Wooden Floor Issues

[Isan Farang]

After waiting for ages for the wood repair guy he started today and cut out the termite eaten section. Some looks ok from the top but underneath is like powder. Now waiting for the wood shop to deliver the new replacement wood. The floor was new 17 years ago.

[eyecatcher]

I did exactly the same job last week. mine involved the destruction of a floor joist and 2m2 of boards.

 

Dont under estimate them. You have only noticed them because someone has actually walked on that area. You will never see them, the light kills them.

I suggest you methodically use a flat screwdriver and tap and press over every 4 inch of every board.

It will sound hollow or it will be spongy.

Also put your ear to the wood, they can be heard, especially at night when its quiet.

Looks like the boards are on a concrete deck. Should really try to flood it with chaindrite and of course your new wood should be soaked also.

Use a can of chaindrite with the nozzle and squirt it down every joint. You are running out of time with that idea as the wet season will start to close up the boards again.

Even when treated you are not safe, any eggs already laid will hatch and continue eating until they develop and want to fly. Only at that point will they be killed...after nore damage.

This was my damage, all told it took me a week to put it back together.

 

[Isan Farang]

Due to my lack of knowledge the wood man told me I should have made a contract when the house was new with the people that come for spray and hopefully eliminate these termites.

 

Before I carry out the repair work I have the boss of the termite company coming tomorrow and get the info before he sends in his people to do the needful.

 

These termites are everywhere when we pull up a damaged section.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Isan Farang

[sometimewoodworker]

As @eyecatcher has said you now have a rather serious repair and prevention job. You need to start pulling up your wooden floor covering until you get to the point where there is no damage to the complete board, you probably should check the floor against all the walls to be sure the termites haven't got up another wall/floor junction.

 

Without that any spray or soaking may not be completely effective. So bite the bullet and do a proper job now, it will be cheaper in the long run.

[eyecatcher]

More advice if you are meeting with a pest controller.

I am going to make a guess that he will try to sell you a complete house spray....fumigating in effect.

Unless the room that is affected is completely isolated and you are prepared to clear out all linen, fabric,furnishings for at least 21 days then refuse that suggestion.

The chemical is far too dangerous to be blase about it. (google the death hotel chiang mai)

A good pest controller should be able to pin point the route they have taken to access your floor void in 5 minutes. If he doesnt even look for it.......send him packing together with his 5k bt quote for fumigating.

 

Its not clear how your boards are fixed, but if directly to concrete it may suggest that you have some dampness. Termites do like newish sappy wood but otherwise wood in contact with water will draw them in, especially after 17years!

 

It really is a case of taking up boards a good 16" beyond the last visible attack, but as you dont have the benefit of inspecting closely from below (as i do), as STW says a wise decision at this stage would be to take up all your boards and rescue them. Today will be cheaper than tomorrow.

[tjo o tjim]

I will give the opposite advice of @eyecatcher on this; fumigation is your only chance at temporarily stopping them. I would also echo the experience of @sometimewoodworker and say that you need to keep removing wood until you don’t find any more damage. You have to actually do both, ideally fumigate first and then start repairs. 

 

If you half-ass the replacement you are just going to have to do it again.

 

I don’t have any successful long-term experience with spot-treatment with dry wood termites. 

[eyecatcher]

TJ you missed my point about fumigation.

To reiterate  I said unless the room is isolated and can be completely cleared for a month then dont entertain it.

In my experience, yes its temporary and actually doesnt really penetrate timber as well as hand brushing chaindrite into every nook and end grain. The key is to remove all affected timber first, then spray.

It will kill any when they emerge.

 

Whilst hand brushing is also dangerous for a period, you can place a few bait boxes in the room to monitor the effectiveness of your treatment.

As i said before, eggs are immune to any termicides so it will only be 3 months after a fumigation when those youngsters break out of the wood. In this case your hand brushed chaindrite is your back up, as is a bait box. The fumigation chemicals have long since evapourated.

[tjo o tjim]

@eyecatcher- I understand where you are coming from, but my experience is that you can never spot treat everything.  My problem was with laminated hardwood plywood cabinets in the kitchen and parts of furniture that really couldn’t be disassembled. The spot treatment does provide residual effects, but when you have a full infestation it simply isn’t enough. Since we are in a high-rise condo, we had to get everything pulled out and fumigated in a chamber. The contractor didn’t do enough investigation into other areas, which left us with a remaining infestation. So, we will end up needing to completely strip the place to address everything. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, so fumigation is an easy approach for a stand-alone home. 

[JAS21]

On 8/2/2019 at 5:02 PM, Isan Farang said:

Due to my lack of knowledge the wood man told me I should have made a contract when the house was new with the people that come for spray and hopefully eliminate these termites.

 

Before I carry out the repair work I have the boss of the termite company coming tomorrow and get the info before he sends in his people to do the needful.

 

These termites are everywhere when we pull up a damaged section.

Our house was built in 2004/5 and since new we have had a contract with a company to visit four times a year ... tap all the wood and if a problem is suspected, deal with it.  The also spray the whole garden at the same time ...every year they pump into a system of pipework which goes underneath the house.

 

MrsJ organises this ... and apparently you should seal any gaps between the house and the surrounding ground...cracks between the house and the driveway etc.

 

Also don't leave bits of wood laying around the garden, especially 'softwood'.

[Wongkitlo]

I have talked to a guy in Pattaya who gets rid of termites. He was mentioned in this forum. I think his name is Chris. I didn't bother because am renting. Let them eat.

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[marcusarelus]

I've got 10 of these fellas. 

[sometimewoodworker]

10 hours ago, JAS21 said:

MrsJ organises this ... and apparently you should seal any gaps between the house and the surrounding ground...cracks between the house and the driveway etc.

While sealing any gaps is certainly a reasonable idea it probably won't work unless you use cement mortar and can guarantee that ther is no crack wider than 1.2mm. Termites can get through a 1.4mm width crack in concrete and you are virtually guaranteed to have cracks that wide unless you have built a house that could be used as a swimming pool ???? 

[Beggar]

I had termites in my condo too. It is very hard to get completely rid of them. So I started to avoid wood wherever I can. 

[banagan]

This is why I'm going with tiles in my condo refurbishment.