Re: Termites
 

I too feel for you with termite infestation. My friend bought a house here in Melbourne and I was around there and a all these little flying ants were flying up as it was a warm night, anyway turned out termites and she had not had an inspection before she bought. When she phoned the pest people they knew the house in fact she found out that most houses in the street were affected with termites as the developers had buried the trees instead of burning them when they subdivided it and therefore they could not locate the nests.

Paving on sand should never cover the membrane of the house if you are on a slab as the termites just go straight through the damp sand into the house.

The pest man told her not to worry I have just come from treating a tree and they asked if it could fall through their top storey they had termites.

We have them in the garden but as we built out own house we got the brickies to make sure that the membrane was wrapped properly around the bottom bricks. They often say "no you don't need to do that" but you do.

I guess it would depend on how chemical sensitive people are whether you wanted to have the house treat and buy it or buy one which does not have termites.

One thing I did learn though if there is concrete paving around a house or paving if the house has been treat you can see the holes where they have put the chemical in as they fill the holes afterwards and its a different colour being newer than the original concrete, or paving.

Unfortunately the sleeper landscaping craze of the seventies and eighties left most areas with termites that is how they got into formerly free areas.

Good luck

Re: Termites
 

I think you mean damp proof course?



The holes in the paving are the first warning sign that there has been a termite hit on the house.

WW

Re: Termites
 

Just a tad! We were wanting to do some renovations in time, just happened a bit quicker than anticipated.
OH used to kid on a friend of ours who also has a queenslander in need of renovation that he lived in a delapidated shed. He didnt take too kindly to the joke - guess the joke is on us now.

Re: Termites
 

It seems we have termites :(

We're in a rental and thankfully the LL was round as soon as we called him - we thought it was damp and he seemed to think so too, but called the pestman along with the plumber just in case.

The pestman says it's definitely termites. If it is, they're eating through a plasterboard wall that is the start of the extension on an old (1930s) brick whaler's cottage. He went under the old wooden floor in the original structure and couldn't find the source. The extension is on a concrete base.

We initially thought it was lizard poo, as it was high up, below a very high windowsill, although the only lizards we see in the house are brought in against their will (pesky cats). However it didn't brush off and seemed to be coming out of the wall, like it had blown. Then my husband hoovered up some dust on the skirting board and put the pipe through the wall so we realised it was a bit of a problem. :blink: Still thought it was damp from either the adjoining bathroom or the flat roof immediately above.

The pest guy is coming later in the week to treat it, and we'll take it from there.

I've just been googling for images of termite damage and I can't find any that look like what we see on the surface of the plasterboard, so am a bit puzzled.

Also concerned for all my Indonesian Teak and Chinese/Tibetan elmwood furniture. :unsure: