I was doing some early spring cleaning in the garage today and while doing so, I noticed light coming in from behind a shelf unit. I went to the back of the garage to investigate and I didn't notice anything. I poked at the light with a crowbar and I made a hole in the tar paper siding. I went to the back of the garage and started removing siding around the hole. I was not happy with the result. As far as I can tell not only is the underlying wood paneling damaged but the base board is chewed up as well. I have no idea how much further the wood is damaged as I stopped when I made this mess. I'm having people come out this week to give me estimates as I'm fairly certain that a garage replacement is in order. All this because the jerk two doors down has a carpenter ant infested wood pile he refuses to clean up. On the bright side new garage, on the bad side $$$. For now I nailed plywood over the hole to keep things, like rats, possums, or cats out of the garage.
One more.
that's ridiculous! time to get a petition going around to get that wood pile removed before they start destroying houses!
All the houses around here are brick, which is probably whey they are still standing :hick:.
After you get it all fixed, spray that stuff on the inside and out 2-3 times a year with a good pesticide. Keep at it more faithfully than Mother Theresa on a Sunday afternoon..once they get into your house framing, it's gonna be an expensive fix.
I've been spraying the house for years now because of the neighbor's wood pile. My house is brick but it has wooden floors. I never see them in the house, most likely due to the fact that I'm spraying two times a year. The garage is detached and wood covered with tar paper siding. I probably should have sprayed the garage too, it just never crossed my mind. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to replace the garage. At least the lower 1/3 or so of the garage needs to be replaced, then the whole garage would probably have to be re-sided. All that is going to be about half the price of just replacing the garage. The garage is a 18'X20' garage with a 9' overhead door with a 30" "man size" door next to it. In reality I should probably put up a bigger garage if (as I'm guessing) fixing this one will be about half the cost of a new garage. I just really didn't want to pay for garage repair/a new garage right now. Stupid ants.
hmm.. is there a possibility that your homeowners insurance would cover the damage? :dunno:
I checked. Allstate doesn't cover insect damage. Now if an animal damaged it or it was struck by lightning it would be covered. Ants? No.
Lou, Back when I was with Orkin pest control and from what I remember you are correct Carpenter Ants , Wood boring Bees and or Termite damages are not covered by any kind insurance out there...:poke:
Looks like a bear got into it to me :hick:
If it's localized it might be worth fixing (and it probably is) but if that's seriously widespread I'd be re-building.
If it's of any comfort, Carpenter Ants will not attack wood that's not rotten. As long as the wood in your structure isn't rotting, Carpenter Ants won't be an issue. I'm pretty familiar with these guys. You should also know that Carpenter Ants set up satellite nests. The wood pile might be their main nest, or it might be a satellite nest. There's a good chance that getting rid of that wood pile WON'T get rid of all of them because they already have other nests around.
Well at least I know that I had problems before the ants moved in:hick:.
They were in all of the wood I exposed so at least these boards were starting to rot. They made it into the base board, the wood that is bolted to the concrete pad the garage is on. I'm having someone come out to look at the garage Monday morning and see what has to be doen to fix it. It may not be worth the money to fix the garage as the floor is cracked from front to back as well. The garage was built in May of 1956 so it's almost 56 years old.
If it was a bear it would be covered. Now if a wild bear would show up in the area.......:) Then again I'm pretty sure a wild bear in the middle of the city might pose a problem :hick:.
The inspector who's going to look at it on Monady will hopefully give me a better idea of how wide spread this problem is.
When you fix it use treated wood. If you replace it, use treated wood at least for the base plate and bottom few boards...
I have a similar issue with carpenter bees basically drilling holes in the rafters of my garage.... although not as bad as yours, I feel your pain. Good luck with it.
After going over it to fix this garage it looks like it will need at least:
A new base board on the back wall.
New boards on the lower 4-5 feet of the wall.
The whole garage needs to be resided.
The roof will need to be replaced.
The main garage door needs to be replaced.
All this work will probably run about $5-6K. This is for a 56 year old18'x20' 1.5 car garage. I could build a 22'x22' 2.5 car garage for about $9K. I may be better off, in the long run, spending the extra $3k to replace the garage. Any thoughts?
Be careful of those little s while your woking on it too. Those things are worse than fire ants. I've been bitten by them and they will make you bleed. They frikken hurt.
See what the guy says but I'd count on rebuilding it. Much better off in the long run and you can tweak it a bit. Treated lumber, trusses that allow for storage or if stick building, engineered lumber for rafters (open floor plan).
i'd definitely just go new.. in reality, what's the point in refurbishing something nearly 60 years old, when you can spend an extra 3k to have something brand new, bigger and built to your specs
I think both of you make good points. If I already have a building it would make sense to keep it and upgrade it. Having a garage built to my specs would be nice as well. I should get a better idea on costs to fix or replace the garage tomorrow when some garage people come out to inspect the garage. I'm going to get accurate estimates both ways and then make a decision.
If I rebuilt the garage I'd love a 4 car garage with enough room for a work bench and tools but that would cost $$$$$$. Being that my back yard is 42 feet wide it would also take up the whole yard:hick:.
Honestly, looks more along the lines of water and moisture damage to me. Nature has a nack for survival and the last place worker ants would instinctively live is low to the grass line. Take it from someone who knows,, I live in a cabin and study these s. I know what they do and don't like including bore beatles.
Not to say there may have been a flood or that your in a flood plane but it could be something to investigate all the way around the whole perimeter of the foundation.
It may have started out as water damage but the ants must have moved in at some point. They like to nest in damaged wood. When I was removing the siding I found some piles of wood fiber, which is basically the ant's garbage. I should have gotten a closer picture of the damage but it looks like this (http://myenvirocare.com/pestblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/carpenter_ant_damage.jpg)
Well I had two different companies come out and give me an idea on cost. To reside, replace the roof, garage door, and fix the wood damage on my existing garage (18'x22') is about $9k. To replace the current garage with a new 22'x22' garage is about $10.5K. So for $1.5K more I can fit two cars and a work bench in the garage instead of just two cars. I'm leaning towards rebuilding right now....
Call "the general", if your into metal buildings
I'll have to check into that. I'm not sure if steel garages meet the Chicago building code. If they do it might be an idea.
You knowwww you want more space hehe
Yeah I do. I decided to go with a new construction 22'x22' 2.5 car garage. I'm calling one of the guys who did an estimate tomorrow to set everything up to get it built. I'll just have to store the Thunderbird in my parents garage for a couple of weeks while the new garage gets built. I gave serious thought to a 3 car garage but decided to go with the 2.5. First off is the fact that I couldn't really afford a garage that big. Secondly it would take up way too much of my back yard. I'd like to have enough space to actually use the back yard as opposed to having it taken over by the garage. Besides then I won't have space to put a car on the lawn up on blocks :mullet:.
ROFLMFAO!!! Hey I resemble that remark...... or at least I used to. :mullet: :hick: