Diggin It
Super Star Member
This one needs to get past all the tractor color stuff, who likes who, who believes what and so on.
First thing this morning I went to a part of the house I don't go to everyday. Stepped on a board, heard a noise and knew instantly what it was. Ain't the first rodeo with this issue. Grabbed a hammer and prybar and went to work. Yup. Just exactly what I expected.
This house was built in the late 40s and has loads of issues. This hill is full of them and there is nothing I can do but spot treat. Too costly to go the full route or perimeter treatment every year or so.
That board was a rough cut Oak 2 x 8 that served as the threshold board for what used to be the outside door on the front porch. It was laid over the concrete blocks shown below. Why those blocks weren't filled is a question no one alive today can answer. They WILL be filled solid in the next day or so.
I've since enclosed the old porch and made it another room (with the grey carpet). The wood floor is the old section and main house.
I demo'd enough this morning to find their entry point and find out how far they traveled. That material has all been discarded. The picture below shows the path. If you've never seen it before, you may not know what to look for.
There is NO crawl space or other access under this house. The only vents are a few concrete blocks turned sideways. I wasn't even sure until a few weeks back how much room there was under the floor. I had been hoping to someday cut an access door through the floor to get down there and look around. I finally found out that there is only about 8-10 inches, about the height of a concrete block between the floor joists and dirt. No possibly way for a person to move around.
Going back up to the threshold picture, the red arrow point to the void where the entry path is shown in the other picture. The two yellow arrows point to the ventspace under the floor. Air is moving freely from the outside vents up through those holes.
OK, now the questions:
>> Other than the stuff at big box stores, what can a homeowner buy to treat these devils? I have a Bayer product that killed them on contact this morning. I sprayed as much as I could down into areas I couldn't see into and along some of the wood joints beyond where I found them. Pouring the voids full of concrete will stop future access.
>> How should I refinish the edge around an access/inspection hole? Back to the threshold picture, the green box is where I'm considering cutting the floor now that I can see in there a bit better. I don't need to make it big enough to get through, but just a foot or so, enough to get my head or a camera through to do more of a visual inspection further back. I won't cut the joists, just the rough and finish floor boards. I'm hoping a single circular saw cut will get through and there won't be a wide space left. I know I'll have to add another 2x to support the cut section, But I'm trying to figure out what to do on top for the finish floor.
First thing this morning I went to a part of the house I don't go to everyday. Stepped on a board, heard a noise and knew instantly what it was. Ain't the first rodeo with this issue. Grabbed a hammer and prybar and went to work. Yup. Just exactly what I expected.
This house was built in the late 40s and has loads of issues. This hill is full of them and there is nothing I can do but spot treat. Too costly to go the full route or perimeter treatment every year or so.
That board was a rough cut Oak 2 x 8 that served as the threshold board for what used to be the outside door on the front porch. It was laid over the concrete blocks shown below. Why those blocks weren't filled is a question no one alive today can answer. They WILL be filled solid in the next day or so.
I've since enclosed the old porch and made it another room (with the grey carpet). The wood floor is the old section and main house.
I demo'd enough this morning to find their entry point and find out how far they traveled. That material has all been discarded. The picture below shows the path. If you've never seen it before, you may not know what to look for.
There is NO crawl space or other access under this house. The only vents are a few concrete blocks turned sideways. I wasn't even sure until a few weeks back how much room there was under the floor. I had been hoping to someday cut an access door through the floor to get down there and look around. I finally found out that there is only about 8-10 inches, about the height of a concrete block between the floor joists and dirt. No possibly way for a person to move around.
Going back up to the threshold picture, the red arrow point to the void where the entry path is shown in the other picture. The two yellow arrows point to the ventspace under the floor. Air is moving freely from the outside vents up through those holes.
OK, now the questions:
>> Other than the stuff at big box stores, what can a homeowner buy to treat these devils? I have a Bayer product that killed them on contact this morning. I sprayed as much as I could down into areas I couldn't see into and along some of the wood joints beyond where I found them. Pouring the voids full of concrete will stop future access.
>> How should I refinish the edge around an access/inspection hole? Back to the threshold picture, the green box is where I'm considering cutting the floor now that I can see in there a bit better. I don't need to make it big enough to get through, but just a foot or so, enough to get my head or a camera through to do more of a visual inspection further back. I won't cut the joists, just the rough and finish floor boards. I'm hoping a single circular saw cut will get through and there won't be a wide space left. I know I'll have to add another 2x to support the cut section, But I'm trying to figure out what to do on top for the finish floor.
