new puna house design

[ElysianWort]

Cost me about $800. It was well worth it and I think of it as an investment. I may make another investment soon. I'll wait until I see any termites flying in my home upon the next swarm (which the termites do 2 or 3 times a year here). It's been about 3 years now since I last tented and I haven't seen any termites swarming in the house. The cost varies depending on the company and the size of your home. Mine is a fairly small 2 bedroom home.

[kalakoa]

make it easier to control roaches, ants

I learned long ago: if you don't feed them, they don't come in.

[cinnaminnacat]

i have noticed that the critters seem to be self sustaining in puna.

a while back, i was renting an otherwise beautiful house that was infested with roaches, et. al the various pests had a sustainable system eating *everything* in the house and each other. their system made a complete cycle in plain sight overnight! during the daylight you didnt see much and couldnt find them. at night, it was a zoo!

yep, i moved out shortly and they tented the place.

/--/

i am concerned about having inaccessible nooks and crannies, even unsealed electrical plates that pests can breed in.
the roaches and ants were inhabiting the electrical outlets, wall sockets, baseboard cracks, ceiling light openings, etc


what would you have to specify in the construction plans to ensure that *everything* gets sealed, gasketed, etc., to keep pests out of otherwise inaccessible areas??

[cinnaminnacat]

i have noticed that the critters seem to be self sustaining in puna.

a while back, i was renting an otherwise beautiful house that was infested with roaches, et. al the various pests had a sustainable system eating *everything* in the house and each other. their system made a complete cycle in plain sight overnight! during the daylight you didnt see much and couldnt find them. at night, it was a zoo!

yep, i moved out shortly and they tented the place.

/--/

i am concerned about having inaccessible nooks and crannies, even unsealed electrical plates that pests can breed in.
the roaches and ants were inhabiting the electrical outlets, wall sockets, baseboard cracks, ceiling light openings, etc


what would you have to specify in the construction plans to ensure that *everything* gets sealed, gasketed, etc., to keep pests out of otherwise inaccessible areas??

[tada]

I'm interested in non wood structures too. Every day I commute through the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange parking lot where they have the 21st century shopping cart stations. Which could double as the ubiquitous tent carport you can drive your car through. Instead of steel tubing the structural part is brushed heavy gauge aluminum extruded to look like 2x4s or light gauge steel. Instead of canvas the roof is polycarbonate panels. It's better than my carport with the 4x4 posts. Don't think HD sells it.

[Rob Tucker]

Here is one of my recommended techniques...

With steel framing the bottom tracks make nice little metal trays inside the walls. The kind of dark spaces bugs like to breed in.

I recommend filling these with Diatomaceous Earth (DE) which all bugs dislike and avoid. It is clean and non toxic. You can add tablets of boric acid as well but DE is less expensive and longer lasting. Boric acid, like the wood treatment, leeches out over time. This combination can also be liberally applied in dark spaces like under kitchen cabinets.

The DE is quite durable and will, or should, last a long time. DE is available from garden supply stores.

Trying to "seal" everything is difficult.

[cinnaminnacat]

aha...filling spaces with DE! that would be a very broad based control technique. i wish i had known about that years ago.

many thanks.

i think this forum/discussion is producing lots of good ideas.

[Turtle]

Hello. I see advertising for all bamboo housing. How well does bamboo hold up against termites? Most bamboo houses i see advertised are open plan designs. Which to me would eliminate most pest issues. Am i on the right track with that thinking?

[Guest]

Get the structure up off the ground no less than 4 feet. The ground is where the bugs and damp are. A slab home in Puna makes no sense.

Have an east facing deck and a west facing deck. When one deck is too sunny, move activity to the other one. Over 1/3 of my square footage under roof is deck.

Relentlessly search out and destroy all nearby bodies of standing water, including your gutters, drains, etc. The mosquito population will promptly crash and you can enjoy the outdoors.

Solar is the only way to go. Grid power makes you a prisoner of someone else's profit based business model and goes away for days with every storm. Don't buy the past. Solar is the future.

Use porcelain tile for all floors. It will not soak up damp.

Site the home to catch and funnel trade winds through the house. You will not need A/C. My home has an hourglass floorplan to funnel tradewinds through a breezeway in the center of the house and provides a west and east deck.

This is the tropics. Mainland house plans depending on massive inputs of electricity to cover up fundamental design flaws makes no sense here.


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You can't fix Samsara.

[kalakoa]

Relentlessly search out and destroy all nearby bodies of standing water

Extend this to include pigs, because their digging creates puddles.