Kill the Termites

• Before any repair is done to the house, all of the termites need to be killed. This will probably entail you, your family and your pets moving out of the house for a few weeks while exterminators do a thorough job "bombing" and poisoning the entire house. If all the termites are not killed, you risk putting a lot of time, money and repair into the home when it only will be damaged again shortly thereafter. Many exterminators guarantee their work within a certain period of time. So you can feel comfortable that they will do the job properly.
  
  

Identify Structural Damage

• Once the termites have been killed, identify what parts of the house they damaged. If they burrowed through major support beams, then the beams could be very expensive to fix properly. Still, many sturdy repairs can be made to wooden supports that won't cost a large sum of money because other support beams can be built in the area of the termite damage and left there or removed once the original supports are replaced. Have an inspector or contractor examine the damage, and get a couple of different opinions on what really needs to be replaced and costs.
  
  

Identify Non-Structural Damage

• If the termites damaged a window or part of a wooden floor, the repair is much easier and can be done over a longer span of time. This may be a good opportunity, or excuse, to remodel a damaged portion of the house with non-wood material so termite damage never happens again. Whatever you decide to do, non-structural damage to the house won't affect you living in the home safely.