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Alrighty, welcome back to CPO pest control podcast channel. Today we are talking about Texas Real Estate Wood Destroying Insect reports. That is a mouthful, otherwise known as WDI reports here in the state of Texas, anytime a property is going to exchange hands from one party to the other, Texas financial banks require that parties exchange what is called a wood destroying insect report. And that essentially is protecting the bank because the bank does not want to place an investment on a home that has any risk. And along with a WDI report or other types of reports, there’s stucco reports, and there’s foundation reports. And the banks just want to make sure that there is a proper analysis on this home before a risk assessment is given. So one of those reports, like we said, is the WDI report. And so if you’re listening to this podcast, maybe you’ve had the opportunity to engage with a WDI report or you’re needing a WDI report. Nonetheless, in this episode, I want to talk to you about what we hear what we hear at CPL pest control, do to separate ourselves to ensure that you are getting the best wood Destroying Insect report that is available in the city of Houston.
So what do we do when we’re what what are we looking for in a wood destroying insect report? That is a very important and very unknown question. So a wood destroying insect report is essentially a report that is provided by a pest control company operator technician that analyzes whether or not the structure has any wood destroying insects. So when we think of wood destroying insects, automatically, our minds take us to termites, but there there are different types of termites, and there are other types of wood destroying insects. We have subterranean termites we have for most in termites, we have dry wood termites, we have carpenter ants, we have carpenter bees, we have the wood, boring beetle. There are many different types of wood destroying insects, but the most popular ones here in the city of Houston, and the greater Houston area or the Rio Grande Valley, is termites.
So what are we looking for? So the way we start out our home, you know, home wood Destroying Insect reports, we start on the outside. So if your home sits on a slab, we are vision, we’re walking around, and we’re doing a preliminary inspection on the outside, we are looking for signs of termite activity. And so or signs of other wood destroying insect activity. So very important. One of the things that we’re looking for on this outside inspection is, is the concrete grade, viewable? In other words, can we see that concrete grade, some homeowners get very excited with their landscaping, and they’ll overdo the mulch or they’ll overdo a certain area of the, you know, the landscape. And it then covers that that area are that concrete grade. And now you can’t see that concrete grade. Now that is problematic for a couple of reasons. Number one for the purpose of this episode, it’s problematic because termites connect from the soil up to your building using a mud tube, that mud tube is nine times out of 10 Except you know, exposed on the outside of the home on that concrete grade. So a lot of the times you’ll see and you can check out pictures on our website or on Google that show the mud to connect you from the soil to the building. And it’s right along that concrete. Great. Now the concrete grade is not exposed exposed. We call that a conducive condition. So we’re looking for conducive conditions on the outside. conducive conditions are high soil, high mulch, if there are objects of you know, obscuring the view of the concrete grade, sometimes people will connect another slab right next to the main slab in which the home sits upon, which is a big no no, we begged you not to do that as homeowners because just a huge invitation for termites. Termites can work for months, maybe even years, totally concealed without you ever knowing that there is a problem. And so we’re looking for conducive conditions on the outside, but our inspection is not unlimited. To just the outside of the home, we’re also looking at your trees, dry wood, termites, subterranean termites, Formosan termites, oftentimes, especially for most Termites will go after trees. And so it’s very important that we look whether or not your property maintains a problematic condition on your on your property, that may lead to a problem in the future. So remember, when we’re selling a piece of real estate, we’re not just selling the home, which is 90% of the investment, but we’re also selling the rest of the yard. So it’s very important that when getting a WDI report that the WDI report reflects conditions on the property as well and not just the home because those other conditions can influence a later condition on the home. Like I said, carpenter ants, Formosan, termites, so on and so forth. And so after the inspection has been done on the outside, we then come on the inside, and we use a more detailed inspection to kind of grab a sense of what is going on in between the walls. So visualize with me, if you can, a situation where we have a conducive free home, that means there are no conducive conditions, the entire soil concrete grade, is totally exposed. And we can see from one end of the area, all the way around. And then let’s just for the sake of example, imagine a situation where we see a evidence of subterranean termites there is a subterranean termite tube connecting from the soil upwards into the structure. What we do on the inside is we want to we want to locate where termites could possibly be. So one of the tools that we use on the inside is a thermal infrared camera. The thermal infrared camera allows for us to detect two things heat and moisture. If heat and moisture are present in the present in the same area that is a cooperative, cooperative, meaning it is in supportive of termites being in a certain area. So we use evidence from the outside to cooperate evidence on the inside to accurately describe whether or not we have a problem with the termite. And we’re also using other meters such as moisture meter moisture meters to determine whether or not there’s moisture in the walls. That can also be cooperative evidence of termite and we’re also using a different type of a tool that allows for us to determine whether or not there’s motion going on in between the walls. Obviously, if there’s motion going on in between the walls, that means there’s something moving along inside the walls, which means you have a problem with termites or some other type of wood destroying insect. And so those are just some of the tools that we use on the inside of the house to make sure that we are giving you giving you a full level inspection to ensure that your home does not have a problem with any type of wood destroying insects. And then we go up into the attic, and we do a visual inspection of the attic as well. Now, most addicts already have blown insulation up in the attic, which does obscure the view of the inspector. And a lot of the times we do have to put that on the report. But we do the best that we can to ensure that there are no problems up in the attic. And we spend a great deal of time up in the attic, also to make sure that there are no problems there as well. Now, if your home sits on a pier and beam and your home has a crawlspace it is important that the inspector goes underneath the crawlspace and analyzes each two by six or two by eight that the home is sitting under each beam and each peer to make sure that we’re not having a problem with termites or any other type of wood destroying insect. And so very important that an inspector when performing a wood Destroying Insect report performs a very detailed report. And in the event if something obscures the inspector from being able to inspect your thoroughly that that is detailed on the inspection report as well. And so if you’re listening to this podcast in you are needing a wood destroying insect report, we here at CPL pest control do offer that, like we just described in this episode, I just kind of wanted to give you an idea of what we do to make sure that you are providing a very thorough and clear wood destroying insect report to the seller and to the bank.
And so if you’re listening to this and you’re a real estate agent or you’re a person who’s looking to buy a home, we would love to inspect your home to make sure that your home does not have a problem with termites, or any other type of wood destroying insect. If it does, we’ll talk about what we can do to eliminate them. But first things first, we got to get in there, inspect the home and do our very thorough, detailed inspection. So if you’re in the greater Houston area, that’s Houston Montgomery. county Galveston County Waller County, the entire Greater Houston area or the Rio Grande Valley that’s Hidalgo County, Cameron County, Starr County, Willacy County, give us a call at 281-683-6737. And as always ask for Chris. I have a very special promotion for you. If you ask for Chris, I look forward to speaking with you. Give us a call today and we look forward to helping you out.
