Termite Inspection Orange County Termite Terry Pest Control

Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, South Orange County, Long Beach Area

Painting or Re-Roofing?

“How To Keep From Wasting Money When You’re Having Your Home Painted, Doing Room Additions Or Putting On A New Roof!”

“A lot of home owners laugh when I mention having a termite inspection done first … Until they lose their butts by learning the hard way!”

    So many homeowners are losing their butts when they have their homes painted, do a room addition of put on a new roof – I can’t believe that no one else is talking about it! Homeowners are losing thousands of dollars and no one seems to care!

Now, I don’t know about you, but I work pretty hard to make a thousand bucks and I personally don’t like to see my money disappear by having to pay someone to do a job twice when it could have been done right the first time! Here are a few examples of how homeowners lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars:

a. Fresh paint can really improve a home’s appearance and help to protect it against moisture damage and termites. Where homeowners get into trouble is that they have their homes painted before they get a termite inspection. Most painters are in a big hurry to get in and finish the job so they just splash paint all over everything, including the infested and rotten wood!

Had a home that I inspected the other day. When I first saw the house, it was freshly painted and looked great. But, when I looked closer, I found over $3,000.00 worth of damaged wood! What did that mean to the poor homeowner? It meant that I was going to remove all of the damaged wood and throw most of his fresh paint job in the trash can when I did the repair work! It also meant that the homeowner would have to hire the painters to come back and do the paint job over again! That is a lot of wasted time of money!

It’s so easy to keep this from happening to you. All you need to do is to have a thorough termite inspection done before you have your home painted. If repairs are needed, you can make arrangements to have them done before you start painting. Why pay twice? Save yourself time and money – Click here to schedule your termite inspection or call me at 949-631-7348.

b. A lot of home sellers do repairs and improvements to their homes when they are preparing them to sell. But, you want to know what’s really sad? It’s sad when someone spends a whole bunch of money and spends a whole bunch of time, only to find out that their work will not pass inspection. I’ve seen some homeowners get real upset when they get bad news like that and let me tell you, it’s not a pretty site!

I saw a good example of this the other day. The homeowner knew that his wood patio deck was shot and that it had to be replaced. So, he grabbed the phone book and called several contractors to give him an estimate. Of course he took the low bid! The deck looked pretty good when the contractor was done. But, the contractor made one HUGE MISTAKE – He set the deck directly on the ground instead of setting it on concrete pads or a foundation. “Why is that such a big deal?”, you ask. It was a big deal because the people buying this home were getting an FHA loan and the folks at FHA said they wouldn’t finance this home unless the deck was pulled out and installed properly on concrete pads or foundation! So, the poor home seller had to pay the contractor to do the job over again! (The contractor said that he didn’t know that FHA wouldn’t allow for wood decks to be set right on the ground. Personally, I don’t accept that excuse. If the contractor would have read the Uniform Building Code or called the local building department, he would have known better!).

c. Is the roof on you home shot and are you going to have it replaced? WARNING! DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT HAVING THIS DONE UNTIL YOU HAVE A THOROUGH TERMITE INSPECTION DONE FIRST! Everyday, home sellers lose thousands of dollars by not taking this advice. “How do they lose money this way?”, you ask. Here’s how;

In my personal experience, if you go out and inspect ten homes that have been recently re-roofed, you’ll find that 9 out of 10 of those new roofs were installed directly over rotten and infested wood! When these homes are sold, the rotten and infested wood will have to be replaced and in some cases, the new roofing will have to be taken back off in order to do the repairs! WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY! THAT MEANS THAT YOU’RE HAVING TO PAY TWICE FOR A JOB THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!

If you are going to put on a new roof, you’ve got to have a thorough termite inspection done on your home, FIRST! When I do the inspection, I always mark areas that need repairs with chalk so that you’ll know exactly what needs to be replaced before the new roof is installed. You can have your roofer do the repairs or we’ll be glad to do them for you. The most important thing here is that you have the work done before the new roof is installed! It is so much easier to do the repairs when the roof is off and labor cost are often cut in half!

NOTE: If your home does have a problem with drywood termites, it’s a great idea to have them treated before you install a new roof. Let’s say that your home has a small infestation of drywood termites, doing treatment while the roof is off often allows greater access for more thorough treatment. On the other hand, if you have the new roof installed and a termite infestation is found, the new roof may have to be taken off to allow access for treatment or you’ll just have to go with a tent fumigation.

NOTE: If your home needs a tent fumigation, it only makes sense that you want to do this before the new roof is installed. You don’t want guys walking all over your new roof? – especially if the new roof is made of fragile metal, tiles or wood shake!

BOTTOM LINE ON ROOFING: You don’t have to take my advice here. You can go ahead, install your new roof and then call for an inspection when your home is in escrow. But, don’t complain when you find out that your new roof has to be taken back off to do the repair work (At an enormous expense!). And, don’t complain when you find out how many of your brand new roof tiles get broken during the fumigation process and how much it’s going to cost you to replace them!

ps: I’m sorry if I seem like I’m coming across too strong when I talk about this subject. But, I’ve heard every excuse that’s ever been written about why homeowners don’t get termite inspections done before they have their homes painted, remodeled of re-roofed. And, none of these excuses matter because they all end up the same way – THE HOMEOWNER GETS SCREWED! I’m only trying to help keep you from losing more of your hard earned money! If you are even thinking about having your home painted, remodeled or re-roofed –

If you’re are doing any painting or re-roofing and are interested in the services offered by Termite Terry please feel free to call us at 949-631-7348 in order to set up an appointment or use our online Order Form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

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