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Damage and repair

Repairing damaged timber before the colony is dealt with is the most expensive mistake in this subject.

Three linked steps. First the colony is treated, because replacing timber while termites are still active only gives them new food in the same place. Second the extent of the damage is assessed, often by opening up areas a visual inspection could not reach, and it is usually larger than first thought. Third the repair happens, and cosmetic damage such as skirting is separated from structural damage to bearers, joists or studs, which needs an engineer's assessment. A warning card below shows what happens if the order is skipped: new timber becomes the next meal and the damage returns in the same spot.
The order is not negotiable. Repairing timber before the colony is dealt with is the most expensive mistake in this subject.

Treatment first, assessment second, repair last

The order is not negotiable, and it is the thing people get wrong under pressure. First the colony is managed, because replacing timber while termites are still active simply gives them new food in the same place. Second the extent is established, which often means opening up areas the visual inspection could not reach. Third the repair is designed and done.

The distinction that governs cost and urgency is cosmetic versus structural. Eaten skirting, architraves, a door jamb or a section of lining are unpleasant but are not holding the house up. Damage to bearers, joists, studs, top and bottom plates, lintels, rafters or roof trusses is structural. And whether it still carries its load is not a judgement to make by eye. That is an engineer's assessment, and on a damaged structural member it is worth having in writing.

What makes assessment hard is exactly what makes termites hard: they eat from the inside out and leave the surface. A stud can look sound, sound hollow when tapped, and be a shell. This is why the extent is nearly always larger than the first estimate, and why an assessment made before anything is opened up should be treated as provisional.

Damaged timber also raises the question of what else is going on, because the conditions that let termites in (persistent damp, poor ventilation, ground contact) are the same conditions that cause fungal decay. And the two are regularly found together in the same subfloor.

Damage guides

Sources

What this page explains is based on these official sources. If you check one and it does not match what you read here, send it to us and the article gets corrected.