All posts in “foundations”

Don’t drill here.

 

We have mentioned before about these post tension slabs, but I wanted to show a different picture than the one posted awhile back.

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So before doing any major work at your home, investigate and use caution. I think it is important to know your property, monthly checks are crucial to understanding and preventing any big problems.

Have you really ever thought about termites?

 

According to the National Pest Management Association termites do about $5 billion in damage each and every year. Are they eating your home and do you know what to look for.

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Subterranean termites enter by way of cracks or foundations here in Arizona. So if you notice soil/dirt/mud trails either outside on the foundation slab, or inside the garage or coming down from the ceilings it’s time to call a Pro.

Why is a termite pretreatment important?

 

Before you build that new home, the builder generally works a deal with a Termite Company to treat the soil beneath the slab is poured. There are lots of things that can go wrong and lets talk about a few.

  1. Scheduling conflicts and nobody shows up for pretreatment, you may or may not know this happens but it does.
  2. The builder uses the cheapest termiticide.
  3. After the builder does all the work and just after the termite company shows up and treats the soil, somebody decides that there are several pipes in the wrong place. Nobody calls the termite company with an update.
  4. After the termite technician treats soil, the building folks or plumbers walk over the product. I can’t tell you how many times this happened to me, I go crazy and they look at me like – who cares.
  5. The concrete people don’t remove all the form boards.
  6. The termite technician measures or calculates the square footage incorrectly.
  7. It was raining or rained very soon thereafter.

I run into various slabs or foundations that bewilder me on why there are termites so quickly into the houses life. Hire a reputable company and don’t fall for scams that sell pretreats for 3 or 4 cents per foot. Use or insist on a quality termiticide, if you use a quality product and company a pretreat should last. I was going to give a approximate number of years but I’m hesitant because of factors including soil, location of US and rainfall or water table heights. In Arizona I would think that a well performed with a quality termiticide  under the slab should last 15 years, the outside maybe, maybe 5  – 7 years. (my opinion)

Photo by PPMA

Photo by PPMA

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