The crew working on the Durban house found that 3 of the window frames need to be completely replaced as they have been eaten by termites. Thank goodness the roof beams were treated and may need more treatment after seeing this, but fingers crossed those are fine. This could have been a budget breaker if it was throughout and looks to be only 3 entire window frames that have been eaten.
Durban is a sub tropical climate so you have to be aware of this type of stuff and I would have thought the tenants would have noticed this as this is not something you are likely to miss. This is just being vigilant and using common sense that this is not normal and this should have been raised a long time ago.
This has not just happened and has been done awhile ago from the looks of things and if you had opened a window or cleaned the window you would know immediately. Once the guys started sanding they knew immediately as there was nothing there and it was a crust being the outer layer with everything else underneath eaten away and gone.
This is not something you are expecting to find and luckily I have extra in the kitty for such instances. I was thinking if I had gone with the local handy man who was seriously expensive what would the final bill be as he would get a company to come and replace this charging myself a service fee for facilitating this.
My crew will be measuring up the frames which the hope is they are a standard size and not custom so they will be easily obtainable and a quick fix. I have been looking around to at least have an idea of pricing and it is not too bad and could have been far worse. There goes another $600 and we move on to the next if there are going to be any and I am crossing my fingers and toes there are nothing major. This was a big enough issue and seriously disappointed in the tenants as this should have been raised long before now. Do they not open their windows or clean them because any pressure on the window and you would feel that the frame is not solid.
The upside is all the other frames are in perfect order and only 3 need replacing.
My guy overseeing the work must have panicked as these photographs came through after midnight and have reassured him he is doing a great job and he is appreciated for the work he is doing. Luckily he has the skills on the crew to do this type of work and this will set them back by a day.
Lets say I will never have tenants again and this was not planned as we were forced into this situation looking after an elderly family member. The house would have been sold 15 years ago already and this is what we are dealing with now and I have not even seen the house and relied on family members to keep me updated which rarely happened besides the burst water pipes or storm damage reports. The house was basically costing us money each month even though we had rental paid. This last tenant is not like our previous one and it is a lesson learned.
