I recently bought a house and discovered active termites—previous owners claimed they had dealt with the issue. I got a pest inspection, but now I have to deal with it myself. I'm concerned about the condition of my sill plates, but I don't want to start tearing down my basement. I had a structural engineer check the entire foundation and he said it looks fine. I'm currently doing some renovations elsewhere in the house and was wondering if there's a way to inspect the sill plates without major demolition. Also, if I'm tearing up tile in another area, will that give me a chance to see them?
1 Answer
You might get lucky when tearing up the tile. Check the spots where you see termite activity; if you can pull the baseboards or cut a bit of drywall, even just a small peek can help. It's actually not hard to patch drywall afterwards! Just be cautious with whatever you decide to cut into.
I feel you on that! Cutting into cedar planks sounds scary. If you really have to see, maybe you could take a look in the ceiling instead? That could save those nice walls.