Protection Againsf Termifes

---Houses with Basements

When building, it is easy to protect a house against future damage from subterranean termites. Lumber dealers who can tell their builder customers how to do this, make themselves valuable to these customers and thus better the dealer's chances of getting more business from them. A1l materials needed for protection against termites can be sold by lumber dealers.

Subterranean termites live houses to get food. This food the house is built, the furniture contents.

in the ground and go into may be the r,vood of which in the house, books or other

Our job is to buikl so that termites cannot enter the house-this can be done economically.

We will discuss houses rvith basements, those with crawl spaces and those with concrete slab floors on the ground.

lfouses With Basements

Termites can invade houses with basements by first going into woo'd frames or sills of basement windows that are on ground level and then working their way into adjacent house sills, floor joists, etc.

The bottom of a basernent window sill should be at least six inches above the ground.

The sill and frame of basement lvindows should be of wood pressure-treated with a non-wa"ter type rvood preservative or the heartwood of a naturally termite-resistant wood; or, the sill can be of concrete.

The floor framing of the house should have no direct con- tact with the window frame.

Maintenance consists of keeping below the sill and tearing dorvn any rarely might be built from the ground the window.

Steps and Porches

rate of one-half perm or less on the ground. Lap the joints about four inches (mopping not necessary) and place tight against all rn'alls ancl piers.

Follow the same procedure with breezeways. First remove all sharp stones and pieces of wood off the ground. If the gro,und slopes, place the soil cover sheets shinglewise to run off to the outside any water that gains entrance to the crawl space. Crarvl space must be well drained to keep dry as possible.

Termite Tunnels the earth six inches termite tunnels that to the wood parts of the porch of doing naturally concrete between

Other entrances for subterranean termites into a house with a basement are through tunnels which termites build up on the basernent lvalls on the outside or inside surfaces and through cracks in the walls. It is said they can gcl through masonry cracks as small as l/32 inch.

Another path for termites into a house with a basement is through steps and porches. Here we must protect the steps, the porch and the house.

We start out by making the bottom step of poured concrete or of pressure-treated wood. If the steps go directly to the house with their being no porch, place a non-corroding metal apron or shield between the top step and the house.

If there is a porch the shield is placed between and the house. Figure I illustrates one method this. Supports for steps and porch should be termite resistant w'ood, pressure-treated wood or and there should be at least a two-inch distance the wall and the supports adjacent to the house.

Further protect wood porch against construction of termite tunnels and cracks in supports by use of reinforced cap or shields as outlined below for foundation walls.

If the space belorv the steps or porch is enclosed, lay a rot and termite proof soil cover with a vapor transmission

Protect against entrance through foundation cracks by building basement walls of poured concrete that rvill remain free of cracks and be without porous areas; or by a poured reinforced concrete cap four-inches thick on top of all unit masonry walls, extending entire rvidth and length of walls; or by non'co,rroding metal termite shields placed on foundation vvalls under the wood sill plates, extending full length and wiclth of foundation walls and over all basement windolvs and doors placed in foundation walls. FHA accepts these protective measllres as being adequate. What they do is to force any termites seeking entrance into the house, to attempt to build tunnels up the foundation walls. either on the outside or on the inside surfaces. Either

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