Posted by Bob Rodwell:
I'm told by local pest control service personnel that North Carolina ranks third in the country for having the most termites. And yet I frequently meet home buyers or sellers who do not know the risk that presents. Recently I had a contract on a very nice home in Cary fall apart because of termite damage, ten days before the scheduled close. It was a painful process for all parties involved. That situation highlighted several points that I'll recap here.
1. I've heard there are two kinds of houses: those with termites, and those that will have them. While that's overstated, the point is that we should not expect to be so lucky as to always avoid them.
2. Termite inspections are not generally required when buying a house, but the cost is so low, and the risk so high, I can think of no reason to skip it.
3. But inspections are not fool proof. Unless the home is vacant, it likely has furniture and other items positioned against walls, preventing inspectors from getting total access. In our case, the initial inspection did spot termites, but in only one location, leading us to believe it was a minor infestation. It wasn't. Finding more, later, made a bad situation much worse.
4. Standard treatments, such as those all new homes receive, last for several years, but not indefinitely. We can buy treatment chemicals and devices ourselves. Or we can hire professional pest control companies that offer one-time or ongoing maintenance programs, with annual or more frequent inspections. Some of those companies offer insurance - if the bugs come again while under the program, they retreat for free. Some cover the cost of repairing the damages.
5. And yes, if termites are in the house, there will be damages. And you usually need to tear off some siding or sheetrock or something just to confirm exactly what the extent is - they don't eat out in the open. So even finding out how bad it is, is bad.
6. So besides treating, re-treating, inspecting, and re-inspecting, what to do? Well, when buying a home, or selling one, think about it ahead of time. Sellers who do not have one of those annual maintenance programs might want to get an inspection prior to putting the home on the market. Better to find out early than right before closing! Buyers should ask if the sellers have a maintenance program as those with insurance aspects are typically transferrable. Otherwise, if you want to begin a program, expect to pay first for a full treatment - not cheap.
7. The pros can tell you (and so can library and web resources) how to minimize risk of intrusion by controlling crawlspace moisture content and minimizing cellulose (mulch, paper, wood, etc) near or under your home, and how to recognize their tunnels and other signs. One good thing about our red clay here is that when termites build a tunnel across brick foundations to get to the wood, the tunnels stand out - we shouldn't have lines of clay running up foundations. Kind of hard to spot tunnels in crawl spaces though, especially if you, like me, don't enjoy going in yours much!
Hopefully you won't have any bad experiences with termites - and if any of the above helps you avoid them, that would make be feel better about what we all just went through.