I have just purchased an older home in a rural area and I was told that my neighbor had termites in his foundation and I might also have them. Is this something I need to be concerned about?

Peter Frequent
Huntsville, Texas

Water can be an enemy of your foundation, but the termites extending from it are an enemy to your house. These little house eaters may be subletting your basement or crawl space. They are not invited and are not paying any rent, however they sure are helping themselves to dinner. These tenants can also include wood-boring beetles, and other insects.

Termites often cause their damage long before they’re discovered, because they tend to eat wood from within. According to the Insect Exterminating Institutes, termites cause more damage to homes than storms and fires combined. They have been around since the great flood of Noah’s day. They work 24-7 and can have up to a million members per colony. Unless you live in termite-free Alaska, your house has the potential to be termite food; therefore you should have a termite or general bug inspection annually.

If you have had termites and had them eradicated, you now have the fun job of repairing any damage. Cellulose-loving insects can compromise the very posts and beams that hold your house up. They can also munch away on the sill plates, the bottom members of a framed wall that’s attached to the foundation.

Inspect your home for water leaks

Termites need moisture to survive; therefore you need to inspect your home for water leaks and sources both inside and outside of your home. If you have a leaky bath tub in the middle of your house, these subterranean little rascals will tunnel under your slab and help themselves to a drink of water. While they are there they will eat lunch and build themselves  a nice home. Basements and crawl spaces provide termites a nice warm home with plenty to eat. Install vents in your crawl space to keep the moisture down. Outside, seal off all the cracks and gaps that welcome termites. A proper extermination will last at least 5 years, however I recommend that you still call for an annual termite inspection, most companies don’t charge for this service.

After researching  to determine the reason that my foundation was showing a lot of movement, I learned that I had a drainage problem and I corrected it immediately. I also installed an irrigation system to regulate the moisture around the perimeter and now my foundation and house are once again stable. Is there anything else that I should be observing?

Larry Alexander
Jackson, Mississippi

If you have your foundation stabilized and it is no longer moving, you still need to level it. If trim over doors and windows show a definite slant and they don’t function properly, you need to approach this problem head on. Rolling a marble on floors is the classic way to determine where you need to do your leveling work. If you sell your home, you will have to disclose this information to your buyer. If you haven’t corrected this problem, negotiating a selling price would not be in your favor.

Leveling is accomplished with a series of jacks

Leveling a house is serious business. House leveling is accomplished using a series of jacks, so-called because they adjust ‘with a screw mechanism. These jacks have the capacity to lift tons and tons of weight and with them a professional can make the necessary leveling adjustment to your house. The jacks are placed on a firm foundation, such as your basement floor or slab and will push against the floor joists overhead.

Raising a house is a creaking experience as it will creak and stretch as this process is being completed. Over the months and maybe years, your house has adjusted to the ups and downs of the foundation it is resting on. When you level the foundation, what you’re doing is structurally rather traumatic as the house now has to re-adjust to where it started. It will gradually make this adjustment.

Joe Crimmons
Barker, Texas

Joe it is obvious by what you are telling me that moisture is coming up through your slab. Without seeing it, I would say the white power is most likely what is called “efflorescence” and it is generally a sign of alkali coming out of the concrete. Efflorescence is caused when you have moisture mixing with soluble salts and other water dispersive materials and surfacing to your finished concrete and leaving a white substance. Also low temperatures, moist conditions, condensation, rain, dew, and excessive water being added to the surface of fresh concrete to assist troweling can cause this to happen.

Contact a professional in your area

My suggestion is to contact someone in your local area to give you a professional assessment of your problem. If you chose to go on line, be sure you find information that would be pertinent to your city or county. What has been successful in many parts of the country, are sodium silicate sealers. Sodium silicate is used in a water-based mixture to seal the basement walls and floors, and it penetrates up to 4” into the substrate. After penetrating, the sodium silicate reacts with the free lime content of the concrete and you should be good to go.
What is happening with this product is that it is reacting with the sodium silicate and free lime-producing solid crystalline structures that fill the microscopic cracks and pores of the substrate.
Many products on the market are designed for leveling only. You need to find a product that will cure and seal your slab prior to adding a leveling compound. I would suggest you complete this process prior to laying new carpet. It will guess that your house has a musty, mildew odor and that is because over a period of time it is possible for your carpet to gain enough moisture to cause mildew in it. You certainly don’t want to repeat this process with your new carpet.

We all are so busy with life that we think about our foundations about as often as we think about having a root canal,  that is until we observe or feel the big hurt. Like a root canal, foundations don’t get our attention until they cause problems, such as cracked and buckled walls, floors that aren’t level, badly sticking doors, sticking windows, nails coming loose from drywall, cracking drywall, cracks around fireplace, noticeable cracks in bricks and mortar, and so on.

When you observe the slightest one of these signs, don’t hesitate to do the same thing you would do if your tooth is aching, do something about it. If a door or window is sticking, don’t jump to the conclusion that you have a foundation problem. There could be many reasons for this such as the wood may not be completely sealed and is swelling due to a change of seasons. Look for other signs of damage before you assume you have foundation problems.

Settling occurs when the soil under the concrete contracts, expands, or shifts, usually due to a change in water content. If your contractor didn’t assure that the sub-straight was all the same type of soil, there could be a differential in expansion. Some soil is expansive and some collapses, therefore when you have multiply types of soil, you are sure to have problems. Eliminate the water and you usually stop the settling. However, as a rule it is best to keep the moisture content the same around the perimeter of your foundation.

Different parts of the country present different soil conditions. Local builders and architects should make it their business to perform soil tests prior to making foundation sub-straight recommendations. The very best sub-straight is what we call select fill or sandy loam; it is a stable soil that can be 98% compacted making it an excellent pad for your foundation to set on.

Don’t over-react

Sometimes these cracks are a big deal and need to dealt with, but most of the time they are normal behavior. In most cases, these cracks shouldn’t alarm you because they don’t suggest any kind of foundation failure and are normal settling conditions.

Many of the buildings in ancient Rome, Italy were constructed with concrete. The Pantheon is one of them, it was built in 447 BC and is more than 43 meters high. It is constructed of both marble and concrete. New York City would be spread out about a hundred miles in each direction if it weren’t for concrete. What is so amazing,  is that it is a simple mixture of cement, sand, gravel, and water. Concrete is an awesome construction material!

Modern day foundations

Modern day home foundations (in the northern regions; basements) are made of concrete. Wooden forms are built to size along with steel reinforcement and then a wet concrete mix is poured in. It will set up in about 7 hours, depending on the temperature; during the hot summer days. Water is lightly sprayed to keep it cool and not cure too rapidly. It is fully cured in 30 days thereby achieving its maximum strength.

Unlike duct tape, concrete isn’t an absolute miracle material and before you can understand what can go wrong with a foundation, you need a quick lesson in the world of concrete. It can withstand the weight of your house because it has great compression strength, but it’s lacking in tensile strength, which is the ability to withstand longitudinal stress. Think of taking an unsharpened pencil, standing it upright, and trying to break it by pushing down on it (compression). That’s a lot tougher than trying to break it by snapping it in half with your hands (longitudinal stress). To make up for this lack
of tensile strength, rebar (or steel reinforcing bars) is added to concrete foundations.

The Romans also used concrete for constructing over 5,000 miles of roads with a primitive mix of mortar, gravel, coarse sand, hot lime, water, and even animal blood from time to time. Don’t think for a minute that just because it was a primitive mix that is was inferior to modern day concrete; The Pantheon cathedral ceiling was made of concrete and it is a marvel in that it is crack-free.

How often do any of us think about our roofs? Well why should we, unless we’re having a dinner party and rain is dripping onto our plates. That is when we remember how simple it would have been to inspect the roof when it was not raining, and since right now it isn’t raining, we don’t need to fix it since it’s not leaking.

Our parents and grandparents had few choices in roofing materials, but today we have all kinds of exotic compositions available; even sheet metal roofs are gaining in popularity. Nevertheless, roof failure is a given. Even the sturdiest materials, such as slate, cement, and clay tile, will eventually have to replaced (it be may take a few centuries with slate, though), You have to choose what the best material is for you, your house, and certainly your budget. A copper roof looks awesome, but it costs more pennies than most of us can afford.

Making repairs

If this is your situation, it is time to quit evaluating and get busy. If you are a jack-of-all-trades, you might want to replace your roof by yourself or at least make minor repairs. Minor repairs, such as patching or replacing a few shingles, can be done by any homeowner, that is unless your suffer from vertigo. Saying the obvious, it is smart to do the work before the rainy season starts.

As you are inspecting your roof, look for shingles blowing up and down in the wind like the wings of a bird. This is definitely a bad sign, but you probably won’t see anything quite that dramatic. Finding more material granules in the gutters than on the shingles themselves is a more common sign. Each type of roof will show different symptoms of wear and tear.

Types of shingles

Most of the roofs in the world are some type of tile or concrete; most roofs on American homes are covered with asphalt shingles, which are also known as composition shingles. The best are made from fiberglass, asphalt, and mineral or ceramic granules. These shingles are relatively easy to install, long-lasting, and low maintenance. Architectural grade asphalt shingles are thicker and longer-lasting than the standard three-tab shingle, which is the less expensive of the two types.

Problem with wood shingles

The best wood shakes and shingles are usually made from cedar and are a sorry choice for a roofing material in my opinion. Wood is high maintenance (in some climates, it should be cleaned and treated every two to three years) and has mediocre fire resistance. If you don’t believe me, ask the California firefighters who watched house after wood roofed house go up in flames during these past few years of fire outbreaks. Periodically spraying fire-retardant chemicals on wood shake roofs increases their fire resistance only marginally and even then for only a limited period of time. Fire departments and insurance companies like tile, metal, and slate because they don’t burn. Homeowners like them because they’re long-lasting, low-maintenance materials.

You have two types of walls. First you have load-bearing walls which carry the weight of the house above them. These walls are not to be disturbed by a DYI carpenter. You should certainly hire a framing contractor if one of these walls needs to be moved or altered. The next type of wall is known as a partitioned wall. Rather than holding up weight, these walls serve as space dividers. These walls can be removed or altered without changing the integrity of the structure.

A load-bearing wall can be removed or altered, however you must support the joist above with some type of a beam. If this task is not completed properly, the ceiling could immediately come crashing down on your head, but you can be assured that even if this doesn’t happen, over a period of time the ceiling will sag without some added support.

When remodeling, you need to guard against damaging the plumbing and wiring. This can be a very expensive proposition if not handled properly. At your local home improvement store you will find books that give specifications on spacing, recommended loads to be considered and so on. Home improvement is very rewarding if you are careful and play by the “book”. You may even ask “Should I build my own house?” You can do it if you have a little “smarts”, a lot of spare time and a patient wife (or husband).

Painters and wanna-be painters all seem to have their preference, including myself. For years it has been a forgone conclusion that oil-based paints were superior to latex and in cases I think oil still makes the best choice. It’s the more durable of the two, which is why I like to use it on wood trim surfaces. Oil base flows off the brush and levels out much better than latex. This is especially true with glossy or semi-gloss paint. One serious downside with an oil-based paint is that it gives off a toxic odor and can even cause nausea for some people.

Latex paints have made remarkable improvements in recent years and to be honest, most of the time, I use latex paint because it’s easier to clean up and dries much faster. You need to choose a latex paint that contains acrylic resins which are more durable and flexible than the cheaper vinyl ones. This added ingredient makes it easier to paint as it flows on with little effort and provides a lasting surface both for the interior as well as the exterior of your house.

I have a personal friend who is a professional paint contractor; he uses them both. He will use the more durable, smoother-finished oil base paints for trim and doors; then follows up with latex on the walls. The most popular wall finish is a satin or eggshell finish. That little sheen offers the best cleanability. A semi-gloss latex will give you an even harder surface and flat will give you the least hard surface.

Keep helpful painting tips in your procedures by using oil base on wood trim and doors and latex on the walls. This way you get the best of both worlds.

Replacing your windows may not always be necessary or practical. Storm or magnetic windows, weather-stripping, and caulking can improve their energy efficiency. If your wooden windows are rotting, or maybe the mechanism is worn out or outdated, then you should consider replacing them. Nationwide we spend over 10 billion a year on replacement windows creating a very competitive market for you to take advantage of.

If you want to change the size, location, or number of windows then you can take advantage of a more energy efficient window. Another reason would be if you observe a white haze that builds up between the layers of one of your thermopane windows; this is moisture and a sure sign that the seal has failed.

Replacing your windows can run from $300.00 to $1,500.00 per opening. There is a time when you have to wonder if it is prudent to invest in your old windows especially when new ones will automatically have three, four, or even five time the energy efficiency.

Here are several tips on knowing when you should replace your windows:

• Are your windows more than twenty-five year old?
• Do your double-hung windows have to be propped up with a stick?
• If you feel soft spots around the exterior, this is probably the first stage of rot.
• If you hold a candle around the interior perimeter, does it flicker?
• If you have thermopane windows and you detect moisture, the seal is broken.

If at least three of these conditions exist, it is time to start the process of replacement or magnetic windows. You want to hire a contractor not only based on price but on reputation as well. A replacement window is only as good as its installation. A poor installation job will turn old leaky, drafty windows in to new leaky, drafty windows.

Another solution is magnetic windows for an old house, because if your home does not have a good resale value,  it won’t be prudent to invest a lot of money in it that you will not be able to recover.

Gone are the days of the 3 to 7 GPF as the 1.6 GPF has become the new mandated standard. The old dependable toilets that used water like a broken dam are a thing of the past. In 1992 Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act calling for a new standard that we’ll live with forever. This is really not a bad thing because not only will it help conserve our environment, it could save an average household as much as $50 to $100 a year on water and waste-water bills.

The original models didn’t save as much water as expected and customer complaints were many. The biggest problem was flushing two or three times to do what one flush used to do. This is not exactly what the conservationist and Congress had in mind.

The city of San Francisco had a real odor problem because the water flow wasn’t adequate to push the waste through the system fast enough causing a stinky sludge to build up in the sewers; it was kind of a rotten-egg smell wafting through areas of the city, especially during summer. The city had to spend millions on a concentrated bleach to combat the sewer odor and disinfect treated water before it could be dumped into San Francisco Bay.
Water saving toilet have improved with new and updated products.

Now some of the new plumbing products work better than the old water wasters. If you buy a cheap builder’s model, you may need to learn how to use a toilet plunger. Or you may even prefer to spend up to $1,500.00 for a high style, new, efficient toilet. There are a number of very  practical, efficient and attractive toilets that you can buy for around $400.00; and that is what I have purchased for my own home. I looks great and works perfectly!