Termite Treatment under Decks - United Exterminating Company

If your deck has boards parallel with your house, your removal job may be simpler. You might only have to remove the first few boards out from the structure. Otherwise, as in the deck pictured below, you'll have to cut a good deal of the boards to allow access. Since this is obviously a problem, and we need to get to the entire area, we advised the homeowner to remove a clear path rather than just removing selected boards.

It's not difficult, but it takes some forethought. Strike a line, use a saw to cut the deck boards along the supports, make sure you number each board so they go back together right. Then install a nailer on the supports to accept SCREWS (no nails) to re-fasten the old deck boards. You use screws because there's a distinct possibility that you'll have to go in there again, whether it's for termites or something else. Don't make it difficult to get back in, make it easy.

This house originally had a patio slab (not removed nor broken up) extending from the far end of the sliding doors right up to the foreground under the windows. Years later, the deck was expanded to what is shown here. This deck was approximately 12 years old at the time this picture was taken. On the original termite treatment, only the boards near the back door were removed, at the customer's request. Problems surfaced again, after a couple of years, so it was decided to treat the entire area by removing the deck boards.

Then, when the deck was expanded, the steps and slab were left in situ, and some six inches of coarse gravel spread over a plastic vapor barrier and bare ground. A small step immediately in front of the door is barely visible. Much of the block wall is also not visible or accessible because the cleat, used to support the house end of the deck, hides the block foundations right on down to grade level.

I stopped by a few days after everything was complete, to take a picture of the repaired deck. The carpenter was able to use most of the old deck boards, but had to replace a few that were too difficult to work with.

Our treatment was affected by Termidor termiticide. (We LOVE this stuff!)

This is the same deck, almost 8 years later. You can see that after a couple of coats of stain you can hardly tell the new from the old. Naturally, you can still see the seam where the deck was opened. There have been no further termite problems at this property.