Termites & Dirty Stucco

This article first appeared in Ken’s Korner in April, 2008.  I will publish the follow-up article next week.

                So what do termites have to do with dirty stucco you ask?  Actually a lot.  We are talking about subterranean termites here.  They nest and move about in the soil.  Actually, they cannot survive long in fresh air.  They eat, (well that is not the right word but we are not going into that right now) cellulose.  That can be wood, tree roots, etc.  They can actually survive out of the soil if they can get inside wood that is not in the soil.  The wood itself prevents their being exposed to fresh air.  Termites love wood components of house construction, like wall studs, beams, sub floors, etc.  All they need to do is find a way to get into the wood without being exposed to the air.

                Modern home construction methods include ways of building a home that prevents opportunities for termites to get from the ground into the wood components.  Commonly now, house foundations and slabs are poured so that their tops are well above the soil level.  When the wood members are attached to the concrete, they are separated from the soil.  When siding is then attached, the bottom of the siding is well above the level of the soil as well.  This is done whether the siding is wood or stucco or other composite materials. 

                Now here is where the dirty stucco comes in.  People are constantly doing things to improve their houses.  Remodeling, painting, decorating, installing landscaping to make the house look beautiful from the street.  When they change their landscaping, sometimes they don’t realize that they should not build up the soil height to where it contacts the house siding.  This is less of a problem with wood siding since people seem to intuitively know that this is a bad idea.  However, they don’t think the same way about stucco siding.  It is true that termites will not eat stucco.  However, if soil is built up to where it contacts the bottom of the stucco, the termites can then move up through the soil and then up through the point at which the stucco attaches to the wall.  Once they do that,  they are into the wood studs and have a free run of the house wood structure.

                So here is the rule of thumb.  Always keep the soil level at least 6” below the bottom of your house siding.  No matter what kind it is.  This will eliminate one major termite entry route. 

                We will talk more about closing termite entry routes to your house in the next newsletter.