Strength Of Wood Walls

If you look closely, you'll see a carpenter ant surveying its work. (Photo ...

Home inspectors see a lot of homes. We also see a lot of bugs. There are a few that we don’t particularly like. They even have an acronym – WDI’s. Sounds official enough. Wood-destroying insects (WDI) are a bane to houses and to those that own them. A typical homeowner's insurance policy does not cover destruction caused by wood destroying insects, even though they cause millions of dollars in damages to homes throughout BC every year.

Carpenter ants are kind of like humans when we smell something good to eat. When we pass a bakery and smell fresh baked goods we are drawn in, and have something to munch on. Carpenter ants think of  wood the same way. Carpenter ants do not normally attack good wood. They prefer wood that has been damaged by something else, usually water. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t found in areas without apparent moisture. They like areas of minimal air change. These areas are mostly the ones you can’t see.

Carpenter ants are tremendous scavengers and they are willing to travel many ant miles to survive. Because of that, it’s not uncommon to see a wayward ant in your home from time to time. If there is a colony within a few hundred feet of your house you can count on the odd visit or two. Sometimes there are a series of transitory conditions that are causing their presence. Sometimes these “instant invasions” can end on their own. Carpenter ants are outside insects. They actually prefer the outside.

Though not always the case, when carpenter ants are found in a structure, they are there because of a moisture problem somewhere inside or adjacent to it. The first thing that everyone sees is the ants. Sure, they need to be dealt with, but more importantly, the moisture problem needs fixing. If you worry about the ants and don't fix the water problem, the ants will be back no matter what you do.

Carpenter ants chew out coarse sawdust size pieces in wood to make galleries in which to live and raise their young. This "sawdust" is then pushed out of the nest area and is one characteristic sign of an infestation. If between the walls, this may not be visible. Once infested the galleries honeycomb the wood and may ruin its structural strength. Wood that is infested is frequently, however, weak to begin with.

Strengthening Your Garage Door | Great Household Articles

Garage door is a mechanical device which is mostly installed in wooden material and everyone knows about strength and reliability of wood. Wood is most used material for making garage doors but this popularity of wood is due to its attractive and elegant designs otherwise wood is a very unreliable material. You can have a very attractive and unique looking garage door made of wood which cannot only match with the overall home exterior but it can also enhance the overall home exterior. To integrate that kind of beauty and attraction in your home exterior, you must use wooden doors but you should also pay some attention towards their reliability and strength. There are different methods available which you can use to enhance the strength of wooden door.

First and simplest method is to insulate your wooden door. Insulation is most used process of increasing wooden door’s strength but some people hesitate to insulate their door because it costs them extra money and insulation of wood is always done with a high quality insulator which is always expensive. Though insulation increases the overall cost of wooden door but it also make sure that your door will stay intact throughout the year. If you cannot afford insulation then, there is another method available which is very cost effective and budget friendly.

You can use steel and rubber seals to protect wooden door. These seals make sure that no extra moisture contacts with the internal skin of wood. These seals are unadventurous just from one aspect that they will disturb the wooden design of door. You can install them during harsh weather and can remove them during mild weather.

These two above mentioned methods are largely practiced but designers and technicians have also introduced another material which is called composite garage door material. This material is basically mixture of wood with some other more reliable material like steel or vinyl.

You can also say that this material is another form of steel or rubber seals because in that process, seals were installed randomly and without thinking about the door design but these mixtures are made with exact preparation and calculation. Designer pay special attention towards these materials and make sure that wooden design is not disturbed. In most of the cases, these materials increase the attractiveness of door design. You can utilize any of the above methods to make your door to stay throughout the year. You can choose anyone of them but my personal recommendation will be insulation. Insulation is expensive but it will keep the door design intact and will stay intact through every kid of weather.

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