This Phoenix home is block construction, but subterranean termites went nuts on the wood baseboards. Every room of the house had chewed up baseboards. The owner must have been hard of hearing and had poor eyesight. How do you not see this?
The eaves are rotted too.
The wrong kind of paint was used throughout the house. Add some moisture and you’re gonna have peeling paint. This is the kitchen.
This is the bathroom.
8 responses so far ↓
1 maria // Mar 19, 2010 at 12:10 pm
So what about that one termite? Why wouldn’t he recommend it? The wood wasn’t to his taste, maybe? Just curious.
2 Leif // Mar 19, 2010 at 12:21 pm
The wood was too cheap for his tastes. He’s a wood snob.
3 jantana // Mar 19, 2010 at 12:57 pm
In Phoenix there are only two types of houses, don’t you know?
Those with termites and
Those without them, YET!
Building material does not seem to matter.
4 Leif // Mar 19, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Jantana, you are so right.
I just added a new category today: Termite Damage. You can click on it and see other past termite posts.
5 cregazw // Mar 19, 2010 at 7:48 pm
I got termites last summer. 2004 home.
6 VWgal // Mar 19, 2010 at 9:09 pm
My friends house got them and they took over so quickly, just gotta take care of the situation asap and hold on to your paper work. My goodness, what a pain in the tush to deal with, but it’s just like Jantana said.
7 Kat // Mar 20, 2010 at 8:46 am
We were putting a New Kitchen /Media room addition onto a home in the area. The homeowner kept insisting on Bamboo floors and we were telling her “No, not a good idea, the termites, not good over cement slab. I would have the HVAC guys move that drain far away from the house and new addition.” Nope. She had to have it “her way.” Needless to say, the baseboard, the bamboo floor, kitchen cabinets were getting feasted on within weeks. Everything had termites. They were crawling up the window screens like a black curtain. Millions of wings everywhere. The flooring was buckling up because of the HVAC drain. The new slab was sucking that water up like a sponge.
MOLD invaded the entire house the moment we started ripping up the bamboo.
Guys in white suits had to be called in.
We got paid for that job 3x’s over.
The homeowners comments “I should have listened.” DUH!!!
8 Jill // Mar 21, 2010 at 8:48 pm
As for the peeling paint, The surfaces have never been properly cleaned before repainting. It is a lot of work, but definitelymore satisfying than having to scrape, wash and repaint again. Remember that the kitchen and the bathroom don’t only have just water attacking the surfaces, but the body grime plus the water in the bath are terrible. The kitchen grease plus water are also a disaster.
Please remember, when painting, it’s not just the painting that takes the time, it’s the prep work that you do that makes it successful. Wash walls, scrape off old paint and if it keeps falling off, you don’t have a good surface to work with, if you have years of accumulated paint, you may turn a day long project to a 2 week one.
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