Termite and beetle proof flooring?

Hi All, I live in the Philippines, in a house with 2 floors, upstairs has wood flooring and the termites and beetles(bok bok) drives me crazy, I painted everything with 1L tar mixed with 8L diesel, this shoould keep them away for 15 years, but we were not able to paint in between the floor boards so the beetles get in anyway.

The problem originate from the contractor plaining the floor boards but not painting the sides with solignum(wood protector) before putting them in permanent(stupid I know, but that is what you get here sometimes).

I could take all the floorboards out and paint with tar and replace the broken ones, but at this point I'm tired of repairing and want another solution, where I don't have to do this over in 15 years.

Which brings me to the question of, are there any floor boards made in a material that termites and other bugs will stay away from - Plastic(Temperature independent, it get to be 40-50 degrees Celsius in the summertime), Carbon fiber, other?

If so where can I order them, links please?

They should be, size in Inch and feet: "size will come later today, as neighbor borrowed my measuring tape" - But for thickness 2 or 3 inch, and wide it should be something like 6 or 8 inch - unless the material is stronger and allow less in size. Also weight is an issue here, so that should be at a minimum.

Look at the photos attached
Living room downstairs, Hardiplex ceiling

Living room downstairs, connection to hall way

Hallway

Hallway

Upstairs

Upstairs

85m2 apartment

Floor upstairs

Looking up at the beams and the support for flooring, floorboards painted with tar.


Hope someone can help and thank you in advance

Jan

 

Sir, you have posted one of the most interesting set of questions I think I have ever read on this forum. I am sorry but I cant even begin to comprehend your situation or offer any advice!

I look forward to comments my fellow posters may provide!

 

Since I can't edit anymore, i post the size here:

Size in cm(centimeter): Thickness 4cm, and wide 18cm, length 325cm - unless the material is stronger and allow less in thickness size. Also weight is an issue here, so that should be at a minimum.

 

Hi Marq1, no need to call me sir I'm just like anyone else And Yes it will be interesting to see what answers come up

Thank you for the comment, it made me smile

Jan

 

I never heard of Solignum, so I looked it up and see that cypermethrin is the active ingredient. That would not be my choice for wood-destroying insects or wood preservation. Possibly there is another chemical in there that does the wood preservation. Here in the states, Bora-care and Tim-bor are very popular for wood-destroying insect protection in and on the lumber as well as wood preservation. They are elemental boron with a glycol that takes them, at least the Boracare, into and throughout the wood. Tim-bor is more surface oriented but works well anyway and both last for decades as they are inorganic boric acid basically. I see a shiny finish on your wood so neither of these will work as they have to be applied to unfinished, unstained, unpainted wood only.

1 liter of tar mixed with 8 liters of diesel; how bad is the odor inside the house? Isn't that a potential fire hazard as well?

I'm not up to date on flooring products, but anything that is made of processed wood, meaning waste sawdust, wood particles, and glued back together would not be attractive to wood-destroying insects. As I get more time, I'm curious enough to look it up and I'll post anything that I find.

 

I looked up alternatives to wood flooring and found a few things; google searching turned up options. Vinyl Plank Flooring was interesting to me. Do you have sub-flooring? I don't know of wood alternatives for that though. Plywood is resistant to termites/wood destroying beetles at least here in the US. I'm wondering how it would hold up in the humid climate of the Philippines.

 

@PAbugman, The tar gives a a bad smell for a couple of days, but not something you can't live with(we paint it step by step, so at least we have another place in the house we can stay). Hazzard should be null, as its very hot here and the diesel will evaporate over time and the painted area will be covered with hardiplex which do not burn.

The main problem is that the floor was not taken care off before putting in permanent, by either the first contractor or the one who repaired it a year later, even though I told them to and were there most of the time. If I have to repaint with your choices then I will have to remove the whole floorin(might have to do that anyway). So I'm more interested in what alternative flooring is out there so I don't have to do that ever again.

It has to be able to withstand temperature of 35-50 degrees celcius and not get soft.

No subflooring and plywood here, over time get bok bok and termites, many regret to have used that as flooring, walls yes flooring no.



with kind regards

Jan

 

My concern is that the diesel/tar treatment will have penetrated into the wood and can't be removed as a hard finish could, and it will block the bora-care/tim-bor from penetrating into the wood.

If sub-flooring isn't used then you'll need something more structural than Vinyl Plank Flooring I'm thinking, though I don't want to be the last word on that.

 

For flooring you will have to see what options you have available locally. Many of the products we have in North America might not be available to you. Wood is almost always the least expensive option which is why it is so popular around the world. In high humidity and insect prone areas concrete is also a common option. Probably not a easy retrofit for your house though. There are synthetic flooring materials that are structural but they are premium product costing several times more than wood.