Wood Destroying Insect Report Inspection

Purpose

A wood destroying insect report is the only document most shops produce that a stranger relies on to move money. It is signed under a license, it lands in a closing file, and it is read years later by people who were not there. What it reports is narrow: visible evidence of wood destroying organisms in the areas accessible on one date. What it does not report is everything behind finished walls, under floor coverings, above insulation and beyond a locked gate.

The single most consequential field on the form is the one techs leave blank. An empty obstructions section reads, to everyone downstream, as a statement that nothing obstructed the inspection, which is a claim almost no occupied dwelling supports. This SOP exists to make the accessible areas genuinely inspected and the inaccessible ones genuinely listed.

Scope

Covers accepting the assignment, the exterior and interior visual inspection, evidence classification, the obstruction and inaccessible-area list, completing and delivering the report, and record retention.

Does not cover treatment of anything found, owned by the liquid termiticide and bait station standards; crawlspace entry criteria and atmosphere, owned by the crawlspace inspection and treatment standard; correction of moisture and conducive conditions, owned by the moisture and conducive condition report; or the annual re-inspection under an existing warranty, which is the annual termite inspection SOP.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

Step 1 - Confirm who asked, what structure, and which form, before leaving the truck. Read the work order for the requesting party, the exact address, the closing date, and whether detached structures are included. Confirm you hold the state license category that permits signing a wood destroying insect report, and that you have the form version your state accepts, which in many states is the standard national form and in several is a state-specific document. Acceptance: address on the order matches the property you are standing at, the included-structures list is explicit, and the form in hand is the version your state currently accepts. Wrong looks like inspecting the house and reporting on it while the contract also covered a detached garage that nobody mentioned. Stop rule: no license category for this work, or an unclear structure list, do not begin; call the branch manager. Hazard: none at this step, it is reading at the curb, but park clear of the drive so the vehicle is not blocking an occupant.

Step 2 - Walk the full exterior and probe what you can reach. Circle the structure, checking grade to siding clearance, wood to soil contact, mud tubing on foundation and piers, discarded swarmer wings at sills and window wells, and blistered or hollow-sounding trim. Sound and probe accessible wood with a sharp probe rather than a screwdriver tip. Acceptance: every exterior wall either walked and probed, or named in the obstruction list with the reason, and each probe location noted where wood was soft. Wrong looks like skipping the side behind the condenser and leaving it off the form. Stop rule: a wall you cannot reach, add it to the obstruction list at that moment rather than at the end. Hazard: eave and soffit work draws stinging insects, so look before reaching and back away from any nest rather than swatting; keep the ladder off soft ground and out of contact with the service drop, and do not enter a yard with a loose dog, reschedule.

Step 3 - Inspect the accessible interior and record what blocks it. Work the plumbing walls, under-sink cabinets, tub and shower surrounds, window sills, door frames, garage framing and any exposed subfloor access. Acceptance: each location either inspected or listed as obstructed, with the obstruction named specifically: stored goods against the garage wall, wall to wall carpet, a finished basement ceiling. Wrong looks like an obstruction entry reading furniture, which tells a reader nothing about which wall went unseen. Stop rule: an occupant refuses access to a room, note the room by name as inaccessible and continue; do not negotiate and do not omit. Hazard: this step puts hands into cabinets and dark voids, so use a light and look before reaching, because spiders and stored rodent bait both live in that space.

Step 4 - Enter the sub-area, or document why you did not. Enter the crawlspace or basement under the entry criteria the crawlspace SOP sets, and inspect piers, sills, band joists, subfloor and any exposed plumbing. Acceptance: every bay or section either physically inspected, or listed with its own reason and location, and the clearance figure recorded where clearance is the reason. Wrong looks like reporting a whole crawl as inspected after crawling the first ten feet from the hatch. Stop rule: any entry criterion in the crawlspace SOP fails, the sub-area or the failing part of it goes on the report as inaccessible, and the reason is written in the words a stranger can check, not as poor access. Hazard: energized wiring, standing water and combustion appliances share that space, so nobody enters standing water where wiring or a submerged fixture is present, and nobody enters a space that fails the atmosphere check in the crawlspace SOP.

Step 5 - Inspect the attic only as far as safe footing and clearance allow. Enter where a floored walkway or clear joist run and headroom exist, inspect visible framing and sheathing for galleries, frass and staining, and stop where footing ends. Acceptance: the inspected extent described by a boundary a reader can picture, such as inspected from the hatch to the second truss bay over the hall, with everything beyond it listed as inaccessible. Wrong looks like an attic reported as fully inspected in a house with blown insulation covering the ceiling joists. Stop rule: no safe footing, insulation over the joists, or heat you cannot work in, report the attic as inaccessible with the reason and leave. Hazard: a foot off the joist goes through the ceiling and takes the tech with it, so step only on framing or a laid board; attic temperatures on a summer afternoon cause heat illness, so work early, carry water, and leave at the first sign of dizziness or a headache rather than finishing the pass.

Step 6 - Classify what you saw, and separate observation from inference. For each finding, record the organism group, the exact location, and whether live insects were observed: subterranean termite, drywood termite, wood boring beetle, carpenter ant, and wood decay fungus where the form asks for it. Note evidence of previous treatment separately from evidence of infestation, because they are different fields and the second is not proof of the first. Acceptance: every entry names organism group, location and live-or-not, and no entry describes damage without naming what caused it. Wrong looks like termite damage written over a pattern of round exit holes and powdery frass, which is a beetle, a different treatment and a different disclosure. Stop rule: you cannot identify the organism, collect a specimen and hold the report; do not guess on a signed document. Hazard: none at this step, it is classification done outside, though probing damaged wood overhead drops debris, so eye protection stays on under a joist.

Step 7 - Complete the obstruction list, state the report's limits plainly, and deliver. Fill the obstruction and inaccessible-areas section from the entries you made as you went, sign, and deliver to the requesting party inside your shop's stated turnaround. State on the report that it records visible evidence in accessible areas on that date, that it is not a structural damage assessment, and that a damage evaluation is a licensed contractor or engineer question. Acceptance: obstruction section not blank on an occupied dwelling, every item carrying a location, the delivery date logged, and the retained copy filed for the period your state requires. Wrong looks like a clean report on a furnished, carpeted, insulated house with nothing in the obstruction section. Stop rule: anyone asks you to remove an obstruction entry, soften a finding or backdate the report, refuse and escalate to the branch manager the same day, because the signature is yours and the license is yours. Hazard: none at this step, it is paperwork; what a signed report proves, presumes or binds is a legal question for your own attorney and varies by state, while what you can bank is that a dated, specific record of what you observed and what you could not reach is the only defensible position later.

The record this produces

The completed form plus field notes: structures included, areas inspected by name, the obstruction list with a location for each entry, evidence entries with organism group and live-or-not, conducive conditions observed, previous treatment evidence, the clearance figure where clearance drove a no-entry, delivery date and requesting party.

The branch manager reads reports carrying live activity before they leave, because that is the report that gets disputed. The office reads the obstruction section as a completeness gate rather than as prose. Months later, when a buyer opens a wall and finds damage, the only thing that separates a defensible inspection from an indefensible one is whether that wall was on the obstruction list on the day.

Worked pass: 1978 crawlspace house under contract

The order names the dwelling only, with the detached shed excluded in writing, and the inspector holds the state category for the work. Exterior: four walls, three walked and probed. The fourth is behind a raised deck with 8 inches of clearance under the joists, entered on the obstruction list as rear wall inaccessible beneath deck, with the clearance figure.

Step 4 fails. The crawl divides into three bays. Bays one and two are entered and inspected. Bay three measures 12 inches from soil to joist bottom against the 18 inch minimum clearance this shop sets for entry, so the stop rule fires: bay three is listed as inaccessible with the 12 inch reading written down, rather than being reported as inspected. Two of the three bays are inspected and the report says so in those words.

Findings: mud tubing on two piers in bay one, no live insects observed, entered as evidence of infestation with live activity not observed, plus wood to soil contact at a porch post and standing water under a leaking supply line, both entered as conducive conditions and handed to the conducive condition report. Attic reported inaccessible: blown insulation over the ceiling joists, no walkway, inspected from the hatch only.

The obstruction section carries five entries: rear wall under deck, crawl bay three at 12 inches, attic beyond the hatch, wall to wall carpet throughout, and stored goods along the garage south wall. The buyer's agent asks whether the carpet line can come off since the house shows well. The answer is no, and the step 7 stop rule sends the conversation to the branch manager that afternoon.

References

• Your state structural pest control act and licensing rules, which set who may sign a wood destroying insect report, which form is accepted, and how long the copy is retained
• The wood destroying insect inspection form your state accepts, in the version currently in force, and its own instructions for evidence and obstruction entries
• Structural damage evaluation belongs to a licensed contractor or engineer, and the legal effect of a signed report is a question for your own attorney
• See related: Crawlspace Inspection and Treatment Standard; Moisture and Conducive Condition Report; Annual Termite Inspection