pre-treating heavily eaten floor?


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Old 08-15-18, 02:45 PM
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pre-treating heavily eaten floor?

We pulled up our floor tiles for aesthetic reasons, and unfortunately the ~80-year old floors had been a sumptuous buffet for termites for years. It was all old damage (the house was treated a few years ago according to the seller). So we are going to use the damaged floor as a base and put down new oak flooring over it as per the flooring guy's suggestion.

Is there anything we can do before that to make sure future termites leave our new flooring alone? We asked the flooring guy, and he didn't know of anything.
 
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Old 08-15-18, 09:05 PM
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And this is the same guy that suggested just going over the damaged flooring, please post a picture I just can not imagine this be a great plan.
When's the last time a real exterminator (not the one they said they used) has done an inspection?
The sellers going to tell you anything you want to hear to sell the house, the company that did the first treatment is not going to want to admit they failed if there still there.
What do they consider "it was treated"?
That could mean they sprayed it with bug spray in a can.
 
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Old 08-16-18, 02:19 AM
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Is there anything we can do before that to make sure future termites leave our new flooring alone?
Make sure all the current termites are dead and then remove/replace any wood that is suspect.
 
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Old 08-16-18, 05:08 AM
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Everything depends on the condition of the termite eaten wood. There really isn't anything you can paint on to firm up soft, termite eaten wood. I certainly would not go to the expense of putting down a new floor on top of a damaged subfloor. You'll just end up posting back here saying you had a new floor installed but it's "spongy feeling" and creaks when you walk on it.
 
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Old 08-18-18, 05:59 PM
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Thanks for the responses! We are going to have a termite inspection guy come in to make sure there are no more, I was just curious whether there was something that could be put down between the old floor and the new one to protect the new.

We are not removing the old floor for a couple of reasons. First is expense. Second, parts of the house have original hardwood that is still good, and some future seller (or us, when we are more flush with cash) might want to try to restore it by removing the new flooring and putting down replacement oak planks, and getting rid of it completely seems too permanent. Third, one of the connected rooms had plywood under the tile anyway, so it needed its own new flooring. Fourth, the termite damage is restricted to portions of individual planks, and since they're so narrow and whatever they're lying on is strong enough so that even the termite-eaten floor doesn't creak when we walk on it and there is no give anywhere.

Honestly, if we had the money I'd pay to have the eaten planks restored and the whole thing redone, but it's not just feasible for us right now.

To elaborate further:

* We have ~5 different flooring quotes, and every one of the guys said the termite damage in the visible portion of the floor was old damage, without exception.
* The seller was an old-school military guy who did everything else right, and they disclosed other defects even though in this jurisdiction they weren't legally required to.
* The flooring guy seems competent and has good reviews online.
 
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Old 08-18-18, 06:17 PM
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Sorry but just a really bad plan and most likely will come back to bite you one the butt.
A classic case of pay me now or pay me far more later to do it all over again.
Do it right the first time and never have to do it again.
 
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Old 08-19-18, 05:21 AM
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I disagree with my fellow members on this one. Assuming that the damaged sections have been completely removed of soft and week sections and the remaining is in good shape then use it.

We have ~5 different flooring quotes, and every one of the guys said the termite damage in the visible portion of the floor was old damage, without exception.
You got 5 different contractors who all agree the remaining floor o s solid. I would however, open up another part of the "hidden" section to make sure there is no further damage.
 
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Old 08-19-18, 06:18 AM
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I'm with Norm. None of us can see your floor. The five contractors who looked at your floor are the experts and best to determine if the underlayment is good enough.
 
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Old 08-19-18, 06:26 AM
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pre-treating heavily eaten floor
Maybe the floor isn't as heavily eaten as suggested?? As stated none of us have seen your floor and maybe if the contractors are fine with it - it isn't as bad as we suppose ?
 
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Old 08-19-18, 01:15 PM
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I would want to know more about the previous termite treatment. Here in PA and many other states if not all, it is required that documentation and a rough graph of the treatment/property be made and kept. Also, some companies do give more than one year warranty so you should find out if there is still a warranty or is it possible that you could extend the warranty with an annual payment. Talk to the guy who treated it to see if you could at least get a copy of the treatment diagram. That way you could see if the flooring damage was noted on the graph, therefore it was in fact there at that time as opposed to being more recent.

There may be info in the real estate paperwork that may be helpful regarding the termite issue and treatment.
 
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Old 08-19-18, 07:09 PM
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Thanks again for all the advice! I've attached some pictures to show the problem, one of the worst section of the floor, and one close-up of what the worst of the planks look like (there are only a handful of those that bad). Most of the planks are undamaged. It's an old-fashioned South Florida ranch house, so there is a crawl space underneath the entire house, if that makes a difference. Just to clarify, the 5 flooring guys agreed that the termite damage was old, not that the floor was suitable support for a new one on top (only the guy who took the floor up opined on that).

If money were no object we'd just pull up the bad planks and put down new ones, but it's just not financially feasible, especially given that the house was as-is and there are clearly big expenses coming in the near future for us (for example, the plumbing is all galvanized steel pipes that have been patched and re-patched over the years, there's water coming in through one door frame during rainstorms, and we still have to buy furniture)...Same reason that pulling up the old flooring is just not feasible, especially since we'd risk finding issues with the sub-floor that would require us to put a new one of those down.

The current hardwood floor has a lot of holes but is otherwise rock solid, doesn't creak, and has no sections bowing in, so it looks like it's good as I guess you'd call a second sub-floor right now. Apparently whoever built the house did a very good job of making sure the floor planks were very close to each other and strong.

Termite-wise I'll try to see if there's anything in the documents we have, but honestly the one communication I remember where they talked about the termites was honestly something they weren't required to disclose in the first place.
 
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Old 08-20-18, 02:33 AM
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Personally I'd rip out all the termite damaged wood and install a new plywood [all or in part] IF that meant I no longer had the money for the finished floor, I'd live with the plywood until I could afford new hardwood later.
 
 

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