Termites or Rot???

[DanP]

I have a pergola built in oregon that the past owner obviously didn't paint till the beams had started to crack, but one of the beams has just about turned to powder and several others are not looking too healty. I live an an area with high numbers of termites. Questions are:

1. Is oregon susceptible to termites?

2. Looking at the pics (sorry about the quality), do you think I might have termites or rot?

Base of post. rest of post is fine. Just the bottom 10 inches is stuffed.

Dan.

[DanP]

The damage goes right through the beam for about half its height and along its entire length of about 20 ft.

[DanP]

Same beam other end. Really bad pic sorry.

[craigb]

Can't really tell from your piccies, sorry.

The easiest way to tell if the damage was done by termites is to check for the 'mud' trails that the little buggers leave behind.

Hope thats some help.

[silentC]

1. Is oregon susceptible to termites?

Yes it is. I had a shed with an oregon frame and they did attack it. There are a few species of termites though: some like hardwood, some like softwood and I think their diets are mutually exclusive. Best thing to do is get an inspection done and find out which ones you have active in your area.

It doesn't look like termite damage but it's fairly easy to tell. If it is, the inside of the beam will have tunnels gouged out of it. Termites don't like open air, so they wont eat the outside of the timber. This is why they're hard to detect because they eat the timber from the inside out, leaving a thin shell that looks normal from the outside.

Oregon is also susceptible to rot, which might be what you have there.

[DanP]

Here's a slightly better pic. I think I'll have to get it inspected though. This pergola joins the house and I would prefer to rip down the pergola than have them get into the house.

Dan

[silentC]

Now that looks like termite damage but it might not be.

If you've got active termites in the area I'd recommend you get an inspection at least once a year. We get ours inspected every 6 months. Our place has been hit - fortunately no structural damage to the main part of the house. There was a flat underneath which we completely ripped out because the little buggers were using it as a highway up into the house. Now I've got my workshop there, so every story has a good ending.

[texas]

The last picture doesn't look like termites to me. I had a beam similarly affected and the pest inspector told me it was a borer of some sort (I had though it was rot). Termite damage will generally leave you with paper-like remnants of wood with channels or vein like grooves that run along the direction of the grain.

[ozwinner]

Originally posted by silentC
Now that looks like termite damage but it might not be.

There was a flat underneath which we completely ripped out because the little buggers were using it as a highway up into the house. Now I've got my workshop there, so every story has a good ending.

Is that the story that you told the missus..........good one.

[silentC]

They'll believe anything you dish up, as long as it sounds plausible

We were going to convert the single car garage next to the workshop into a family room but I convinced her that it would be cheaper to go up a storey, what with all the drainage and weatherproofing problems plus lining the walls and the ceiling and tiling the floor etc. Now my workshop is twice as big as it was before

[glenn k]

From that last pic it is certainly rotten. Termites eat tunnels, do a cross grain cut and see if there holes. It may have termites aswell. If you are going to get someone to spray for termites watch what they use chlordane? think thats how you spell it was baned ~15 years ago in the US an in Australia shortly after but they were allowed to use what they had stockpilled which was all they had in the US before hand ( only Aus & India and other 3rd World countries used it). I think its all gone now but I have heard of houses that have chlorinated hydrocarbon levels well above World Health Organisations safe levels after 3 spays. The cure is to build a new house or wait 20 years.
Some people trap termites bait them and let them go home, this kills the nest rather than the few that get sprayed. One goverment employee has or had an experimental permit to bait termites via a 1" cube of poisoned pine, he said he had never seen them eat more than 1/2 before the nest is dead then you take it to the next site. I suspect that this doen't use enough product so may never be used.
Sorry I just hate what chemical companies do to the planet to earn money.

[DanP]

Glenn,

I think it is rot. The tops of the beams are not painted and the rotten part is all in the top half of the beam. Also, I have ripped the beam to bits and can't find a single ant. I'm hoping anyway. Either way the pergola has to go but i'm hoping it's not ants as they may be into the house.

Dan

[bitingmidge]

Probably trying to diagnose damage like this over the internet is rot!!!

Oregon is about as durable in our climate as an ice cream, which coincidentally is what termites think it is!

Last year I used some left over 25 x 50 oregon battens (painted) as stakes for profiles on some house extensions, and in three weeks the pieces underground had been chewed completely away, and the inside bits for about 300mm up them as well.

I reckon that if there were termites, you'd see 'em!

Cheers,

P

[Gumby]

Hi Dan. I had a problem with termites in the carprt posts. Yours looks more like rot to me and if it was termites, you'd see them a soon as you cut the post. Also, as has been said, they eat from the inside. I didnt realise they were in mine until the caroprt got slowly lower. The post went straight into the concrete and they were eating it from the bottom. I solved that by putting in a new post on a styrup. They hate sunlight so if the post isnt directly in the ground it will be fine. Termiites absolutely love oregon by the way. It's a gormet meal for them. Also Oregon wont stand being in the weather so you may want to use treated pine instead - which termites definitely don't like !

[glenn k]

Also termites come up from the ground so the damage would be at the bottom.