Kitchen Cabinets

[macuu222]

We need to replace all our kitchen cabinets that were built 22 years ago. Seems back then we had them built with a wood that termites love....and now 22 years later we have the cabinets riddled with holes.

My question is what kind of wood do you use to make kitchen cabinets termite proof?

[csgray]

Cedar or redwood are supposed to be less attractive to termites, also some of the tropical hardwoods like merbau (sp?).

Carol

[hotinhawaii]

I have seen two year old cabinets of plywood attacked by drywood termites here. I made some cabinets of African Mahogany and put them in a brand new house. They got riddled with holes within 2 years also. I would love to know the answer to your question.

[Rob Tucker]

Ultimately there are no cabinet woods which termites will not attack. Redwoods and cedars have a high tannic acid content which adds resistance. Old Growth Redwood is best in this regard but the tannins deplete over time.
If it is wood and if it is in Hawaii it is generally doomed unless regular maintenance and attention is applied. One could for example make sure that the cabinet woods are pressure treated with boric acid but that will only last a few years.
Then tenting will be needed periodically. Since you have destroyed cabinets it is likely that your house structure is in bad shape too if it is made of wood.

[Carey]

Even choosing yellow cedar over red helps.... believe it or not, tallowwood (Eucalyptus microcorys), one of the Eucalyptus species up in the Hamakua forest, has been tested with high resistance (some even tests even show that it is toxic to the buggers.... Some of the test links are below...and there are a number of scientific papers on the subject...

But with all of the research I have done on "what wood is best", I have found that what is bad for termite might be OK with powder post beetles, and no wood seems to be terrible to the carpenter bee... and since all seem to enjoy it around our house... We are looking at Aluminum..... maybe even diamond plate (eat that you buggers! LOL!!)... cabinets.... still have some time (hopefully not tooo many more months... maybe this fall!) before we are to the stage of purchase... but I really do not want to "get the best" & find out it is a tasty meal for a critter I hadn't thought about...

THE LINK FOR THE UH TERMITE PROJECT:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~entomol/research/r_durable.htm

CTHAR termite link:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~entomol/pdf_files/hsp-3.pdf

[macuu222]

We used special pressure treated lumber when they built this place 22 years ago. It had a green tinge to the lumber. They said it would last 20+ years. Now I think they don't produce it anymore because it's too toxic. It still is in surprisingly good shape. Even our outside deck is in excellent shape.

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Carey...We are looking at Aluminum..... maybe even diamond plate (eat that you buggers! LOL!!)... cabinets....

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and just another set of issues with aluminum and powdering from our acidic air.... BUT that would be a really great look for your house! Very ultra modern!

-Cat

[Carey]

Hey, the aluminum in our house is the only thing that withstood the decades of abuse this house was given (major earthquakes, water leaks, improper (errr, lack of) framing, and uric acid deposition from every critter infestation that were allowed to flourish (ewwweeey) And with all of it, most of the aluminum is still bright & shiny.... good thing there was a lot of aluminum used in this house!

One of the main worries with aluminum are mercury spills - that can really wreck oxidation havoc! luckily for us, there were no mercury switches here to break...

[hotinhawaii]

Aluminum lasted? I have seen screen frames literally disappearing from oxidation of the aluminum. Are there different alloys that prevent this?

[Carey]

There are a number of different aluminum alloys, including all of the 2000, 5000, 6000 & 7000 series, which include areonautical, marine, cast & extruded alloys, along with different heat treating & tempering. Our house is constructed with a fairly high temp, high grade structural aluminum beams (most likely 6061 T6 51). There was some galvanic corrosion, esp in high uric acid areas, but most of it cleaned off with cleaner - without pitting (a couple of areas were under high impact - wet nesting, uric acid & steel & copper contact - & did have some pitting - luckily for us, not in high structural areas.... the little wood that was in these areas was totally decayed...

Screen is an extruded grade, but is very fine & has a lot of surface area to be exposed to galvanic corrosion...so is much more apt to corrode than a structural or marine grade alloy that has a lower surface area exposed to the elements.