Pre-construction termite treatment - soil or mesh method?

10 years ago

I have two bids for pre-construction termite treatment (prevention). One vendor takes the approach of treating the soil. The other installs a mesh as a physical barrier. Their argument is that the soil treatment deteriorates and is good for 5-7 years at best, while the mesh lasts the lifetime of the structure.

The mesh approach seems to make sense. But I want to put the question out there to anyone who has experience in this area.

Here's some more info about the mesh:
"Termimesh is a marine grade, stainless steel mesh that provides a non-chemical barrier to termites. Designed and built to eliminate the hidden avenues termites use to attack homes." In the quote it says "Installation of TERMI-MESH flanges to all plumbing pipes and electrical conduits that would pierce through the concrete slabs."

Thoughts?

Comments (5)

methoddesigns
10 years ago
I use an internal system that goes through the exterior walls. It looks like a small wire and is run about 6" above the slab. It is a loop that goes to a port on the side of the house. All they have to do is stop out and connect to the port to inject the liquid. It falls to the bottom plate and turns into a powder. No need to be home and let the pest guy in, and there is no mess or toxic chemicals inside or out.
laurie236
10 years ago
I've been really curious about the termimesh product. I've asked the manufacturer for literature and got NADA! That said, it seems like a very logical alternative. The thing I would look at is warranty. Do they offer a guarantee that will cover damage if termites do get in? It's true that soil treatment only lasts so long. I'm all for a mechanical fix over a chemical one, especially since the chemicals are nasty!
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Lara
Original Author
10 years ago
Method - I like the idea of the outside port, thanks for sharing. Not sure that would be cost effective for us though because our exterior wall footprint is pretty large (not a crazy big house, just spread out quite a bit). I have a friend who is also building though, a smaller slab house, and definitely going to tell them about that approach.

Laurie - very good point on the warranty. I'm going to look into that. I don't see anything about the warranty/guarantee on their website. And after seeing this statement on their site, I doubt they have a guarantee: "In order to get in after the Termimesh termite barrier has been installed, termites must expose themselves in their mud-tubes on the outside of the house where they can be detected with a termite inspection." So it looks like they know that termites can still find other ways to get in, just not through the mesh they install.

I'm wondering if it might be better to just do both the mesh AND the soil. The mesh quote was $700-900 and the soil was $1200. So for an extra $1200 it might be wise to do both for a little reassurance. Then again, I'm trying to find ways to reduce my budget. :)
jennybc
10 years ago
We did Boracare, to treat the wood directly. I didn't want to treat the soil (we have small children) and the soil treatment isn't very long lasting.

Jen
Joe Macker
4 years ago
@jennybc Can you please share how the boracare treatment has held up over the years?