All Forum Posts by: Steven Maduro

It does help a lot thanks.

Gracias Senora Poe.

You are always very helpful to me.

I thought I was under some sort of crazy twilight zone episode.

Thank you so much for clearing that up.

I have a duplex and one side has a pretty bad odor.

I washed all the walls and doors with pine sol then did it again and it does smell better but the smell seems to still be lingering.

I at first thought that the smell was from smoking marijuana the tenants were avid users of the miracle plant.

add to that they smoked cigarettes.

But after reading another post on here about smells emanating from the crawl space.

I am wondering now is it more than just smokers smell.

It doesent smell like moisture. but

I can now tell it is coming from an area between the kitchen and the living room
there is a boiler there with a leak. the catch pan is full so most likely the boiler was leaking into the crawl space.
as the catch pan over flows.
However when I open the door to where the boiler is there is absolutely no smell in there. So I am thinking it cant be that.

Terminex came to treat the house and commented that there is a lot of moisture under the house.
and that I should get a moisture barrier under there ASAP

So providing I do this and replace the boiler.

If I still smell this smell what else can I do

I did not wash the ceilings. should this be my next step?

some have told me that I should pour a cup of bleach into two gallons of water and wash the whole place with this mixture

someone else mentioned a bowl of vinegar placed in the middle of the floor.

I have also tried Coffee which did help absorb a lot of the odor but there is still a lingering scent.

I am frustrated because I am no expert cleaner.
and I cant believe that washing the walls and doors did not solve this issue.

thanks there are a lot from which to choose.

I was thinking that I need to get my pay pal account re opened but that is not feasible until the next few months

in the mean time I wanted to be able to take online payments

I see a few software solutions like buildium
I was wondering what recommendations there were
for property managment software
either online or purchased.

Thanks I will probably go with the spot treatment I don't know if I can afford the tenting at the moment.

I heard that is like 3,000

I like the suggestion of the home owners association referral. Great idea!!

I like the take it easy don't kill yourself just the termites approach.

Because like you said it is a matter of when not if in Georgia.

I wish they had some star trek type device that could sense the activity so that we know exactly where they are.

@Dennis Tierney laughing @ you may need a different contractor to look at the property to be sure you get all of the damaged interior fixed.

like someone on this forum said

you can get a contractor who works cheap, quick, or great quality,
rarely will you get one who can do all three well
so you have to find your trade off.

my guy is cheap and quick and very good quality especially when it comes to framing and strutural stuff.
cabinet building drywall plumbing etc

but sometimes he is not so quick and sometimes his quality control is lacking but only on isolated albeit critical situations and moments.

an expert on assessing termite damage is definitely in order. that was a very good suggestion thank you for that

ok I called terminix but upon doing a little digging
yes termites do eat through sheet rock
they are after the thick paper which contains the cellulouse

the termites I am facing are called drywood termites

and if they are eating drywall they are probably doing more damage elsewhere.

I hope I am not too late.

I have a brick house Thank goodness
It is a duplex
and one side had a termite swarm happen last week
but not the other side

when I was doing renovations I noticed a door casing that had termite holes in it

,my contractor said it was probably a piece of lumber that had termites but they are most likely gone

WRONG
they were still in there because we caulked the holes and painted over
and they burrowed out again, and swarmed the apartment.

I think they even burrowed out of some neighboring sheet rock.

can they do that?

in any event I am calling terminix.
I just put down laminate floors and noticed underneath the house all new plywood perhaps the reason all the new wood was there was because of termite damage.
from the past.

I bought the house last year and noticed nothing else termite related
except for two wooden boards on the front of the house seemed to be compromised.

I suppose a thorough investigation of all plywood supporting structure wood
needs to be done.
a complete treatment
and then just pray

Is there anything Else I need to do or could
do
or could have done in the past?

I live in Georgia by the way I think that makes a difference.

Thanks guys that makes total sense