Your Home Improvements
Dear Robert,
My husband and I enjoy your column in The Signal very much. Thank you for doing it!
We’ve been battling termites off and on for the last five years in our 22-year old Santa Clarita home. We’ve done spot treatments and a whole house treatment of silica gel powder, but once again, we have a recurrence.
In every case, we’ve only seen termites in our exterior laundry room wall downstairs (seemingly gone now) and the same wall directly upstairs in our master bath.
Since we’ve tried to avoid tenting the house due to the toxicity, and we can only see a localized problem, we’re thinking we should now open up the wall where we’ve seen the problem and 1) see how extensive the damage is 2) focus the treatment directly on the active nest, if we can locate it and 3) repair any damage we find.
Does this seem like a reasonable approach?
My husband does a lot of the work on our house, but this is probably something we’d prefer to have a pro do.
How much can we leave to the termite company (we’re still in the warranty period) and what should we entrust to a contractor? What sort of contractor could best help us?
Thank you in advance for your thoughts! Termites are definitely a problem that can keep a homeowner awake at night!
– J and S O.
Sharon,
Thank you for being one of our readers, feel free to surrender an address and the office will send you a Signal/ IMS coffee mug.
If your husband is this handy, and you have had this ongoing problem, then I would recommend that he open it up and see for yourselves the damage that may be within the walls.
With the open walls you’ll be treating the full area and, as you stated, will be able to see the damage better and be able to treat it better.
Ironically we have a commercial building we are in the process of opening in the south valley and the termites they are finding are unreal. The owner of this building and its tenants had no idea the extensive problem they had.
Most termite companies do quality woodwork, as this is what they do on a daily basis. If they are giving you a bid for the work you might want to entertain it. If not, you can contact BJ Construction here in town, for an estimate.
Unfortunately we don’t do residential in my business, so I am unable to assist directly. Best of luck to you; feel free to reach out again.
Robert Lamoureux has 38 years of experience as a general contractor, with separate licenses in electrical and plumbing contracting. He owns IMS Construction Inc. in Valencia. His opinions are his own, not necessarily those of The Signal. Opinions expressed in this column are not meant to replace the recommendations of a qualified contractor after that contractor has made a thorough visual inspection. Email questions to Robert at robert@imsconstruction.com.