bz268

If I ask the contractor to knock down all the exterior walls and repair
whatever that is eaten, Do you know how much this will cost me?

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

Could you be a little more specific? Can you give us some background on why you want to tear your house down?

bz268

My house is 80 years old. and the termite has been eating up my house for a long time.

They already finished eating my garage. (yes, it came down.) So, I have to build a new garage. And I did.

The next step is to fix my house. I knock down an interior wall and see that the woods are gone. Yum!!! I really hate the constrator who built my garage. So, it is time to ask for some opinions here.

ric

It depends entirely on how much damage they have done. If your house dates to 80 years ago, the chances are that the wood structure has a redundancy factor of between two and three, which is to say that the termites could destroy between half and two-thirds of a beam or stud before it is in danger of structurally failing.

That said, given the pervasiveness of the damage, you really need some forensic work done by a contractor working on fee, not an estimate, to do selective demolition work (drilling holes selectively and consistently) and then seeing the damage with a flashlight and wood picks....... Your damage may be pervasive (if the floor moves when you walk on it, walls wobble when you lean on them) or you may be better off than you think.

Once you have a sense as to the real amount of damage, then you can figure out the best course of action. Given the real estate market at the moment, you should be able to interview two or three contractrs, and ASK FOR REFERENCES - and then, call the references.

MR1

^^ Also, might be able to have the termites killed by having the house covered (tented) and then they fog the inside. Find out what you are looking at before you start destorying things that you may be able to save. Just because the garage has to go does not mean that the house is in the same shape. Much better to pay a professional than to gues and waste lots of money.

California has a lot of termite activity. Be aware that even if you get rid of them, they could come back at any time.

bz268

This is my plan. The house does not have any isolation. So, I am thinking to put isolation. I know for sure that the damages are around the windows and door, and the kichen and bathroom... and the porch. And since I want to put isolation... why not just knock down all the exterior wall and fix the wood at the same time... if I have enough $$$, why not replacing all the windows too.

I want to know if any of you guys be in my situration like this. And give me some opinion.

Well.. it is a old house (older than any of us). The ideal solution is to just knock it down and build a new one of course. But I don't have that kind of $$$ but the major problem is that I don't have another place to stay.

This nail down to just fixing it as much as possible. And I am not worry about the house will come down or like that since it has been standing there for over 80 years. My logic is that if the earthquarks over the last 80 years didn't shake it down, it should be ok.

csmeance

shouldn't you able to kock down the sheetrock on the inside and expose all the wood beams? If so, why not just pull one old one out and stick a new one in, then nail/screw it down, after done framing, put in some better insulation and cover it all back up with new sheetrock.

bz268

Lack of skill to do this. It is not a small job.