Insect Damage to Rear Addition

The original problem was a damp patch in the addition which I let go too long. Partly due to procrastination and partly because the people I consulted gave me contradictory advice. By the time I realized it was serious it was very serious. I had the dry wall removed in one corner of the addition and the result was quite scary. The insulation was wet and the wood rotten. Clearly I had to do something fast. I knew I had to remove the siding on the addition to determine the extent of the damage and if necessary repair it. I had previously experienced some termite damage and I thought they had been eradicated. But there was evidence of activity in the damaged area. I decided that if I was going to have the addition repaired it made sense to increase the insulation at the same time. For some time I had been thinking of insulating the outside of the house because that is the easiest way of adding insulation to an old brick  house. One thing led to another and the result was a major project.

But first the damage to the addition. I consulted with a pest control company and they advised that first I should repair the roof which appeared to have been the source of the water damage. That is what I did. The roofing company replaced the roof over the addition and I insisted they use Blu Wood which is insect resistant. They did the work although I would not give them a reference based on their poor communications.

Before they started on the work we realized that there were also carpenter ants at work. How long they had been there was not clear but once the dry wall was removed they started becoming evident. The following photos show some of the damage they did. The workers doing the roofing were quite shocked at the number of ants that they found once they removed the existing roof and insulation. 

Here are some photos of the damage