Wood treatment

[jennib]

According to diagnostic report received when buying house, it say wood shows no termites, but some wood has shown signs of petities vrilettes, grosses vrillettes and capricorns. We have had a quotation from a company for treating wood of about £1600 and has a 10 year guarantee. Its for an area of about 150 sq metres. Is this about right sort of price. The other thing is that they didn't speak English but we think the method of treatement was by applying a gel to the wood.

[Rich1972]

I'm not sure if that's the right sort of price or not, but I'm planning on doing the job myself later this year. One thing that has surprised me since moving here has been the laidback attitude towards woodworm compared with the UK. My French builder just said get a protective suit and use xylophene on everything except the chestnut, and someone else said just treat the beams which will be hidden behind plasterboard. The beams in the house here are 300 years old and have had woodworm and capricorn and they're as solid as a rock. As far as I know, the best way to apply the treatment is to drill holes into the wood itself and inject the pesticide otherwise you're really only treating the few millimetres on the surface.

[jennib]

I have checked again with company who have quoted for work and they say that there's no need to drill our beams as they're only being attacked by vrillettes and not by the the big one capricone (which require injection). Yet on the diagnostic report we got with the Compris it says that we have capricorn holes? Now I don't know what to do

[Alan Zoff]

Are you able to post a photo of the damaged beams? Capricorne damage is pretty easy to identify. Although perhaps the company have seen the holes but don't consider capricornes still to be active.

I treated my roof (which had a quite bad infestation of capricornes) with Xylophene myself and it seems to have done the trick (acccording to a trusted carpenter who has been looking at it for me).  But time will tell.

[phylisbide]

Did you drill holes in the beams Alan - or just applied it to the surface? pb

[Alan Zoff]

The carpenter told me not to drill the timber, despite what it says elsewhere. He reckons that for drilling to make any real difference you would have to riddle the beams with holes every few inches which would be counter-productive. And if you have capricornes, you probably already have plenty of large holes into which to pour the treatment!

He advised me to vacuum-clean the timber to remove dust (which inhibits absorption of the liquid) and then to brush the stuff on where possible, rather than spray, applying second coat before first was dry. So it did take quite a while, especially as you have to give everything a very good soaking. (I sprayed heavily a few places I couldn't reach by brush .)

I used the non-odour treatment which is supposed to be just as effective at killing the blighters as the noxious stuff. I gather the latter is better however at deterring them from choosing your house in the first place. I have used the noxious type before on other infected timbers and the fumes are pretty evil - you really do need a good quality mask.

[BIG MAC]

Interesting post this. I have noticed that our attics have a few areas of attack and one of our outbuildings is riddled (That's UK speak in France probably worthy of a shrug) I was thinking on trying 'fogging' the areas or burning those nasty candle things...any good?

I suspect most will say waste of time and get in there with the xylophene but I cant bring myself to do it as the smell makes me want to .....anyways back to the topic.

Are there any technically clever ways of treating timber to make it less onerous (Alan's vacuuming being a good tip) ?

[andyh4]

Forget the smoke bombs.

 

The smoke particles do not penetrate at all and just sit on surfaces as toxic dust - so they're fine as long as your chosen wood pest happens to emerge before the dust gets hoovered up or blown away.

 

Slightly surprsied by the advice to paint the fluid rather than spray, since spraying almost always provides a heavier loading than brush.  You do however have to take quite some precuatiuons when spraying that you don't with a brush - so maybe that is the reason.

[Alan Zoff]

I thought the same about spraying but the carpenter - who has lots of experience of dealing with these bugs - insisted the penetration is better with a brush. Perhaps he just wanted to make me sweat.

[Stan Streason]

Just having my loft done.  Our surveyor said spray or brush, it didnt matter - just wear a mask, overalls and then leave the house for about 8 hours.

My contractor has a compressor and is blasting the beams clean with air in advance of the application.

[Bugsy]

I used a hand oiler with a home-made needle-point on our old beams. Just inserted it into every hole I found and pumped away. Worked brilliantly and minimal mess/fumes.

This type of thing.

Funny but true story.

I was woodturning a bowl some time ago using a lump of chestnut I'd found down the lane. It was full of capricorn holes which add to the effect I was after.

I'd been turning this for some time but when I stopped the lathe to change position, a leg suddenly appeared out of one of the holes [:-))]. Some needle-nosed pliers and a bit of a pull and out came a huge, but very dizzy, capricorn beetle. [:D]

.

[andyh4]

[quote user="Bugsy"]I used a hand oiler with a home-made needle-point on our old beams. Just inserted it into every hole I found and pumped away. Worked brilliantly and minimal mess/fumes.

This type of thing.


[/quote]

 

There is one flaw with this style of treatment.

 

The hole only appears when the beetle emerges.  You are therefore treating what is effectively and empty hole.  The bits you want to treat are thos which still have live grubs and beetles in them - which is the apparently solid wood.

 

It's the stable door and bolting horse thingy

[BIG MAC]

Is there any value in looking at using a plant spray and  having an assistan using a long handled paint brush to work the sprayed material in? (Brush I was thinking of is the type one may use for painting behind radiators)

[Bugsy]

[quote user="andyh4"]

[quote user="Bugsy"]I used a hand oiler with a home-made needle-point on our old beams. Just inserted it into every hole I found and pumped away. Worked brilliantly and minimal mess/fumes.

This type of thing.

[/quote]

 

There is one flaw with this style of treatment.

 

The hole only appears when the beetle emerges.  You are therefore treating what is effectively and empty hole.  The bits you want to treat are thos which still have live grubs and beetles in them - which is the apparently solid wood.

 

It's the stable door and bolting horse thingy

[/quote]

Its not actually because (a) the holes are already there (I did say old beams) and (b) it allows for the fluid to penetrate far deeper than simple spraying or brushing.

.

[BIG MAC]

Iguess there would be a labyrinth of boreholes through the wood conducting the chemical in but I suspect that saturation with a spray may do the same thing. Brushing will raise the grain on sawn wood I think may be the rationale there?

[Simon]

I would treat the outside of all the wood, and replace any badly infected timber. Usually there are only a few beams that are bad and this has to be cheaper and more effective.

[Peter]

Generally the problem with chemical treatments used against wood damaging organisms is they are often proved to be dangerous to everyone involved: the people that make them, the people that use them and of course the people that have to live with them in their properties.

A change in attitude of the last few years has seen people questioning the efficacy of these products and the way they are marketed and used. Even in the most vulnerable places like cathedrals and churches experts are turning away from these products. Why? Simply because they don’t do what it says on the tin.

Put simply wet or damp timber will cause problems reasonable dry timber will not – simple as that. Mend the leak the problem will go away. Better still don’t allow a leak in the first place. Wood damaging insects are trapped in the wood; they cannot leave to get a drink. If the timber is too dry they die.

If you have to use anything use Boron – easy to use, non toxic to mammals, no problem with bats.

Lots of good stuff on the web away from the chemical peddlers

Also http://www.ask-jeff.co.uk/woodworm.html

[Théière]

Boron is easily obtained in its Borax state from equine centres. 

[myCherHippo]

Can you tell me what the company is? I have just been contacted by, and seen this morning, AHF (Amelioration de l'Habitation Francaise). It has directed me to having 'Capricornes' in my charpente (roof timbers), but it was also an 'excellent' exercise in pressure selling, using their 'groupement' technique. I would love to hear other people's experiences. (I did not sign the contract).