One of the most heartbreaking things that can happen to a homeowner, is to be the victim of a flooding event. To see your home knee deep or worse in floodwater, is a horrible thing to endure. But people are resilient, so when the floodwaters subside, the cleanup and repairs begin.
People may or may not be aware, but Preschem is part of a business group, that includes Outlast Timber in Mordialloc. Recently, the author of this post had to visit them and noticed two large 350 x 350 square ironbark posts that were riddled with Teredo Borer. The common name of this timber pest is Shipworm.
Introduction:
In the realm of timber preservation, Preschem’s unwavering commitment to innovation has yielded remarkable results, particularly highlighted in the 2009 FWPA paper, “Eight-year Final Inspection of Model Windows Exposed in the Accelerated Field Simulator.” by Laurie Cookson et al at the CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering division.
Rising damp is a common problem that affects many homes and buildings. It occurs when moisture from the ground travels up through porous building materials, such as bricks, mortar, and timber. Moisture in timber frames that have been affected by flood water, can also be trapped behind plaster sheet, tiles and architraves. This remains sight unseen. When this moisture reaches the timber frame of a building, it can cause a number of problems, including the growth of white rot.
Since Preschem has taken over the distribution of the TWA Woodcare range in July last year, we were always intending to rationalise this range. If you were not already aware, there were a few duplicated products. These products are identical in formulation in every sense, just different in name only. Which products you may ask?
The following article was published by the Professional Pest Manager magazine in their August-September 2014 edition. It was the followup article/conclusion to the June-July 2014 edition.
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The prevention of wood rot falls into 2 categories, moisture barriers and timber preservatives. Moisture barriers can be any membrane like material that physically limits or stops moisture ingress. The most common forms of barriers are surface coatings such as paints, varnishes or specialised synthetic membranes. While these are usually brilliant in preventing moisture uptake, they do have a potential downside. If they begin to fail, the moisture can become trapped behind the barrier.
This article first appeared in the Professional Pest Manager Magazine June/July edition (Subscription only). Please note it was written with pest controllers in mind.
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Timber decay around homes and properties is generally poorly understood by the general public. Pest controllers will inevitably come across decay that has been miss-diagnosed by the property owner as termite or borer attack. Thankfully, due to the internet, this is less of an issue now than it used to be, but sometimes a little information (from the internet) is a potential recipe for disaster. There is also no doubt that during the inspection process for a potential insect or rodent infestation, that the pest controller will come across decay. There would be hardly a premises in Australia that doesn’t contain it in some shape or form.
