17?? house Job

[Cheeset202]

Tom, this a fantastic journal, thanks for taking the time for sharing!  I am curious about the termite problems.  As far as I know once termites find a great food source they are not going away.  How are you dealing with the future or continued termite damage to the wood?  Did you have to bag the house to kill the termites and treat the soil to prevent future infestations?

[Tom King]

No bagging. Saturating everything with Boracare, but more importantly, I designed, and installed, in 2011, a waterproofing system for the basement.  Water had been standing under the house forever, but you can kick dust down there now.  Once the termites lost their source of water, they moved on to easier pickings.  You can see the waterproofing job on the "basement waterproofing" page of my website linked to below.  All termite damage has now been found, and addressed.  Yes, ground treated, but most importantly, there is a massive section of permanently dry earth under the house now.

Also, on my  Structural page, you can see where we hewed a new beam to replace the termite eaten Summer, and re-positioned the previously fallen in floors.   That was some years ago too.  The Foundation that owns the place is not very good at raising money, and so far have paid for all the work out of their own pockets, so work has been piecemeal towards most important to save the house.

[Eric.]

21 hours ago, Tom King said:

No bagging. Saturating everything with Boracare, but more importantly, I designed, and installed, in 2011, a waterproofing system for the basement.  Water had been standing under the house forever, but you can kick dust down there now.  Once the termites lost their source of water, they moved on to easier pickings.  You can see the waterproofing job on the "basement waterproofing" page of my website linked to below.  All termite damage has now been found, and addressed.  Yes, ground treated, but most importantly, there is a massive section of permanently dry earth under the house now.

Tom, is it true that mulch around a house will promote termite infestations?  I have mulch around a large portion of my house, none of which is above the foundation but it still makes me nervous.  It's a fairly dry plot but we all know mulch holds moisture.  What's your opinion?

[bgreenb]

1 hour ago, Eric. said:

Tom, is it true that mulch around a house will promote termite infestations?  I have mulch around a large portion of my house, none of which is above the foundation but it still makes me nervous.  It's a fairly dry plot but we all know mulch holds moisture.  What's your opinion?

If you're worried about it, it's quite simple and cheap to just put a few baits around your foundation and check them every few months to see if the bait is still there.  I did that for my antique house reno last year because there was extensive termite (and powder post) damage.  The bug guy said he was fairly certain it was old damage but that we could be sure by doing the bait method.  After a full year of checking the baits were still intact so that convinced us that there were no more termites.  

[wtnhighlander]

@Eric. I had termites show up in my planting mulch a few years back, discovered during a yearly termite inspection. I removed the mulch and switch to fine gravel. No sign of them since.

[Tpt life]

2 hours ago, Eric. said:

none of which is above the foundation 

Visual inspection every time you mow. You will see the tube runs on the concrete. Problem areas are usually poured steps etc that hide those things. 

[Eric.]

23 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

@Eric. I had termites show up in my planting mulch a few years back, discovered during a yearly termite inspection. I removed the mulch and switch to fine gravel. No sign of them since.

Yeah gravel would definitely solve the potential problem, but I much prefer the look of mulch.  Better for the plants, too.  Guess I'll get a few baits.

[Tom King]

Sorry, I don't have an answer.  I thought I had found the all time best answer for termites when we cleared out around that house.  It was buried under a Wisteria, and Laburnum jungle-you couldn't even walk through it.  I told the bulldozer operator to keep going until he got to the end of the Wisteria, so we now have about an acre and a half cleared around the house.  I think that was back in 2009.

Anyway, when we were cutting up the Laburnums, it was the brightest yellow wood I've ever seen.  I cut some cookies just to have to show people, and tossed them over near the foundation, so they wouldn't get thrown away.  

I forgot about them, until someone showed up that I wanted to show the wood to.  When I picked them up, the undersides, that were on the ground, were completely covered with termites.  It was a woman, who was totally grossed out by the termites, so I just tossed them back on the ground.

The next day, or so, I picked one up to show another visitor.  They were still covered with termites, but they were all dead!  I knew that every part of the Laburnum tree is poison, so I thought I had just discovered the final answer to termites.

With visions of becoming rich, I tried the same thing over again, there and in other locations, with fresh Laburnum cookies, but have never been able to repeat the holocaust on termites effect.  They sure went after those first ones though.

[Tpt life]

Maponi logs were used as uprights for hammocks in Zim. One night in the ground and the subterranian area was Swiss cheese. 

[Tom King]

The visit by Dr. Carl Lounsbury was a lot of fun yesterday (he doesn't use the "Dr." in front of his name, and simply goes by Carl).  He's a really great guy.  He ended up staying about 3-1/2 hours.  Three of the Foundation members also attended.  We went all through the house, spending probably an hour and a half, and then he wanted to get his camera, dot it all over again, and we ended up taking a multitude of pictures, and measurements.

 I didn't even ask him to autograph all of his books that I own, and we parted good friends, that I'm sure will cross paths again.  He did get a kick out of me telling him that his books were the only period architectural history books that I couldn't find used on ebay (because people hung onto them), and we talked a good while about his books.  He said that the publisher made him take out 350 pages before they would print The Chesapeake House.  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/the-chesapeake-house-cary-carson/1113751941/2676221962489?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP2988&k_clickid=3x2988

Even the most qualified expert there is couldn't narrow the build date down to a small window, other than absolutely 18th Century-long complicated story.  We did find some good candidates for dendrology dating, and I have been in contact today with the Dendro specialist that Carl gave me the contact info for.

I'll post again when I know more, but the Foundation Board is slow to make a decision on anything, and the Dendro-Dater's fee is $2500.  There's no chance of any of the dendro candidate timbers getting wrapped up before they can come to a decision, because the stone foundation has to be rebuilt before any other work can be done.  The house is about a quarter mile back in the woods, has no electricity, or usable well back there, and I don't want to get into the stone work without either, so I'm doing other stuff in the meantime.

This is not the type of work for people who are in a hurry.  With new construction, there is a valid saying to choose two out of the three, of  Good, Fast, Cheap.  With this work, fast and cheap get thrown out of the conversation to start with.

 

[Tom King]

Money for the Dendrochronology testing was approved at the Board quarterly meeting today, after talking about it for the previous four.  I emailed the lab that does the testing, as soon as I got home from the meeting today.

Since I last posted in this thread, I've done a lot of research, and my latest thinking is that it was built in 1769, or the next few years.  If I'm right about this, all the written history about this place will change, and it will become a lot more important, but we'll just have to wait, and see.

Hopefully, the price of the dendro hasn't gone up since I last talked to the guy that does it, or else we'll have to wait for more meetings, and another decision.   If the price has not changed ($2500), we're good to go.