Termite inspections are how important your house to be free of termites? People faced the problem of termites in their homes know how much it hurts. When you see the wood in your house is crumbling because of termite, the clothes in your closets are getting damaged because of termites and things getting spoiled. It’s not just an economical lose but it is also a personal damage to our mental health because it is an indication that it will stay there cause it becomes a huge challenge to eliminate termite form your existing households.
In this blog we will discuss about the termites, anti-termite treatment in new construction or in the existing households.
What is termite and why is it in our home?
Homes, industrial buildings, apartments are existing or even if it is new, one of the major problem is termite. Termite is insects which lives in the soil. They have colonies in the soil at various depth based on the types of species. You will have a queen, soldiers who defend the colonies and workers who brings food for the colonies.
Termite lives in the soil where they can get food form the roots of plants. Now we have just vanished out the plants or grasses and build the houses, apartments or industrial buildings. Once we built it now they again go and search out for the food source. Workers termite are blinds, they will go until they get food.
Food Source of The Termites :
Food source for the termite is cellulose based products, anything which is rich in cellulose will be a food for termites. Three major food sources are woods, clothes and paper, they can destroy it like nothing. They have forging nature, we have seen many times the lining of termites at various places but not insects cause they have gone there in search of food but not able to find anything so the route is gone.
Pre-Construction Anti-Termite Treatment
The best practices to do anti termite treatment in any construction project, there are the set of protocols based on the bureau of Indian Standard a code for pre construction anti termite treatment that is BIS 6313 PART – II and it is revised regularly to pace up with the new technology coming up in the construction industry so the best practices are always along with this code.
See the pre-construction treatment is not only the one time treatment, the process is done in the stage wise construction as the building construction progress. The soil which comes into the contact of structure must be chemically treated.
Most common Practises
There are many famous common practises but here we talk about RCC frame structure. In case of RCC frame structure, you have column and base joining with the beams you do not need to treat anything at the footing level because the column is dense enough to stop the termite. Instead of this we treat the backfilling soil starting at the depth of 500 mm from the ground level.
Second is below the floor, before laying the floor, when we complete the leveling, compacting and watering and when we are ready for PCC work that is the time when you do the tratment. In this one common mistake is that if there is any conduit, the treated soil is removed and again then we do backfilling with untreated soil. Due to this mistakes we can see the termite is coming from the switch boards or taps of bathrooms etc.
Post-Construction Anti-Termite Treatment
In the existing building, everyone has built their house or individual structure differently. The post construction anti termite treatment is done as per the BIS code 6313 PART – III and it is more theoretical than practical access. Part III says if we have to do treatment on the flooring than for grid of 300 mm drills hole of 8 to 10 mm and upto depth around 200 mm. The drilled hole is than filled with the chemical to treat the entire soil beneath the flooring of house.
Now just imagine if you build your house paying a hundreds or thousands rupees for flooring material, would you do this treatment in? No it is not possible.
In this type of case we don’t depends on the code instead of we do it based on our visual inspection and expertise. The post construction is a customized solution for every particular structure.
In the existing building, termites can come from the different routes. Normally it comes
- From the door frames through the PCC
- From the backside of cupboard bolt which penetrated the plaster.
- It comes from the brick joint and find a gap to enter.
- From the switch board.
- Conduit for the wiring.
Safety and Environmental Considerations
Proper Handling:
- Ensure that termiticides are handled and applied by trained professionals to avoid health hazards.
Environmental Impact:
- Choose environmentally friendly termiticides and follow guidelines to minimize environmental impact.
Remember one thing when you are inviting paste control operator in your house, you are allowing him to spread poision in your house that is the basis facts. If he doesn’t know how to use it or if he doesn’t know how to apply it, it can lead to disaster.
You have to be very sure when you are talking about to find the people whom you are employing for this treatment.
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