damp underfloor, termites and the wife

[looney]

i've got a 7 year old 2 storey townhouse, double brick foundations with single brick from then on up, sloping block, front to back drops about 1 meter over depth of house, the vents were all blocked by the bearers, irregular shape, we got termites which have chewed through some flooring mainly because of damp problems

we back on to a railway which i believe is the worst place to expect termites to be active, the railway runs through a cutting which is 8 - 10 meters lower than us, sloping soil sides with trees and undergrowth

some of the soil base under house is lower that the outside paving at back of house which has allowed water to gather at back of house in the subfloor and at times pool - this area is about 1.2 metres below floor area

we have a basement which takes up a small area of under the house and is about 1 1/2 meters high with a concrete floor and lip up to level of the outside paving level, this area has an automatic pump in a sump with a drain running around the outside, in the corner is a cutaway through the concrete lip for water to drain from rest of sub floor which is all higher, but i don't think is adequate

what we have done so far:

have had a 12 volt fan installed through a vent in the most difficult corner to vent
vents installed all over, maybe 12 in total, mainly double size

we are about to have chemical termite barriers put in but want to make sure we have no more drainage or damp problems and intend to get any work done before hand, by yours truly - ta wife!

so i'm digging an ag-drain right from the cutaway throught the basement's concrete lip the whole width of the house (hell of a job - but hey someone's got do it - down about 800mm max), across the gradient at the bottom of the gradient to catch any water running down this slope, to drain any water that may still come in and stop the problem long term - it will have adequate drop off and be as low as i can get the outlet to the concrete basement area to be, this ag drain will be about 1 meter lower than the outside of the house

at the same time i am lifting level of soil at back of sub floor to the level of the outside paving to stop water pooling there, which it has done in the past

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ok, what i need to know is, am i following thr right course?

with the ag drain, does the pipe just sit on the soil base of trench and then agregate on top, and how much agregate, full depth or partial and then backfilled with soil?

anything else i should consider?

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hard to describe so i have put a pic up



i think i have to add if anyone wants to tell me that self regulation of the building industry works, or that council knows about construction may i say at this juncture that you have sh*t for brains, when is this state - victoria - going to have a 10 year waranty is what i wanna know?

[thebuildingsurv]

Theres a 6.5 year warranty, looks like your out of date. Did you get a pre-purchase inspection of the property b4 you bought it. Have you considered some external drainage on the outside of the wall. Are the pavers graded away from the building. Backfill with just aggregate would be better to collect surface water. You criticize deregulation so i am assuming your criticising private building surveyors yet you criticise council as well, which way do you want it. If people had unlimited warranties on building work then no one would want to build, usually major probs arew detected in the first five years or so, and i guess your place would be no different.

all the best.

[looney]

i'm a mug, no inspection, no excusus there, had 100 year old houses before and the wife was sick of the renovating, so we dumped our mortgage and bought a nearly new one

as for the house, not the only problem, how about a balcony falling into the garage, tiles on a thin concrete base, on interior flooring on interior floor joists running from inside house, i know this cos i found it all out re-doing it, cracks let moister in and it all rotted

or flashing on the roof leaking, not keyed into brickwork

many other small ####ful things

i am working through problems cos it has to be done and moving costs more, and guess what, we were insured with that mob that went down


**Have you considered some external drainage on the outside of the wall **
yes, most of the exterior has concrete paths, rendered to look like pavers, and they do grade away, most of the subfloor is now dry except for the lowest part, we have paving all around house

as for warranties, england has 10 years, seems to not stop them there, and it is the inexperienced that get caught, count me in that, not good enough in my view

how the hell can a builder be expected to fault his own work, and yeah, ours went out of bis and opened up again with a new name

if it works so well how come i have no come back on the basic mistakes and shortcuts used, and if all the major faults come to air in 5 years, why not 10 like other countries, cos if as you say, all the problems would have been evident before that, can't have it both ways

if some proffeessional surveyor looked at this and said ok, he should be liable, that is what he gets paid for, if it takes 10 years for some faults to become evident then why should they not bare some repsonsibility

anyway, didn't want to get into this arguement, just want to get the problem solved

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so best to use agregate for all of the drain, seems logical to me, we were considering an ag drain along front part of house which would mean digging up the paths, but now we have new vents that part now seems dry

not saying i wouldn't do it, just need to know

[Carpenter]

The critical factor with the mighty whitey's is to change the conditions under which they like to exist - make it dry. If you achieve that, you're in with a chance. Also, get a few of the baits put around the house (PVC tube buried in the ground, filled up with yummy termite food. when they show up, in goes the chemmies).
As for the poor building work, it sure is s#!tty for people, but the cheapest quote is gonna get you that sort of quality. Thats how it works these days & until we begin to value quality again, its only going to get worse. Sounds like a lot of work for chippy's in the future!

[arcronet]

I agree with what both the builing surveyer & carpenter said to you I will add a small caution "Run your Ag-line to your nearest stormwater pipe at the lowest point from the start of the Aggy pipe should sit on the earth at the bottom of the trench and be filled with aggy scoria to the top of the trench the high side of the trench should be sloped into the trench itself.

Best of Luck

[bugsy]

Termite baiting is not as easy as some may think.
you are doing the right thing with trying to get rid of the damp conditions under the house first, before any termite treatment.
As this probally caused your termite problems.
Try looking at our site below

[echnidna]

Drainage wise you seem to be on the right track.

[looney]

cheers

have heard baiting isn't all beer and skittles

so dig on fair looney

[silentC]

One thing you need to be aware of - if you are on reactive clay you might get some movement of the footings as it dries out undneath.

Where are they getting in? If the house is only 7 years old there should be some kind of termite barrier. We used Termimesh and the company supplies a 10 year frame warranty.

[looney]

***One thing you need to be aware of - if you are on reactive clay you might get some movement of the footings as it dries out undneath.***

am aware of that, house has not moved one bit so far since new, we got an easement over a main sewerage that runs at the back and i think that they did check up on the foundations and were made to submit and build according to restrictive rules (just guessing), hope so

***Where are they getting in? If the house is only 7 years old there should be some kind of termite barrier. We used Termimesh and the company supplies a 10 year frame warranty.***

is that required in melbourne? how can i check, as i said builder has gone out of bis and no paper work i have mentions anything, as for where they are getting in, i presume from the back where the railway cutting is, have been told they just burrow away under the foundations and they are known for chewing away at the sleepers and moving on to greener pastures

had 3 termite companies check and offer their solutions, going with a mob called gay - i know, odd name, but maybe they're just 'nice' people, once my work is done they are doing the job

[silentC]

is that required in melbourne?

I would imagine so. Don't see why Melbourne would be a special case. As far as I know, all houses built must provide a termite barrier of some sort.

Termites don't like to be out in the open, so if they are getting in, they are either tracking around your barrier (they build little earth tunnels), or there is a covered access point that you don't know about. The first thing to do is to check every inch of the foundation walls and make sure there is no way they can get up into the sub floor without having to come out around your ant capping. Look for gaps between brickwork, or bits of timber in contact with the ground - things like that.

[bugsy]

I would imagine so. Don't see why Melbourne would be a special case. As far as I know, all houses built must provide a termite barrier of some sort.

Termites don't like to be out in the open, so if they are getting in, they are either tracking around your barrier (they build little earth tunnels), or there is a covered access point that you don't know about. The first thing to do is to check every inch of the foundation walls and make sure there is no way they can get up into the sub floor without having to come out around your ant capping. Look for gaps between brickwork, or bits of timber in contact with the ground - things like that.

Unfortunatly, in parts in Melbourne, no pre treatment is required.
This is something we are trying to change.
As for warranties, you must be getting annual termite inspection for any physical barriers installed.
1 place to look is your meter box.
Sometimes a stickers is in there.
One quick treatment you could do untill you fix the drainage and such is, internal baiting.
This is where we place a bait directly onto the activity.
This will serve as colony control and will give you some breathing space until you can get a treatment done.
find a professional at our Aussie pest managers message board

[pedro the swift]

Hi, sorry to hear of all these problems on such a new place. I regard to the aggie pipe and gravel fill, be aware that it can quickly block up with various plant roots and become useless. I had this happen to me after digging a trench round 3/4qtrs of my yard, putting in slotted aggie pipe an filling with gravel overlaid with soil. Lasted about three/ four year and had to dig it all up.

Replaced it with flexible closed pipe and put surface grate drains in particular areas. Water now drains VERY quickly and doesnt clog up.