I’m sure I’ll have many questions over the years, but my first one is about pest inspection/treatment and floor repair/replacement.
We have some powder post beetle damage on parts of the floor in the Living Room and adjoining Dining Room. We had a pest inspection done while we were still in escrow but it wasn’t very clear on the estimated repairs on the existing floor.
The existing floor is quite lovely and we’re hoping that it can be saved.
The problem is, the guy who did our escrow inspection has a daughter who is getting married, and he’s probably not available until at least June (we didn’t find this out until after escrow had closed), which is a major blow to our timeline for moving in and coordinating other improvements on the house.
I’m trying to line up some other options for pest treatment and I was hoping to find a company who has some sort of partnership with a floor specialist, and it doesn’t sound like anyone like that is in this area.
Is it such an unreasonable expectation?
It strikes me as a bit absurd for pest specialists to make estimates on what it will cost to make repairs that they don’t perform themselves. It also seems a bit absurd for flooring/construction specialists to be expected to provide estimates for repairing things that have been treated by someone else.
Are we really going to have to engage two separate entities and corral them both at the house at the same time to collaborate just to answer the question of whether the floor can be treated and repaired or whether it needs to be replaced?
What was the result of the pest inspection? Are the powderpost beetles still active or is there just damage?
Is the damage limited to the hardwood flooring? Any structural damage? What is the extent of the damage to the flooring?
Disodìum Octaborate Tetrahydrate is the chemical this particular guy uses.
The issue we’re having is that the guy he recommended for the construction doesn’t seem quite clear on what exactly is ‘as necessary to correct condition’ for a few of these items.
We’re having another pest company come in to do an inspection on Monday. We’re still waiting for an initial bid from the construction contractor we’ve been talking to and letting look things over for the past week.
After consulting with a 2nd pest treatment company, consensus seems to be that within the next year or so we’ll pull up the old floor ( ) in the living room and dining room, treat the subfloor and sub area and put some sort of laminate down. We won’t have the $$ to put down full hardwood floor, and we’ll be living in the house while removing/treating/reinforcing/replacing/sanding/installing the new floors, one room at a time. Sounds like a total blast.
In non-sarcastic fun adventures, over my past few visits I’ve removed most of a couple of sections of wall in the dinky downstairs bathroom to enable a minor expansion for a shower. We’re probably going to have to cram in an oddly shaped custom tile shower and shower pan that will be (mostly) contained in the newly expanded area. Among my discoveries was apparent evidence of either a chain-smoking mouse with a hankering for Salem Menthol soft packs lit by match, or an old mouse nest and someone’s clandestine disposal hiding place for any sign of forbidden smokes.
The bathroom is tucked under the staircase to the 2nd floor, so one wall of the room is constrained with the slant from wall to ceiling. For reasons that defy reason, they slanted the entire length of the bathroom over the tub even though the staircase only extends about 2/3s of the way. This makes the tub virtually impossible for a taller person (I’m 5’10") to use with the crappy old hand-held shower head they have attached to the wall.
I’m sure I’ll be back with some DIY shower tiling questions.
) in the living room and dining room, treat the subfloor and sub area and put some sort of laminate down. We won’t have the $$ to put down full hardwood floor, and we’ll be living in the house while removing/treating/reinforcing/replacing/sanding/installing the new floors, one room at a time. Sounds like a total blast.