Update, September 29, 2026. The estimate added November 1.

The termites went into the framing. And the repair saw went into the joists.

On September 29, with Terminix's inspector in the room, the family opened the drywall about six inches above the floor all the way around the great room, and higher at the two ocean corners. This page is everything that was found. It is the only page you need to read to understand what has changed since the demand letter. The licensed estimate for the repair, dated November 1, is at the bottom.

The map

Every place damage was found, pinned on the room. Tap a pin, or a line below the map, to see the photographs.

Ocean windows

Side windows

Solid wall

The great room

Toward the kitchen

Termite damageSaw cuts in the joistsExpansion gap closedSchematic, not to scale. Tap a pin.

What was found

Drywood termite galleries and frass run along the bottom plates of the walls around the room, through the filler blocks under the plates, and into the blocking between the joists below the floor. At the right ocean corner, the two corner posts are eaten through their lower part, and one of them high up the wall. The left ocean corner and the side wall under the windows, found first on September 25, show the same thing.

These tunnels are continuous with the floor Terminix has already repaired. They start where the old floorboards met the wall, the same boards that were cut, and they keep going up and down from there.

The saw cuts

The contractor Terminix chose for the floor did not remove the baseboards. He cut the flooring along them with a saw. At the right ocean corner, that saw went through the floor and into the joists underneath: straight cuts across the joists that hold up the room, about 2 inches deep, measured with a chisel and a tape. Pin B on the map. The flooring was cut along the baseboard around the whole room, so every joist that crosses that line is being checked the same way. So far one corner has been opened.

This is not termite damage. It is damage done to the structure of the house during Terminix's repair, in August 2026. The cuts were found and photographed later on September 29, after Terminix's inspector had left.

The same method explains why the framing damage was never seen. Removing the baseboards, as the job required, exposes the cut ends of the old boards and the wall behind them. Cutting around them leaves it all hidden.

Look at the frass. It was pouring out of that wall onto the new floor, at every place the old boards met the wall. Anyone who took a baseboard off would have seen it, and a licensed contractor who saw it would have had to report it. Cutting the floor along the baseboards was the one method that left it unseen. The claim stayed the size of a floor.

The arbitrators in Mobile, Alabama found the same shape in March 2026: Terminix conduct that was “repeated, calculated, and undertaken despite knowledge of the substantial harm it would likely cause,” and in 2022, Terminix offering “minimal repairs and cash settlements to avoid larger payouts.” Those awards are on The Problem.

The estimate, November 1, 2026

On September 30 Terminix confirmed the inspected damage and asked for an estimate. On November 1, 2026, J. Powers Construction, LLC, a Hawaii-licensed general building contractor (license BC-29576, Kaneohe, Hawaii), examined the framing and wrote the scope and estimate for the repair.

Cost of materials and labor: $63,000.00 plus tax.

The scope, in the contractor's words and his order:

  1. There is severe termite damage evident in several areas throughout the living room space: (a) in both corner and mid span posts in the main window wall; (b) in the wall base plates under all of the windows and partition wall; (c) in the window sills and headers.
  2. In order to successfully mitigate all of the termite damaged wood members, all of the windows will need to be removed, plate glass and jalousies.
  3. The roof rafters will be shored up from the inside of the house.
  4. Scaffolding will be set up outside along the perimeter of the upstairs exterior window wall.
  5. The plate glass, jalousie glass and frames will be removed. The existing electrical lines and outlets will need to be removed as well.
  6. The entire window walls, both east and south facing, will be removed, from the window headers down.
  7. The main corner and mid span support posts will be removed and replaced.
  8. The window walls will be built back, with treated lumber, to match the original dimensions.
  9. In some areas, new matching siding will be installed on the exterior.
  10. If possible, the original plate glass will be reinstalled.
  11. New jalousie frames and glass will be installed.
  12. New electrical lines and outlets will be installed.
  13. New trim (treated), interior and exterior, will be installed to match.
  14. New drywall will be installed as needed.
  15. New baseboard will be installed throughout as needed.
  16. Mud, sand, prime, caulk and paint as needed.
  17. Take down the shoring and scaffolding.
  18. Haul away all debris.
  19. Once the work has been completed the dimensions and layout of the house will match the original footprint. No additional work, beyond the scope being addressed, will take place.

The windows, the electrical, the drywall and the paint are in the scope because the damaged posts, plates, sills and headers are inside the window walls, and the walls have to come apart to replace them. The house ends at its original footprint. Nothing beyond the termite damage is in it. The floor itself was priced separately, on September 3, at $24,802.61.

What it means

This is the same claim, Claim No. 00400010275. Terminix inspected this room, confirmed the damage as Covered Damage, and paid for the floor. Section 5 of the plan promises that Terminix will pay for the repair of such Covered Damage. The damage did not stop at the baseboard, and the repair should not have either.

This is the rest of the repair Terminix already agreed to make. Terminix's inspector saw the termite damage on September 29, and on September 30 Terminix confirmed it and asked for an estimate. The cut joists have been reported to Terminix. The estimate is above: a licensed general building contractor's scope and price for putting the framing back, $63,000.00 plus tax. Terminix has said its remedy takes the form of a check to Miss Lee, and that is how the floor settled.

What Miss Lee wants is what her plan promises: her home repaired, and her coverage kept in force.

The floor record is on The Problem, and the documents are in The Documents. This page is the addition.