Three weeks ago on August 31st, I made a post here that described a floor collapse at one of my rental properties and you asked for an update. I have that update now.

Yesterday my handyman and his helper went in and removed the entire hardwood floor, sub-floor and all floor joists in that one 12 x13 bedroom where the floor joist had detached itself from the rim joist. This detachment happened on just one side of the room. Cause of the collapse was termite damage but there was no active termite infestation going on there. No live termites were seen but the destruction they did many years ago (before I was the owner) was obvious. Yesterday, my handyman checked all of the remaining floor joist in other adjacent rooms and those joist seem to be still solid. He bangs on them with a hammer.

Today 3/4 inch T&G plywood will go down on all new floor joists and vinyl planks on top of that. Should be finished by late this afternoon.

That is what I know for now.

Whew,

the rest of us are all glad that

it ended up being,

"it is what it is",

Hey Roy... I too am glad to hear it was a relatively minor fix and not a sinkhole or collapsing foundation. Those are horribly expensive! Last time I got a quote it was $12,000 to lift the house and reset the foundation on 8 concrete piers that went down to bedrock. This was for a $25,000 house. Ugh! I left it "as it" with a bowed foundation and put in some 4 ton jacks on concrete blocks. For about $200 plus a couple hours of my handyman's labor the crisis was averted.

I've had 1 or 2 properties that had some terminate damage, but it was just around one window or along one beam. We treated and made repairs before the issues got bad. Back when I was still buying residential rentals, I'd send my handyman down to crawl under the house. For an hour's labor charge, he'd tell me about all leaks, dry rot, termite tunnels, etc. Then if it was an MLS listed property I'd bargain with the Sellers for $1000s in sale price reduction, because once we informed them of the issues, they were then liable to disclose. Only MLS listed deals was this enforceable: off market deals are the wild west, as always, and only the person's integrity enforced anything. But we got those so cheap it didn't really matter.

Glad to hear you got the issue resolved. That's a stalwart tenant to hold out with a collapsed floor!

We don't low' no termites up here.

However, we've got carpenter ants and I know of a place where there were actual mushrooms growing on the floor joists under the house. (All the floor joists were compromised by fungus and many had mushrooms growing on them). It was a mess and reduced the value of the house (about an 1800 square foot place only about 10 years old on 7.5 acres) to only $15000). It was a bank owned place when I saw it. (I passed on buying it as the repairs were too much for me).

Still though, I might have just bought it and demo'd the place, then put on a nice doublewide and maybe split the lot into 2 or 3 and add extra units on those lots).

Sid,

In May of 2018, I paid $5K for his house and as the old saying goes,...'I got what I paid for'. As you know, when you buy old houses (75 years plus), you are buying 'old problems' that may bite you some day. I will continue to buy house like this but only at $5K though or maybe $6K due to inflation.

We have many hungry termites around here, too.

Therefore, any House on a crawl will be thoroughly inspected for them before I buy it.

And I always treat to prevent them after purchase and renovation.

I've seen some so bad that entire walls were crumbling, from the sill plate up.

It's amazing the damage they can do!

DJ,

I had major termite damage in a tenants bathroom/bedroom area. The tenant refused to relocate (Sleep) anywhere but in her bed! No compromise was good enough for her. So the tenant got an attorney to put her demands in writing. The Housing department was also called in. They did not know what they wanted but I think it was money for the inconvenience.

In short, the unit next door was vacant. So I cut a doorway between the units and left access to the neighboring Bedroom and Bathroom -- the other rooms were boarded off. We took everything from the tenants bedroom and moved it into the other bedroom.

So now the tenant had access to her bed. This way I could take my time to treat the termite damaged wood. Remove what was necessary, reinforce the foundation an/or add pier blocks. Install new floor joist. Install a new subfloor and hardwood flooring.

Only had termite damage in Pa once. It took $1,200 to treat and they were gone.

Ray N PA