

Hi All,

Our new/old house has a section of beautiful existing jarrah flooring - sadly this morning I've found evidence of existing termite damage - two of the boards are eaten through. I can't see any live ants and the house is about 50 years old so could have been like that forever but I'm a little concerned as the whole house is timber.

In your experience, am I going to have to tear the house apart to find out how extensive the damage may be?

How possible is it to find out damage in a non-invasive way?

 

Get a pest report done, was one done at purchase?

They may no longer be active. the inspector will have a good look around and also check if they use any heat gun searching gizmo's - they can scan walls to look for activity in the cavities and under floors (not concrete slabs)

 

Yes I did get one done at purchase, it came back clear but it was a pretty crap report.

 

I've been in the same situation with my latest PPOR purchase.

Pest report reported no active termites but completely missed on an area where i kinda noticed the floor was a bit dipped under the existing tenant's fridge location. They used a dog and some high tech gadgets back then.
I didn't take much notice of it until i started doing work on the kitchen floors.
Apparently the fridge was leaking water and the termites liked it but moved on after leak was fixed.

Floorborads has been changed since then so hopefully that will be the extent of your troubles, just a few floorboards!

 

Thermal imaging is the way to go (apparently). Linky

 

Im hopeful you have only found an isolated spot of damage that may or may not be termite caused.
As Rolf said, Jarrah is a naturally resistant timber species.

Get it checked out for any further damage though.
Some houses can have resistant types and non-resistant types of timber in them, and termites can cross the line a bit before going back to the "tastier" timber.

 

Yeah, I don't know about termites not liking Jarrah!!! Had them in Jarrah twice. They usually head up and make a mud track. You can see bubbling under paint. Had them up a Jarrah door frame on two different houses. Every time I've had them inside a home there has been a leak - bath, hws, and a downpipe with a hole in it.

 

Here is some Jarrah. Still a bit of termite mud track in centre.

 

Have uncovered termite damage on more than One occasion. The first time I was like you, worried that the whole house would be infested and about to fall down. Feedback from pest control guys is that in Queensland particularly every third or so house that is older probably have some termite damage.

Get a reliable pest control company out to do a thorough inspection and necessary treatment. Chances are good that it is local damage only requiring some cosmetic repairs only.

 

That's very reassuring - WA is the same, termites everywhere.

 

Are your stumps brick, limestone or wood? Generally termites don't get into floorboards too much if you have brick or limestone stumps. They generally like some kind of wood to climb to get to the floorboards.

 

That part of the house is the upper level and the base is brick, but there are timber stumps with caps on the other end of the house.

 

They will eat anything if hungry enough.
On one of the islands (Hayman maybe) they ate the centre out of a treated pine stump to get to the better food !
Looks like they were tracking to get somewhere else....

 

As others have mentioned, get a competent pest inspection done and consider any treatment remedies as appropriate.

Our home was clear when done pre-purchase and some three years later activity was detected. Full chemical barrier was installed after the areas of activity were treated.

 

Go get a better inspection THEN report back to your original inspector and make them pay for the treatment.

 

They have so many legal disclaimers!!

 

Jess, they are not as scary as banks/bankers.....no where near as damaging or persistant, I would not be too concerned.