+- Punaweb Forum (http://punaweb.org/forum)
+-- Forum: Punaweb Forums (http://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Building in Puna (http://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=12)
+--- Thread: pressure treated wood... (/showthread.php?tid=12388)
Pages:
1
2
pressure treated wood... - sputnut - 08-17-2013
In Puna, where the termites sound like they are 3 inches long and eat their weight in wood daily and it rains most every day why aren't homes built with pressure treated lumber instead of conventional? I know about the cost, INITIALLY, but in the long run, it will give you peace of mind, and if you ever sell, a good selling point. I don't know about there, but here in Illinois, where we also have a wet climate and termites, only 8 months out of the year, pressure treated wood is usually only 10 - 20% more. That's not all that much for the benefits you gain.
If I were building there, it seems I would spend the extra grand or so to never have to worry about rot or those critters. (If I were building new here I would, too.)
comin' your way soon!
RE: pressure treated wood... - terracore - 08-17-2013
http://www.osmosewood.com/hi-bor/
Required by code. Or so I thought. Either way, it's all I see for sale.
RE: pressure treated wood... - Carey - 08-17-2013
Coming from IL, we were used to going to the lumber (or big box) & picking up green treated boards - ACQ or CBA dimensional lumber (even could get decking with the added pressure treatment of water preservative, boy that was nice to use...but is not here!).... However, HiBor is the treated wood you will find in most dimensional treated wood (due to environmental, not building regs.) as was covered in this thread:
http://punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16870
"The big problem with the ACQ & CBA wood here is that it is very hard to find here...just the (HiBor) borate/boric acid (highly water permeable) is readily available...have even heard of people shipping a container of the copper treated wood here so they can build with it... It is not something you can just run into the hardware store (or big box) & purchase copper treated dimensional lumber..."
So you are not talking just the additional money, but the buying mainland & shipping here hassle & expense...
RE: pressure treated wood... - sputnut - 08-17-2013
quote:Looks like good stuff. Boric acid (borate) kills termites and cockroaches and ants, etc. How is it against rot, though I wonder?
Originally posted by terracore
http://www.osmosewood.com/hi-bor/
Required by code. Or so I thought. Either way, it's all I see for sale.
comin' your way soon!
RE: pressure treated wood... - Carey - 08-17-2013
Borate/boric acid is one of the rot fighter that is used...the only really big drawback on HiBor is that is not water stable...ie, if you have your wood out in the rain, HiBor surface does get washed away...
In most ares, there is not a lot of rain/time to worry.... but here, if the wood is out for any length of time, your surface treatment is diluted....not a huge deal, but something to be aware of, that and ALL cuts & penetrations through the HiBor layer should (per mfg.) be treated with more HiBor solution (boric acid/borate solutions....can buy or make... (there are a few threads here with the formulas that are fairly readily found on line)... We made sure that we borate/boric acid topcoated most every piece of wood we used here, plus used a wood preservative/water repellant seal coat...
Some may think that this is over the top...but we could not believe the damage those termites did on the wood in our house (& there were redwood & teak pieces that got consumed... although most of the redwood had the very ends with multiple mini bore starts only, some were cored through...
RE: pressure treated wood... - terracore - 08-24-2013
quote:
Originally posted by sputnut
quote:Looks like good stuff. Boric acid (borate) kills termites and cockroaches and ants, etc. How is it against rot, though I wonder?
Originally posted by terracore
http://www.osmosewood.com/hi-bor/
Required by code. Or so I thought. Either way, it's all I see for sale.
comin' your way soon!
It is only for dry use and shouldn't have direct contact with the ground.
I read a study where they stuck 100 cockroaches into a wall panel framed with hi bor and 100 into another wall panel framed with regular wood. Then after 30 or 60 days (don't remember) they opened up the panels. In the untreated panel the roach population had exploded but in the treated panel they were all dead except for two. So there are other advantages to hi bor other than repelling termites.
RE: pressure treated wood... - gogould - 09-06-2013
I love wood but the whole process of turning it into poison just to protect it makes me look at concrete/cement with a practical eye. I see a lot of wood around there in buildings but not so much stone and cement and concrete reinforced with rebar. With the warm temperature it seems like well ventilated concrete and so on would work fine. I personally am looking forward to using lots of cement/concrete and stone and am working on my ideas that all square corners are bad bad bad except for tile and cut stone. I love wood but the poison wood thing,I use it but I don't have any kind of good feeling for it.
RE: pressure treated wood... - peteadams - 09-06-2013
If you are looking at cement-based building materials, check out Rob's non-termite food products at http://castleblock.com. We did and we're happy, including the square corners.
RE: pressure treated wood... - Cheerio - 09-06-2013
What, if anything, have residents been treating their all-cedar homes with?
RE: pressure treated wood... - gogould - 09-07-2013
I am curious as well about the termites and cedar on Big Island. Redwood sounds good but cedar seems a little less spendy. There are different species of cedar as well. I have thought about shipping a container of western red cedar to Hilo. There is a cedar that grows on BI but I have not found reference to it being used commercially and whether it stands up the to elements and bugs.
Old second growth or old growth western red cedar combined with concrete or masonry units with a cement plaster covering, and airy use of polycarbonate plastic, homemade stainless steel window frames for the glass, and lava rock wherever it makes sense and looks good.
I saw a nice tile looking style metal roofing being use in Philippines on steel trusses that I liked.