Fumigation in San Francisco, CA

Local Context

A Shared Party Wall Decides Whether a Building Can Be Tented at All

Fumigation is a scope decision, not a severity decision. Drywood termites (Incisitermes minor) live entirely inside wood, and one structure can hold several unconnected colonies at once. In a San Francisco Victorian or Edwardian, framing sits behind lath and plaster inside and shiplap under the siding outside. Drill-and-inject works well where we can find and reach a gallery. It does nothing for the one two bays over, behind original plaster nobody wants opened.

The building pattern is the complication. Detached houses in the Sunset, the Richmond, St. Francis Wood and much of Bernal Heights tent in the normal way. Attached row buildings in the Western Addition, the Mission, North Beach and the flats along the older commercial corridors cannot be sealed on their own without an assessment of how the structure separates from its neighbors, plus coordination with the adjacent owners. Where that is not workable, orange oil and heat are the honest alternative, and we say so before anyone signs anything.

Access shapes the rest. Narrow streets, steep grades on the hills above Market, mature street trees over the roof and shared driveways all affect where a crew can stage tarps and equipment. Neighbor notification is required either way. Those facts belong in the recommendation, not in a surprise on the morning of the job.