# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  My Can of worms

## micknean

When we bought our house there was some termite damage that we knew of in the front room. So after a couple of years i decided it was time to have a look behind that wall and see how much damage had been done. The termites were active about 15 years ago what i have been able to work out. Below are some progress pics,        All the frame around the window had to be replaced including the lintel and some of the frame on the side. Its amazing how much was eaten out and the frame was still standing.    Looking at the damage at ground zero i saw that the hard wood Bearer and joist in the corner had suffered from being wet to long and was soft and crumbly so i had to replace it.        Stay turned for more progress pics

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## ChunkyCharcoal

WOW :Eek:  
Amazing how they just move in and make themselves at home isn't it? 
Good work on the repair and keep the pics coming! :2thumbsup:

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## leeton

:Eek: Amazing what goes on behind the wall without knowing....great pictures...great job. :2thumbsup:

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## bugsy

it would really pay to get a pest manager out to see what they can do while your floors are up :2thumbsup:

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## micknean

One of the main problems with the house is drainage. The down pipes are to small for the size of the roof, so when you get a heavy rain the gutter over flowed. which isn't to bad but once the water was in front of the house it had no were to go except through the air vent holes for the sub floor ventilation. 
I have started on the front of the house and have manged to stop the water from running under the house. Next i picked up a couple of second hand 12 volt fans along with a solar panel and some ducting. I reconditioned the fans new brushes and have had them running for about 6 months, the ground under the house has dried out a lot.     Over the time that i will update you will see why i call it my can of worms :Biggrin:

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## barney118

Great work, interesting comment on your down pipes. When I used the calculator on the Lysaght site to work out how to do my guttering, if I used their calcs I would have needed 10 down pipes from my roof. The length of the long runs on my gutters are about 17m and I have 2 on each and they cope quite well.
The gutter types are horses for courses, in Qld they have slooted gutters to allow overflow for monsoonal down pours, better to go over the front than behind your walls.
You might look into putting another downpipe in somewhere.

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## autogenous

I see the studwork is hard up against the brickwork? Is this standard practice in the East? 
Damp masonry walls in direct contact with the timber?  :Shock:  
I thought would have been at least 30mm distance between the two?

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## autogenous

What are two series of 4 holes above the bitumen coat DP for?

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## intertd6

The only way your really going fix your damp problem is to keep the external ground level below the under floor ground level & protect that bearer with another turned up DPC under it, the external feature that looks like an engaged pier is pushing moisture internally once hitting DPC level & constantly wetting the bearer.
Regards inter

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## micknean

> I see the studwork is hard up against the brickwork? Is this standard practice in the East?
> thought would have been at least 30mm distance between the two?

  There is clearance between the stud and brick wall, maybe a better camera angle would show it. :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## micknean

> What are two series of 4 holes above the bitumen coat DP for?

  They are vent holes for sub floor ventilation.

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## micknean

> Great work, interesting comment on your down pipes. When I used the calculator on the Lysaght site to work out how to do my guttering, if I used their calcs I would have needed 10 down pipes from my roof. The length of the long runs on my gutters are about 17m and I have 2 on each and they cope quite well.
> The gutter types are horses for courses, in Qld they have slooted gutters to allow overflow for monsoonal down pours, better to go over the front than behind your walls.
> You might look into putting another downpipe in somewhere.

  The guttering is on the  long list of things to replace, The exciting guttering is about 15m long and has 2 down pipes one at each end, they are 50x75mm. The area of of roof is about 100m squared. I plan to replace the gutter with a bigger profile and the down pipe size to  75x100mm, I have also made provision to put an extra down pipe in.

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## autogenous

> They are vent holes for sub floor ventilation.

  Cheers for that. I figured as much. I thought that school of thought had changed in recent times but obviously its very regional dependant where moisture is high. 
Do they put stainless mesh over to keep the crawlies out?

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## Bloss

> The only way your really going fix your damp problem is to keep the external ground level below the under floor ground level & protect that bearer with another turned up DPC under it, the external feature that looks like an engaged pier is pushing moisture internally once hitting DPC level & constantly wetting the bearer.
> Regards inter

   :What he said:  Inter is right - the new section of bearer seems from pics to be sitting directly on the pier with no ant cap or DPC. The two under wall joists at the right of the pics seem to have DPC coming down onto them from the brick work. Maybe it's the camera angle again, but unless you want problems again you need to have at least 30mm air gap between timber and the masonry work and a physical barrier where they have to meet - such as under bearers. 
But good work - it's annoying that it has to be done, but satisfying to get rid of all that damage and get it like new.  :2thumbsup:

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## micknean

A little update on the job, 
I have made use of the missing interior wall to have some path lights installed.
I have put insulation in the walls and fully insulated the hole house only took 34 bags :Shock: .
I have also repaired a floor joist which had been eaten out by the termites fix most of the water problems but i still have a lot of work to do there but for now at least when it rains i don't have a waterfall running under the house.
anyway here are some more pics,

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## micknean

As for the repair job Im doing at the moment there are always add-ons. :Doh:    We have decide to move the main bedroom entrance to give us a bigger built in wardrobe (old 1.5m long New one will be 3.2m Long) It means sacrificing a small amount of space to make the room far more practical. In the process I found some more termite damage :Annoyed:  :Annoyed:  :Annoyed:  
I have bought some NSW spotted gum T & G floor which i will lay in the next couple of weeks. 
These pics are of were the new bedroom entrance is going,    The floor waiting to be layed,  The next is a video of termite damage,

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## micknean

Just some more updated pics of the job.  
Getting ready to lay the floor.

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## micknean



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## sundancewfs

The floors came up a real treat. Lokks like its coming along nicely.

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## leeton

Great job Mick and terrific pics :2thumbsup:

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