Pest control in Marietta › Termite control › Dunwoody
This page covers termite work on Dunwoody’s early-1980s housing: what forty years under a hardwood canopy does to a foundation, where the entry routes hide on a brick veneer house, and which bond tier is worth holding. Start with the Marietta pest control guide.
1 Forty years under a closed canopy
Dunwoody has the oldest housing stock of any town in this hub, and almost none of it is new. The neighborhoods around Dunwoody Village went up before the shift to slab construction, so crawlspaces and partial basements are the norm, and the trees planted or left standing when those subdivisions were cut are now full-grown hardwoods.
That canopy is the thing that makes Dunwoody its own case. A closed canopy means the ground around a foundation rarely gets direct sun, and Piedmont red clay under shade holds water for weeks. Leaf fall banks up against the wall every autumn and composts there. Root plates run under the footing line. Add forty years of mulch top-dressed onto the same beds and the finished grade creeps up until it is touching trim it was never meant to touch. Georgia is Termite Infestation Probability Zone 1, and permanently damp shaded soil against an older wood-framed house is the most favorable version of that for a colony.
Dunwoody is in DeKalb rather than Cobb, which changes nothing about the rules — Georgia licenses structural pest control statewide through the Department of Agriculture — but it does mean the companies working your street may not be the ones working the rest of this hub.
2 Where a 1980s house lets them in
Brick veneer is the detail most owners here do not think about. The brick is a skin, not structure, and there is a cavity behind it. Termites can build a tube up inside that cavity, out of sight, and reach the framing above with nothing visible on the outside wall. That is why an inspector who only walks the exterior is not inspecting your house, and why grade creeping above the brick ledge is a serious finding rather than a cosmetic one.
Then the forty years of changes: a deck with posts set into the soil, a screened porch on its own slab, a finished basement that puts drywall over the one wall you would most like to see, a sunroom added over a patio. Every one of those is a seam in a treated zone, and most were built long after whatever treatment the house first had. If you are working out where to begin with all of it, start here.
Older house, bigger downside
On original 1980s framing, the question is not only who treats it but who repairs it. Get both answers in writing.
3 What the inspection has to cover
A proper inspection on a Dunwoody house means somebody in the crawlspace with a light and a probe, checking every pier, the sill, the band joist and the joist ends nearest the wettest corner. Outside it means walking the full perimeter looking for tubes at the brick ledge, checking where deck posts and porch framing meet soil, and noting where the grade has risen. Inside it means looking at the finished basement wall for anything soft at the baseboard, because that wall is the one place nobody can see behind.
The treatment that follows is a trench and rod against the foundation charged with a non-repellent termiticide, drilling through concrete poured against the house, and interior pier work. Non-repellent means the colony cannot detect the treated band, so foragers pass through it and carry it back. In-ground bait stations are the alternative on the runs a crew cannot dig — a deck footprint, a patio, a paved side yard — provided somebody is contracted to service them on a stated interval.
4 Which bond tier, and does it travel
A retreatment-only bond obliges the company to come back and treat again at no charge if termites return. A repair bond obliges them to repair the damaged wood as well. On a 1984 house with original floor framing, a finished basement and sections nobody can see, the repair tier is the one that actually moves risk off you. Ask plainly which one is in front of you, and read what the repair obligation is capped at and what it excludes.
Then the terms that outlast the treatment: the renewal schedule for the next five years in writing, what voids coverage, and whether the bond transfers to a buyer. A transferable bond with a clean, unbroken inspection history is a real asset in a closing file, and it is worth more than the Official Georgia Wood Infestation Report the lender asks for, which only records visible evidence in accessible areas on the day. For help reading two proposals against each other, talk to a licensed local pro.
5 Nearby towns
Marietta is the closest match for build era and foundation type. Kennesaw has the same canopy problem on a mixed housing stock. Mableton shows what the same crawlspaces do on lower ground. Or go back to termite control across the county.
6 Common questions
Can termites get in behind brick veneer without me seeing anything?
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons an older veneered house needs a real inspection rather than a look from the driveway. The cavity behind the brick gives a concealed route from soil to framing. Keeping soil and mulch below the brick ledge, keeping weep holes clear and having someone check the sill from inside the crawlspace are the practical defenses.
My finished basement covers one whole foundation wall. What happens there?
That wall is not accessible, which means it falls outside what any inspection report can tell you, and it is also where damage goes unnoticed longest. The treated zone still gets placed from outside, and on some houses the crew will drill through the basement slab along that wall. Make sure the proposal states how that elevation is handled rather than leaving it unsaid.
Our deck posts sit straight in the ground. Is that a problem?
It is wood-to-ground contact next to the house, which is the single most common conducive condition on 1980s Dunwoody lots. It gives a colony a direct path from soil into structural wood that bypasses any treated band. It should be noted on the inspection, treated as part of the job where possible, and ideally corrected so the posts sit on footings above grade.
Should I take trees out to reduce the risk?
Generally no — the canopy is most of why people live here, and removal is not a termite treatment. What helps is managing what the canopy produces: keep leaf litter and mulch pulled back off the wall, keep grade below the brick ledge, get downspouts discharging well away from the foundation, and grind out any stump close to the house rather than leaving it to rot in damp soil.
Start here
The complete Marietta pest control guide
What a correct job looks like on Piedmont red clay, how crawlspace and slab homes differ, and the questions that separate a real proposal from a guess.
Jaylan Jones — Cobb County Pest Solutions publishes independent guidance for North Georgia homeowners. We are a referral service, not a licensed pest control contractor, and we do not perform the work. How we work.
