Well, most people do not finish their basements. And, those that do, well, I bet many of them go years before they realize they have a termite problem. Then when the problem is bad enough for them to realize it, there is already a lot of damage. I am just trying to be extra special cautious.
I think that the termite problem isn't too bad in most of the state, but for some reason, this little area is seriously infested. If you put anything wood in contact with the ground, the little bastards chew it up big time. When I ripped out the old deck before building the new one, I could see some damage on the wood, which was pressure treated, but about 15 years old. I built a couple of wooden saw horses out of the scraps from the old deck. They sat out in my yard for a couple of seasons. You can see the bottoms of the legs are all chewed up. And like I said, this is pressure treated wood, old, but still it had been treated. We put a half whiskey barrel in the yard for planting some basil. It took one season for the termites to chew it up so badly that when I went to move it the next season, the bottom came out. Really, the best thing for me to do is have the area around the house treated regularly. It will cost but cheaper than repairing a bunch of termite damage. I think part of the problem is that they must have dumped a lot of wood in the fill around here. When I was digging the basement door pit, I dug up several chunks of rotten wood, pretty deep too. The other problem is that there are several derelict garages on the adjacent property and they are termite heaven. The neighbors believe that as long as the termites are eating up the garages, they will stay out of the houses. I don't necessarily believe that. -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: d...@andrew.cmu.edu Tel: (412) 268-9081
