cutting off termite control

[xxx]

G'day everyone, i came across this forum recently and think it's awesome. Lots of good posts and lots of good answers

I'm wondering if anyone can advise me about trimming off ant capping (not sure if this the right term?) around a fibro building. I want to get the old fibro rendered but there is a some ant capping around the perimeter of the building which sticks out about 20mm.

One guy who quoted for the render job said it's ok to cut it off with an angle grinder flush with the wall before the render is applied. He says they'd probably still have to put an expansion joint where it used to be. I hope my attachment works ok so you can see what i mean. The ant capping is between about 2-3 layers of brick and the fibro section.

Thanks for any advice,

Mark

[Ian007]

dude not a good idea.
its meant to make termites go around the obstruction and therfore easy to spot there mud trails.
if you remove this barrier you may well invite trouble.
sorry if this puts a damper on your plans

regards Ian

[ozwinner]

Yeah, what Ian said.

We dont realy get termites here, but I wouldnt remove it even if it was insatalled.

Al

[soundman]

A little warning.

see where the end of the ant capping meets the abutting wall ( i assume its some form of extension)

there is a mortar line comming up from the ground to mett the END of the ant capping.

Watch this area like a hawk.
white ants run up the outside (or inside) and arround the end of the ant capping (dinner).

Had a problem just like that at my mums place. got it in time.

[Bob Willson]

Had a problem like that at my place last week. Didn't get it in time. $1K :mad:

[xxx]

Thanks for the replies.

Here's a pic of the building from the outside. It's a block of 5 units and appears to be an old Queenslander (yellow fibro) with a brick veneer extension. This is where the mortar join is soundman. I've been told the render will require an expansion joint here.

There has been a problem with termites in this building in the past but they're all gone now (i hope). The only damage was to some of the window frames.
I realise antcaps don't prevent them... just slows them down and lets you see their entry point as Ian007 mentioned. But i would have thought rendering over it is ok because the render will also provide a barrier and allow me to see any mud trails.

I guess my aim is to tie the whole building together to make it more presentable. The cheapest option i could think of was just spraying the whole thing one colour. The problem with rendering it is that i've got reveals on the brick section but have got wooden frames on the fibro section. I was thinking of using some type of moulding (like Hebel) to put around the windows and try and blend them all together.

[soundman]

Why not just paint it.
Its a block of flats, not the tajh mahl.
preasure cleaner, painters couple days... beautifull.

A sad render job can look real sus.

[journeyman Mick]

Render will not provide a barrier, if anything it will provide the termites with a shield as they can tunnel up behind it. Not easy for them, but not impossible. If you've had previous termite attacks you will have more. It's near impossible to permanently rid an area of termites, what you need to do is make it very difficult for them to get into your building and make them very visible if they do.

Mick