Much of this summer was spent getting the house ready to paint. Once that was done, we started to work on the garage. I got three sides pressure washed and primed, but the back side was filled with blackberry vines.
So I’m back there digging, and see fine wood dust coming out from behind the siding. Dirt was piled up right up to the siding, so I started digging that out, with more dust coming out. It’s a narrow space, so I was using a 5 gallon bucket to get the dirt out. After two evenings of working on it, I knocked on the inside wall to see if any more stuff would come out, and I heard the rustle of a hundred bodies. I’d seen an ant or two, but never in the numbers that would scare me. The window sill on the outside was a bit soft though, so I gave it a tug.
The whole area below the window was filled with ants. Two 2x4s that were under the window sill were swiss cheese. So I started removing siding. So far I have the entire side stripped from the bottom to about the 8 foot mark. I’m still uncovering a few ants, but the worst is above and below the window. Most of the studs look fine, and the base board is good everywhere except under the window, so it doesn’t look like there will be too much to replace.
I have the center beam supported from the inside of the shop, and a diagonal brace on the outside as I chase these ants. I think that I won’t have to go any further than this side of the shop. Once eradicated, I’m going to put a vapor barrier between the studs and put fiberglass insulation battens in, then 3/4 OSB sheathing and some outer vapor barrier, then hopefully I’ll be able to reuse most of the original cedar siding. Not a project that I thought I’d be working on right now, but it needs to be done.