PACIF|C HARDWOOD SALES CO.

P1ACERVI11E 1UTBER COTPA]IY

P.O. Box 752,Placewille, Cqlif. Mqnufqcfurers

SPECIATIZING IN ROOF DECKING

Telephone: Plocervitte-NAlionql 2-3385 directors and donors should be comolirnented for their devotion to duty in doing their part for the nation's lumber industry.

Offrcers of the Wood Council of Sacramento are : Bill Baird, president; Bill Haskin, treasurer; and Jack Berry, secretary. Directo,rs are F. S. Beckstrom, Jack Hackard and Cal Setzer.

Donors (rn'ith the membership list still growing) are:

Retail Lumberyards: Arden Lumber Company; Burnett & Son Planing Mill & Lumber Co.; California Manufacturing Co.; Capital City Planing Mill,

Capital Lumber Co.; Diamond National Corp.; Economy Lumber Co.; Friend & Terry Lumber Co.; and Union Planing Mill.

Distributors and Manufacturers : Berco Manufacturing Co.; Jack Berry Lumber Co.; Earl Bleile Forest Products Co.; The Black Diamond Co.; Boeggeman Lumber Co.; Bremner Lumber Sales Co.; Caldwell Lumber Sales ; California Builders Supply Co. of Sacramento; Capitol Plywood, Inc. ; Gabbert Lumber Sales, Inc.; GeorgiaPacific Corp.; Glenbrook Lumber Co.; Gordon-MacBeath Hardwood Co. ;

Hedlund Lumber Sales; Lausmann Lumber & Moulding Co.; Lumber Dealers Materials Co.; R. F. Nikkel Lumber Co.; Norco Distributing Co.; \\r. R. Sayre Lumber Sales, Inc.; Setzer Forest Products: U. S. Plvwood Corp.; and \A'endling-Nathan ComDanv. - Office of the Wood Council of Sacramento is maintaine d at 2118 P Street ; telephone : GI 3-2087.

Trees are a renewable crop. They are grown, then harvested when mature. iust as corn is.

Protection Against Termites - Houses with Slab Floors

In previous issues r,r'e have made recommendations for protection against subterranean termite attack of houses with basements and with cralvl sDaces. Such houses are relatively easy to protect againsf termites compared to houses with concrete slab floors on the ground.

With slab floors it is of the utmost importance that no wood is left under the floor, neither buried in the earth nor on the surface of the ground. Remove all form boards, grade stakes, spreader sticks and scraps of lumber from fill and backfill. Do not build over tree stnmps or roots. Leave no wood scraps in or on the ground under steps, porches, breezeways or terraces.

Try to build on a knoll with the ground sloping away from the house in all directions. Get the best drainage possible.

With slab floor construction there are three important prdte'ctive barrieqs against subterranean termites: soil covers, ground poisons and a well constructed slab.

Soil Covers

A rot and termite-proof vapor-barrier soil cover with a vapor transmission rate of one-half perm or less under the slab floor is one of the best protections against termite attack if the soil cover is installed correctly and remains unpunctured. All laps should be sealed. Lumber dealers should sell good soil covers. Among soil covers on the market are the following:

Crawl Space Felt-Johns-Manville.

Pren-oulded Membrane-W'. R. Meadows, Inc., Elgin, Illinois. New Angier Glass-Mat "55"*Angier Corp., Framingham, Mass. ft" Elasliboard Vapor Srtop (also thinner products)-Philip Carey Mfg. ,Co., Cin,ci'nnati 15, Ohio.

Ternrribar-B'ird & Son, Inc., East Walpole, Mass.

Ruberoid Crawl Space Cover-The Ruberoid Co., Ch'i,cago, Illinois. Ro'tbar f 5 Glas-Kraft-Glas-Kraft, Ing., I-onsdale, R. L Sisalkraft Vapors'top-American Si,salkmft Corp., Chicago 6, Illinois ; N'ew York 17. Ne*. York.

IJnfortunately my examinations of many jobs under construction showed hardly one soil cover installation for use under slabs, that was not punctured in more places than one. There were tears, loose holes around pipes, loose contact at edges and a general disregard for the good work necessary to make the soil cover effective; either to keep moisture from rising from the ground or to stop termites. This means that insistence on proper installation of the soil cover is a must. Hole,s around pipes should be tight and sealed with roofing grade coal-tar pitch. Soil cover must be tight against concrete walls and absolutely free of punctures and unsealed holes.

Safety requires that the soil cover be extended under porch floors, breezervays and entrance platforms.

Ground Poisons

Because one cannot be sure that an adequate soil cover has been properly installed, security demands that the earth under a concrete slab floor be poison treated, before laying the soil cover, to make the ground uninhabitable by termites. A water emulsion type of poison should be used under slabs.

Make sure that wells for water supply are not contaminated by the soil poison.

The F.H.A. and the U. S. Department of Agriculture recommend the following soil poisons in the water emulsion concentrations given; and applied as directed below:

O.S%-Aldin. Available as a liquid concentrate containing 2 pounds per gallon of the technical grade chemical. Dilute one gallon concentrate with 47 gallons of rvater.

0.8o/o-Gamma-Benzene Hexachloride. Available as a liquid concentrate containing l2/o gamma isomer. Dilute one gallon of concentrate rvith 15 gallons of water.

1.0o/o-Chlordane. Available as a 46/o liquid concentrate. Dilute one gallon of concentrate with 48 gallons of water.

0.5/e-Dieldrin. Available as a liquid concentrate containing I/2 pounds per gallon of the technical grade chemical. Dilute one gallon of concentrate u'ith 36 gallons of water.

You can purchase these chemicals fr,om your local feed, seed, garden supply or hardware store. Specify emulsifiable concentrate as above.

Apply an over-all treatment under entire surface of slabs including porch floors, breezeways and entrance platforms at rate of one gallon per ten square feet. If fill under slab is washed gravel, cinders or other coarse absorbent material, apply at rate of one gallon per seven square feet. Protect against disturbance until covered by slab.

Make sure the poison used is not a kind that will destroy the soil cover being used.

Apply along inside of all fo,undation walls and around pipes at rate of one gallon for each 2f lineal f.eet.

After grading is completed, dig a trench about six inches wide along outside of foundation walls. Trench may be about twelve inches deep, but not below top of footing.

Apply poison at rate of one gallon to 2l lineal fee't, mixing the chemical with the dirt as it is. returned to the trench.

Slabs

Concrete floor slabs must be reinforced to prevent cracks. The top of the slab should be at least eight inches aboye the outside grade and the lower six inches exposed to view to permit observation to detect any termite tunnels being built. See Figures 13 and 14 f.or types o'f slabs recommended,-.

Concrete slqb

Where termites are particularly bad, some authorities recommend that all wood construction be placed on concrete curbs raised six inches above the slab. This includes exterior walls, partitions, doors, cabinets, etc. This results in concrete baseboards showing and termites would have to build tubes in plain view over them to get to the wood. Such curb construction offers no protection to wood floons o,r carp,ets.

Opening in slabs around pipes should be filled with roofing grade coal-tar pitch or dense cement mortar.

The writer is preparing a plan in which plumbing and other pipes will go through a wall instead of through the slabs. This will remove the weakest link in our protection against subterranean termites in slab floor construction.

In the meantime adequate defense is made up of a good soil cover job, good ground poisoning and a well built itab.

Outside attachments like clothes-line posts, trellises, etc., should be built so as not to provide termite paths into the house.