Written by Turnkey Siding
Key Takeaways
- Formosan subterranean termites are established across the New Orleans area, and they’re a routine consideration in exterior work here, not a rare event.
- Siding doesn’t cause or prevent an infestation on its own, but it affects how easily activity gets spotted and how much concealed pathway exists.
- Ground clearance, keeping siding out of contact with soil and mulch, and leaving an inspection gap at the base of the wall all matter more than material choice.
- Tear-off is the one moment you get to see the wall. If your home has any termite history, use it.
- Turnkey Siding works with your pest control provider on scheduling. Free estimates at 504-882-9704.
Why This Matters More Here Than Most Places
Quick Answer: Formosan subterranean termites have been present in the New Orleans area for decades and remain a well-documented regional problem. For siding work, the practical takeaway is straightforward: your exterior wall should be built so activity is easy to see and hard to hide. That means clearance at the base, no wood-to-soil contact, and a wall assembly you can actually inspect.
Homeowners in older neighborhoods across New Orleans and nearby Harahan and River Ridge already know the swarm season drill. What’s less obvious is how much a siding decision can help or hurt.
What Siding Can and Cannot Do
Let’s be clear about the limits. No siding material is a termite treatment. Subterranean termites travel through soil and build mud tubes to reach wood, and they’ll route around a non-wood surface to get to framing, sheathing, and trim. Choosing fiber cement over wood does not make a house immune.
What siding does control is concealment. A wall that touches the ground, or one built in layers with hidden cavities, gives termites covered pathway and gives you fewer chances to notice. That’s the lever worth pulling.
Material Notes
- Wood siding is itself a food source, and it needs the most vigilance. Our post on wood siding pros and cons in Louisiana covers the broader tradeoffs.
- Fiber cement, vinyl, metal, brick, stucco, and concrete are not food, but the framing and sheathing behind them still are.
- Any material installed tight to grade creates a bridge and blocks inspection, regardless of what it’s made of.
The Details That Actually Help
Keep the Wall Off the Ground
The single most useful thing is clearance between the bottom of the siding and the soil, mulch, or paving below it. That gap lets you see mud tubes forming instead of discovering them after the fact. It also keeps the wall drier, which helps for entirely separate reasons in our humidity.
This gets complicated on raised and elevated homes, where skirting and pier details need their own attention, and where vented skirting beats a fully sealed enclosure for exactly this reason.
Mind the Landscaping
Mulch banked against the house, shrubs pressed into the wall, and irrigation spraying the siding all work against you. They hold moisture at the base of the wall and hide the exact strip you most want to be able to see. Pull beds back from the foundation.
Don’t Bury the Evidence
This is the strongest argument against installing new siding over old siding on a house with termite history. Layering adds a concealed cavity and makes future inspection harder. If there’s any past activity on record, take the wall down to sheathing so it can be looked at properly.
What We Look For During Tear-Off
When we strip a wall in the metro, the termite-related things we flag are mud tubing on sheathing or framing, galleries hollowed into studs or sill plates, frass around trim joints, and wood that crumbles under a probe. Damage often clusters where moisture already is, which means window corners and the bottom course get the closest look.
Finding activity changes the sequence. We stop, you get your pest control provider out, treatment happens, and then we rebuild. Siding over live activity helps nobody. Structural repairs get handled as part of the installation once the treatment side is cleared.
Working Alongside Pest Control
We’re a siding company, not a pest control operator, and treatment is licensed work that belongs with a licensed provider. What we can do is coordinate. An open wall is the best access anyone will ever have to your framing, so if a treatment or inspection is planned, scheduling it during our tear-off window is worth the phone call.
Keep your termite contract current. In this region it’s ordinary homeownership, not an upsell.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is fiber cement siding termite proof?
Fiber cement isn’t a food source, which is a genuine advantage over wood. It doesn’t protect the framing and sheathing behind it, though, and it isn’t a substitute for treatment or inspection.
Should I re-side if I’ve had termite damage?
If damage reached the sheathing or framing, that repair has to happen regardless, and it’s exterior work either way. Doing it alongside a re-side is usually the efficient path. Our guide on when to replace siding covers the other triggers.
When is swarm season around New Orleans?
Formosan swarms in this area are associated with warm, humid spring and early summer evenings. Your pest control provider can give you specifics for the current year.
Does insurance cover termite damage?
Standard homeowners policies generally exclude termite damage, treating it as a maintenance issue rather than a sudden loss. Storm damage is a different matter, and our post on filing a siding insurance claim after a Louisiana storm covers that path.
Book an Inspection
If your siding is due and you’ve had termite activity, tell us up front. We’ll plan the tear-off so there’s a real look at the wall, and coordinate timing with your pest provider so repairs happen in the right order.
Turnkey Siding serves the New Orleans metro and Northshore, including Slidell, Mandeville, and Covington. See our full service area or call 504-882-9704.