Termites are very secretive and can often cause significant damage before they are noticed. Annual termite inspections are essential to spot the signs of termite activity on your property. If they have found their way into the house the inspection will also detect the early signs of damage before their activity becomes extensive and very expensive to fix.
But in addition to having annual inspections, it’s helpful for homeowners to also know the signs of termite damage.
To know what to look for, it’s important to understand how termite eat wood.
How do termites eat wood?
Termites can easily dehydrate and die – they need a moist, warm environment to survive and thrive. They also need protection from predators. So, when they find a potential food source, if they need to come above ground, they build mud shelter tubes for protection. When they build these mud tubes their activity is relatively easy to detect. Sometimes they can access the food source directly from underground and they will chew up into the wood, without being noticed. Either way, when they start consuming the wood, they eat it from the inside out and will always leave a thin veneer of wood on the outside of the wood to keep the environment inside the wood nice and humid, and protect themselves from predators.
They are really good structural engineers! As they eat the wood, they will often replace the wood will moist, mud workings, which maintains the strength of the wood. Often structural timbers will keep their integrity even when almost completely destroyed, due to the mud brought in by termites. But eventually the timber becomes so weakened it does collapse, which is when the homeowners often realise they have a serious problem. If the mud dries out, which can happen if the termites leave the area, the timber will lose structural integrity and therefore collapse sooner.
Top 6 Signs of Termite Damage:
- Termite mudding
Obvious termite mudding in the form of mud tubes or sheets of mudding on exposed surfaces shows that termites are very active in the area and are damaging wood.
- Mud spots
Sometimes only small spots of mudding may be visible on wood or plasterboard walls. These are areas where the termites have broken through the protective surface veneer and have used some mud to plug the hole.
- Ripples on paintwork or uneven layers on plasterboard walls.
As termites get to work on the wood underneath paint, it causes ripples in the paintwork – they leave the paint layer in place for protection. Termites will often chew through plasterboard to access the wood studs in the wall but will also eat some of the paper that covers the plasterboard outer layer. Although they will still leave a protective layer of paper in place, with the plasterboard removed underneath, the outer paper layer subsides creating an uneven surface.
- Windows and doors not closing
As termites start to eat the door and window frames, and architraves, their structural integrity starts to diminish, and they ‘drop’ – the window and door frames are no longer square, and the doors and windows don’t open or close properly. Window and door frames can ‘drop’ for reasons other than a termite attack, but it is still worth getting them checked out.
- Bouncy / spongy floorboards
When termites attack the floor joists or floorboards themselves, they become spongy or start to move when walked on. Movement in floorboard scan also be caused by subsidence / supporting piers ‘dropping’, but whatever the reason, spongy floorboards should be investigated.
- Bowed roof timbers
When termite damage has become extensive in roofing or ceiling timbers, the timbers will start to drop – there will be a visible bow in the roof or ceiling. At this point there is clearly significant damage, but it’s important to spot, so action can be taken before the roof or ceiling collapses, or someone enters the roof void and falls through the ceiling!
The bottom line is that termite damage can be very difficult to spot. In many cases homeowners don’t realise their home is under attack until something happens – like their foot goes through the floor! Regular termite inspections and a termite treatment to provide long-term protection are the best way to prevent a termite attack, but knowing the signs of termite damage is also important. It can mean the difference between dealing with the termites when they’ve only done a small amount versus having damage so extensive that the house needs to be demolished!
If you a spot any potential termite activity or damage, take action immediately and give Termite VIC a call for a professional termite inspection.