Preston Sandlin of Home Inspection Carolina was recently doing a home inspection in Monroe NC near Charlotte when hw noticed some trouble with the gutter system There are several causes of overflowing gutters. In could be that they are clogged, rusted or leaking at the seams. They might also be loose or sloped the incorrect direction. To find out for sure what the problem might be you need to climb up on a ladder to inspect your gutters.

Overflowing gutters can cause problems worse than just stained siding. The repeated flow of water from overflowing gutters can cause wood siding to rot. A more serious problem can be caused when gutters overflow and water backs up under roofing shingles and flows down inside the wall cavity. Moist conditions like these can also increase the likelihood of termite infestation.

Every homeowner should clean and inspect his or her gutters twice a year: once in late fall and once in the spring. If you cannot do it yourself and cannot afford two cleanings per year, clean your gutters once after the last of the leaves have fallen in late fall. Don’t wait until spring because seeds will have sprouted in the leaves and other organic matter that accumulates in your gutters, which makes them much more difficult to clean.

If you have a single-story house, first use a gutter-cleaning attachment for a leaf blower/vacuum or a wet/dry vacuum. These attachments have a long tube with a U-shaped bend on the end designed to reach into gutters. The ideal time to clean gutters is after a long, dry spell so the debris in the gutters will be dry and more easily sucked into the tube.

Next, climb up on a ladder near the downspout end.
Always have a helper steady the ladder. Move the ladder often and don’t try to reach too far because it is easy to lose your balance.

Wearing gloves to protect your hands from sharp metal or protruding screws clean out the downspout opening and stuff a rag in the opening so debris will not fall into it. A garden trowel works well for scooping out debris.

After you have the gutters cleaned out, remove the rag from the downspout opening. Move the ladder to the other end of the gutter. Flush the gutter with water from a garden hose and observe the flow of the water. It should flow toward the downspout and there should be very little standing water when you turn off the water. Also, check for leaks from beneath the gutters.

If you notice leaky spots, hopefully they are at the seams. You can repair leaking seams with caulk and probably get many more years of service before the gutters need to be replaced. If the leaks are from a non-seam section, the gutters likely need to be replaced.

When water is left standing in the gutter, this means the slope of the gutter is incorrect or it is sagging. Changing the slope is a major job you might not want to tackle yourself. If there is a just a sagging spot, several of the mounting nails have pulled out.

Don’t just drive the nails back into the holes. They may feel tight, but they will pull out during the next rain. Go to your home center and get some long gutter screws made for this purpose. They screw into the old mounting holes and support the gutter. http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com

Charlotte home inspector Preston Sandlin of Home Inspection Carolina found live termite while performing a home inspection in Mint Hill NC. The termites had come up the expansion crack between the slab of the garage and the veneer wall of the crawlspace. There were several tubes. When the inspector pulled the stored items away he found live termites in a box of tiles. Termites come from the ground and return to the ground for moisture. They forage for cellelose material like wood or paper. Termites can squeeze through an area as small as 1/32 of an inch. If you have any questions about termites or home inspection questions, pleasse contact Inspector Preston Sandlin of Home Inspection Carolina at http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com

http://www.charlottenchomeinspector.com Charlotte Home Inspector Preston Sandlin of Home Inspection Carolina recently taught a CE class for the Superior School of Real Estate in Charlotte North Carolina entitled “What’s Bugging You” This is a new elective offered by the Charlotte Real Estate School. It covers the standard NC termite letter or WDIR (Wood Destroying Insect Report) The limitation and implications of the report as it relates to the real estate transaction. They also cover all the wood destroying insects including termites, powder post beetles, old house bores, carpenter ants, and carpenter bees. In this poertion of the class Preston teaches about carpenter ants. http://www.charlottenchomeinspector.com

Subterranean termites live in underground colonies or in moist secluded areas aboveground that can contain up to 2 million members. They build distinctive “mud tubes” to gain access to food sources and to protect themselves from open air. Termite colonies are organized into castes depending on tasks — workers, soldiers and reproductives. The characteristics of a subterranean termite are dependent on the termite’s role in the colony. Cream-colored Worker subterranean termites are 1/8 to 3/8′s of an inch in length. Soldier subterranean termites are of a similar body length, but are distinguished by their powerful mandibles. Solider termites have cream-colored bodies and brown heads. Reproductive subterranean termites are approximately one inch long.

Habits
Subterranean termites live underground and build tunnels, referred to as mud tubes, to reach food sources. Like other termite species, they feed on products containing cellulose. Subterranean termites swarm in the spring — groups of reproductive termites go off to start new colonies.

Habitat
Subterranean termites need contact with the soil to survive and live underground. They can build tunnels through cracks in concrete.

Threats
Subterranean termites are by far the most destructive species. They can collapse a building entirely, meaning possible financial ruin for a homeowner. The hard, saw-toothed jaws of termites work like shears and are able to bite off extremely small fragments of wood, one piece at a time.

Prevention:
Avoid water accumulation near your home’s foundation. Divert water away with properly functioning downspouts, gutters and splash blocks. Reduce humidity in crawl spaces with proper ventilation. Never bury wood scraps or waste lumber in the yard. Most importantly, eliminate wood contact with the soil. Maintain a one-inch gap between the soil and wood portions of the building.

As spring comes it is the time of swarmers. Swarmers are the reproductive termites that come out by the thousands after the first few warm Spring days usually after a rain. This usually freaks people out if it’s inside their house. Ants also have swarmers and the purpose of this video is to show the difference between the swarmer termite and a swarmer ant. In this video Charlotte home inspector Preston Sandlin shows some real termites and a diagram of the differences between ants and termites. The difference begin with the antennae. A termites antennae is curved while an ants antennae has a 90 degree angle. Both are insects and have three body parts but the termites waist is wide making it look like it only has two body parts. An ant has three very distinct body parts. Then there are the wings. A termite has four very long wings 3 times the size of its body while an ant has four wings that are just barely longer than the body and the front wings are longer than the back two. If you have any termite or home inspection questions please go to http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com

Let’s talk about termites in houses with a crawl space. By far the most likely place for termites is the floor joist adjacent to the dirt filled porch or stoop. If you can crawl under your house (preferably with a flash light) Crawl up to the back of the front stoop and pull insulation back if there is any. Look for mud tubes or termite galleries in the wood. (Termites eat the spring wood so it looks like pages of a book when they finish with it). Look for the mud tubes coming from the ground at the porch, foundation, and pier walls. The reason dirt filled porches are hot spots for termites are that it is dirt all the way up to concrete surface. Since termites come from the ground they are in close proximity to the wood (cellulose material). Compound that with the fact that during original construction a lot of builders throw waste wood and food bags here because they know it will be capped off. This gives you a recipe for termites a few years down the road. Make sure you have no wood debris on the ground. Check around the outside perimeter of the house for mud tubes along the foundation wall. If you have a garage, check for mud tubes around the foundation walls. Once inside the house check for swarmer wings around the windows (swarmers usually swarm toward a light source). For more information please visit our website – http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com/

It is important to know a little about termites and how they work. Unlike us, termites work 24 hours a day and they eat 24 hour a day. Termites come from the ground and they have to return to the ground for moisture. The main hub of the colony lives down in the ground and they send up workers to forage for food. They bring the food down to the rest of the colony and regurgitate it to them. I know – yuck! That’s not the half of it – they make protective shelter tubes of mud and their poop. Paris Hilton’s ‘Simple Life’ isn’t sounding so bad now when compared to the life of a termite. They must be doing something right though because they have been around for 55 million years and over 2 billion dollars annually are spent to control them. Termite damage and water damage are always number 1 and 2 on the list of damage to homes annually. Unlike water damage, termite damage is usually not covered by homeowners insurance. This is why it is so important to catch the termites early before they do significant damage. One more thing you should know before I tell you what to look for – termites start out as nymphs. The nymphs will either become a soldier or a reproductive. The nymphs do a majority of the work. You usually will not see these unless you break open a mud tube or some termite infested wood (termites keep their environment totally enclosed). The same goes for the soldiers as well. Soldiers look a lot like the nymphs except they have pinchers on their head to defend the colony against other insects. The reproductives are also called swarmers. These have wings and swarm out by the thousands in the Spring and Fall usually on a warm day following a recent rain. Most of the swarmers will die. They are male and female. Their wings will fall off and the male and female will try to meet and start a new colony. The female will become the queen of this colony. Wings are the tell tell sign of the swarmers. Wings or swarmers outside doesn’t necessarily mean the house is infested, however, if they are inside, chances are good you have an infestation.

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There are many ways the wood on your house can get damaged. If you have damage, Do you know whether its moisture damage, carpenter ant damage, or worst of all, termite damage. Moisture damage leaves a cubicle rot or alligatoring look to it. Carpenter ant damage leaves the wood with a stringy appearance. Carpenter ants only damage wood that already has a high moisture content. Ants of any kind can leave grainy dirt residue (unlike temites who don’t waste anything) Termites shell out the Spring wood. When they finish it looks like pages of a book. The do not leave any grainy dirt. All theirs is mastic and stuck together. Packed Mud and mud tubes are the tale tale signs of termites.

Usually when we find termites on a slab house, it is on one of the perimeter walls. You see termites come fom the ground and the have to return to the ground for moisture. On a slab house the perimer wall baseboard is sitting right on top of an expansion crack that goes right to the ground. The perimeter wall baseboard is usually the first thing to go. Termites can not go through concrete however they can go through a crack in the concrete or adjacent to water piping as long as there is at least 1/64 of an inch. In this video Preston Sandlin of Home Inpection Carolina in Charlotte shows some termites that have come up adjacent to the water pipes. He also shows a live soldier termite. Have you checked your baseboards or pipes lately?

Do you have high moisture in your crawl space? In North Carolina it is considered high moisture if the moisture content of the floor joists or subfloor is 20% or greater. This is considererd condusive conditions for termites and for fungus. There are multiple causes and multiple fixes for high moisture in the crawl. Some are simple and some are complex. The fixes are sometimes inexpensive to very costly. Every house is different. Today I want to talk about one of the simplest reasons for high moisture which also has a very simple and inexpensive fix. This is disconnected dryer vents. I would say about 1 in 8 house in my market, (Charlotte NC, Concord NC, Lake Norman NC, Fort Mill SC) has a diconnected dryer vent. This lets that warm moist air flow freely into your crawl. Fungus and termites love the condition this causes. Have you checked to see if your dryer vent is diconnected lately?