Wood-to-Soil Contact: Why It Keeps Showing Up on Your Report
If your termite report has a Section 2 list, there is a good chance the phrase“wood-to-earth contact” or “faulty grade” appears on it. It is the most commonconducive condition we record, and the one homeowners are most likely to dismiss. It is also, more often than not, the reason the house had a problem in […]
How to Read the Diagram on Your Termite Report
Most people read the findings list and skip the sketch. That is backwards. Thediagram is what turns a list of observations into a map of your house, and itanswers the question the list cannot: where. The short answer The diagram is a simple floor plan of the structure with each finding marked bya number that […]
The Signs of Termites Most Bay Area Homeowners Miss
Termites are quiet. There is no noise, no smell in most cases, and no visibleinsect for years at a time. By the time something is obvious, the colony hasusually been established for a while. The signs exist. They are just small, and they sit in places nobody looks. The short answer Look for small pellet […]
Dry Rot or Termite Damage? How to Tell Them Apart
A homeowner pushes a screwdriver into a deck post and it sinks in. The wood issoft, dark, and crumbling. The first thought is almost always termites. Often it is not. And the distinction matters, because the two problems havedifferent causes, different fixes, and different odds of coming back. The short answer Dry rot is a […]
Drywood or Subterranean? How to Tell Which Termite You Have
Before anyone can tell you what a treatment will cost, they have to establishwhat is living in your house. The two species common in this area behave sodifferently that almost nothing about the response is shared between them. The good news: the signs they leave are distinct enough that you can often makea reasonable guess […]
Who Pays for Termite Work When a House Sells?
This is the question that turns a technical document into a negotiation. Thereport arrives, everyone reads the total, and the conversation immediatelybecomes about who is writing the check. The short answer Convention in California is that the seller covers Section 1 items and thebuyer takes on Section 2. But that is custom, not law. Who […]
Section 1 Clearance: What It Is and When Your Lender Will Ask for One
You have a termite report. Someone in the transaction — the lender, the listingagent, the buyer’s agent — has asked for a “clearance” or a “certification.” Itis not the same document as the report, and the difference causes a lot oflast-minute confusion. The short answer A Section 1 clearance is a document stating that the […]
Why Termite Treatment Is Different in an Eichler Home
If you own an Eichler in Mountain View, Palo Alto or Sunnyvale, there issomething under your floor that changes how termite work has to be done, and alot of homeowners do not know it is there until someone proposes drilling. The short answer Many Eichler homes were built with radiant heating: hot water pipes embeddedinside […]
Fumigation or Orange Oil? How the Treatment Decision Actually Gets Made
Homeowners usually arrive at this question already leaning one way. Fumigationsounds drastic — a tent over the house, three days somewhere else, everything inbags. Orange oil sounds reasonable — a plant extract, no evacuation, done in anafternoon. That instinct is understandable, and it is the wrong place to start. The choiceis not really between two […]
Section 1 vs Section 2: What Your Termite Report Actually Says
If you are buying or selling a home in California, a termite report will land onyour desk at some point. It will be several pages long, it will have a diagramof the house with numbered areas, and somewhere in it every finding will belabeled either Section 1 or Section 2. That label is the part […]
