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Termites and Tucson Homes

May 13, 2010 | By Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Tucson Homes Explained 

Termites are pretty much a fact of life for Tucson homes.  The question isn’t *if* you’ll have termites, the question is *when.*

But don’t let that scare you too much.  Since everyone has the same problem, it isn’t alarming to find evidence of termites in a home, and we have lots of ways of dealing with termite issues.  As long as the termites haven’t been allowed to run rampant for years, things are pretty easy to fix.

I wrote about how to spot termites in your home earlier. 

With older homes, you’ll nearly always see evidence of treatment.  Have your inspector carefully check the foundation and crawl spaces overhead – even brick houses have termites.  They can come up through small cracks in the slab, especially near where the plumbing pokes through the foundation, or in-between the original house and an addition.

With newer Tucson homes, the ground under the slab was probably treated before the the slab was poured.  That treatment typically comes with a 5 year warranty – sometimes there’s record of that treatment on a sticker in the electric box, but not always.  That treatment doesn’t mean termites can’t appear in the first 5 years – it just means they’re less likely and that you have a company to call if you do find an infestation.

You can search for previous termite reports on your house at the Office of Pest Management, though online records only go back 10 years.

Best bet is to always keep your home under warranty for termites.  If you ever sell, your buyer will almost certainly demand a warranty

photo by chokingsun via Flickr, CreativeCommons

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