Can Termites Get Into A Brick House?
Yes. Brick, block and stone are not food for a termite, but they are not a wall either. Ohio's eastern subterranean termites live in the soil and travel through cracks, mortar joints and the hollow spaces inside masonry to reach the wood behind it. A brick house is not safer than a frame house. It is harder to inspect.
That second half is the part worth sitting with, because it is the opposite of what most people assume when they buy a brick home and cross termites off the list. The masonry does not change what the colony wants. It changes what you can see from the driveway.
Masonry Is Not Food, And It Is Not A Barrier
Termites do not eat brick, mortar or concrete. They go around it, and the openings they need are smaller than the ones anybody fills. University of Missouri Extension puts the figure at cracks or gaps as small as one sixty fourth of an inch, roughly the thickness of a sheet of paper, for getting through a slab or a foundation. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes the same routes from the other direction: small cracks in the foundation or slab, utility entry points, and anywhere soil touches wood. Where there is no easy way in near the ground, the EPA notes, they build mud tubes up the side of the structure instead.
Those tubes explain why masonry is no defense. Ohio State University Extension's BYGL profile of the eastern subterranean termite describes workers with soft bodies that dry out quickly in open air, so they build covered runways out of soil, feces, saliva and cellulose to cross anything exposed. The same profile notes that because subterranean termites need contact with soil for moisture, mud tubes are commonly found on outer walls and pillars close to the ground around infested buildings. A brick wall is simply a surface to tube across. If you want the full catalogue of what the evidence looks like, it is in how termite damage shows up in a Stark County house, and the service side is our termite control work.
A Brick House Is Usually A Wood House Wearing Brick
Most brick houses built in Northeast Ohio in the last several decades are brick veneer: a single layer of brick hung on the outside of an ordinary wood frame, with a drainage gap behind it. The brick carries its own weight and keeps weather out. The floors, walls and roof are still sitting on wood, and so is everything a termite is interested in.
Virginia Cooperative Extension names the result as a common and serious problem: termites entering the space between the foundation and brick veneer, stucco or foam board insulation where those materials run below grade. Its publication on the signs of subterranean termite infestation is blunt about the consequence, saying there is no external evidence of the termites until the damage becomes obvious. The gap that keeps rain out of the wall is also a sheltered, vertical corridor that nobody can see into.
Older housing around Canton and Akron adds the other version of the problem. A stone or soft brick foundation that has been in the ground for a century has mortar joints that have weathered out, and those joints run all the way through the wall.
What Each Kind Of Wall Actually Gives Them
| Wall or foundation | What a termite can use | What to look at |
|---|---|---|
| Brick veneer over a wood frame | The drainage gap behind the brick, reached where the veneer meets or runs below the soil line. | Whether the bottom course of brick is still above grade, and whether mulch or a raised bed has buried it. |
| Hollow concrete block | The voids inside the block. Missouri Extension says hollow block and brick foundations have many internal passageways for termite infestation, which is why it discourages them. | The top of the wall. Missouri's guidance is to cap such a foundation with at least four inches of concrete, with the block voids treated before the cap is poured. |
| Older stone or brick foundation | Mortar joints that have weathered out, and the rubble fill between the faces of a thick old wall. | The inside face in the basement, especially where joists and the sill plate land on the wall. |
| Poured concrete | Shrinkage cracks, the joint where a floor meets a wall, and every pipe and conduit through it. | Missouri Extension calls a poured, reinforced, crack free foundation the best deterrent there is, so the cracks are the whole story. |
| Slab on grade, including the garage | Expansion joints, plumbing penetrations and the edge where the slab meets the wall. | Door jambs and framing that sit directly on concrete, and anything wooden stored on the slab. |
| Rigid foam below grade | The foam itself, which they tunnel through. Virginia Cooperative Extension groups it with stucco and veneer as hidden access when it extends below the soil. | Where the insulation board stops. It should stop above the soil line, not disappear into it. |
Why The Signs Are Harder To Read On A Brick House
On a frame house with painted siding, a mud tube climbing the foundation is obvious, and so is a soft spot in a window sill. Masonry takes both of those away. Virginia Cooperative Extension points out that tubes are often the hard part even in plain sight, running along cracks, underneath flooring, or behind siding and baseboards. Behind a veneer they are not in plain sight at all.
So an inspection on a brick house leans on the things masonry cannot hide. Moisture is the main one. The BYGL profile notes that infested areas carry elevated moisture levels because termites move water with them, which is why a damp band joist or sill plate is worth more than a clean looking wall outside. The interior face of the foundation, the basement framing, the garage slab edge and any wood attached to the house outside carry most of the rest. Spring is the other tell: BYGL puts the eastern subterranean termite's swarm in Ohio across spring and early summer, and swarmers coming out at a basement window say more about what is in the wall than the outside of the wall ever will. If a sale is involved, the document that records all of this is covered in what the NPMA-33 report actually says.
The Few Inches That Keep A House Inspectable
Most of what a homeowner can do here is about keeping the bottom of the wall visible, not about sealing a termite out of a crack you cannot reach.
- Keep four to six inches of clearance. University of Missouri Extension recommends four to six inches between the soil surface and the bottom edge of siding, brick veneer or other outer wall coverings, and says never to let siding extend below the soil surface. The reason is inspection: with that gap, mud tubes are visible.
- Keep mulch shallow and off the wall. The same extension service puts mulch at two to three inches deep and tells homeowners not to let it cover the bottom of the siding.
- Fill what is visible. The EPA recommends filling cracks in cement foundations and gaps where utilities pass through walls with cement, grout or caulk. Penn State Extension says the same for eastern subterranean termites: fill all visible cracks and voids in the foundation with concrete or a suitable caulking compound.
- Keep the soil dry. Grading that runs water away, gutters and downspouts that discharge clear of the foundation, and leaks fixed when they appear. The EPA puts dry soil around the structure at the top of its prevention list, and moisture is the condition a subterranean colony cannot do without.
- Break the wood to soil contact. Porch steps, deck posts, fence sections and landscape timbers that touch both the dirt and the house are a bridge over every inch of masonry below them.
None of that treats an infestation. It makes one findable, which on a brick house is the harder half.
When The House Is Masonry, Who Should Be Looking
BYGL is direct about this: control of subterranean termites requires certified professionals, because a proper inspection is necessary and the effective products are permitted only for licensed applicators. On a masonry house that matters twice over, since the inspection is the hard half and the treatment has to reach soil that sits under a slab, a porch or a brick skirt.
It is also why baiting suits this kind of house. Our Sentricon system works from stations in the soil around the structure and eliminates the colony, queen included, without drilling or trenching through a patio, a walk or a brick ledge. A termite inspection settles which approach the house needs, and the inspection fee is waived when you go with us for treatment.
If your house is brick and you have never had it looked at, or you have found a tube on the garage slab and talked yourself out of it, we cover Stark, Summit, Portage, Wayne and Tuscarawas counties from North Canton. Schedule an inspection through our request a quote page or call 330-494-6199.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do termites eat brick, block or concrete?
No. They feed on cellulose, which is wood and the paper and cardboard that come with it, and they use masonry only as a route. University of Missouri Extension says termites can penetrate a slab or a foundation through cracks or gaps as small as one sixty fourth of an inch, about the thickness of a sheet of paper, and calls a poured, reinforced, crack free concrete foundation the best deterrent to infestation. Hollow block is the opposite case: the same guidance discourages hollow block and brick foundations because of the internal passageways inside them.
My house is brick veneer. Where would the termites actually be?
In the wood frame behind the brick, usually reached through the gap between the foundation and the veneer. Virginia Cooperative Extension calls termites entering that space below grade a common problem and warns that there is no external evidence of their presence until the damage becomes obvious. That is why the bottom course of brick staying above the soil line matters so much, and why an inspection on a brick house leans on moisture readings and the inside of the basement.
Is a slab house safer from termites than one with a basement?
Neither one is safe. They hide the problem in different places. The EPA lists small cracks in the foundation or slab, utility entry points and any spot where soil touches wood as the usual ways in, and notes that where there is no easy entry near the ground, termites build mud tubes up the side of the structure. On a slab the places to read are the expansion joints, the plumbing penetrations, the slab edge and any framing or stored wood sitting on concrete.
Would I see mud tubes on the outside of a brick house?
Sometimes, and it is worth looking. Ohio State University Extension notes that because subterranean termites need soil contact for moisture, mud tubes are commonly found on outer walls and pillars close to the ground. The catch is that Virginia Cooperative Extension also finds tubes running along cracks, under flooring and behind siding and baseboards, so a clean looking wall settles nothing. Keeping four to six inches of bare foundation showing below the brick, as Missouri Extension recommends, is what makes the outside worth checking at all.
Sources
- Ohio State University Extension (BYGL), Eastern Subterranean Termite, Reticulitermes flavipes
- University of Missouri Extension, Subterranean Termites (G7420)
- University of Missouri Extension, A gnawing problem
- Virginia Cooperative Extension, Signs of Subterranean Termite Infestation (444-501)
- Penn State Extension, Eastern Subterranean Termites
- US EPA, Termites: How to Identify and Control Them
