Treating Reclaimed Barn Wood For Termites

Simply scrub your lumber with a mixture of borax and water and allow it to soak into your wood.

Treating reclaimed barn wood for termites.

Borate is a water soluble chemical used to prevent and control termite infestations. The last step to clean and refinish your reclaimed wood is to properly seal the wood. Borax this is one of the most popular ways for eliminating existing wood boring insects from wood. Two applications of a 10 liquid solution are normally required.

There are products available that will renew the grey color if this happens. Within minutes the wood was looking much cleaner and i had lots of fun scrubbing that old nasty barn wood. Check the wood thoroughly for decay and rot. If it has small holes it probably has some.

The nice thing about borax is that is is completely safe for both humans and pets but it is deadly on insects. Your best option is to call your local orkin branch office and see if there is any way they can help you with this. I used minwax polycrylic water based protective finish in clear satin. Mostly it s important to get the wood 8 12 inches above grade on a material that termites can t wont eat.

Warning grey color can fade a bit to a more dark brown color during drying if the wood had previously been saturated. Next once the wood was dry i took it to the planer this cut the sanding process down 75. Barn wood that has been in touch with the ground is more likely to have insect problems. Make sure there are no insect infestations in your supply of barn wood.

Even better find a local kiln to dry the wood for you ask if there kiln gets hot enough to kill off the bugs. Prime the reclaimed wood with termite resistant solution to protect the wood from termites and other insects prime the lumber with a borax solution. Once treated the wood must be coated with a finish to seal in the borate. In some markets there may be some small fumigation chambers available where you could take the wood.

Once the wood was dry from its cleaning i used a regular paint brush and sparingly applied the minwax finish. Termites are poisoned when they eat the treated wood. Apply tim bor professional solutions by brush or spray at the rate of 5 gallons of liquid solution per 1000 square feet of wood surface area thoroughly wetting wood surface area. I washed down the old barn wood first then using the water hoes brush and adding 1 part bleach and 2 part water in the attached container i went to work.

If dry wood termites are present inside the pole barn tim bor professional solution should be used. This tends to be a problem when using reclaimed wood. The chemical diffuses into wood creating a barrier through which termites cannot pass. Make sure you have rubber gloves on for this step.