pro-bor

[Anonymous]

has anyone had any experience of convincing building control officers or building insurers of the relative efficacy of brush-applied pro-bor to (say) tanalith E? Safeguard Chemicals themselves don't haver any documentation to support the use of thier products in new-build.

[Eco Design]

I'm not sure whether Building Control can prevent you using any or no timber treatments. I would question whether this comes within their remit. Insurers are a different matter. They make up the rules of business as they go along to protect them selves. Local Government Organisations can not prescribe any one manufacturer of technique but they leave it up to the building owner to proove a method is acceptable.

As a building contractor, we rarely use pretreated materials (except for windows etc.) and we site treat external timbers e.g. fascias etc. after cutting, Pro-bor or similar Borax based preservative. But we never treat internal timbers and have not been challenged by Building Control.

[Anonymous]

Biofa, the German natural paint manufacturer, also have a timber preservative on the market, available through Green Building Store or Villa Natura. It claims to be just as effective and less toxic. Does anyone have any test data or experience of it?

[Anonymous]

The most common thing I come across is woodworm attack, and I find it very difficult to say with any authority what the best way to proceed is. Obviously if you ask anyone who works for a professional treatment company, they'll say the only thing you can possibly do is napalm the hell out of everything, otherwise the house will definitely collapse. Other people say usually by the time you discover it the critters are long gone. Only occasionally have I found definite evidence of living critters. I'd love to know more about the life-cycle and behaviour of woodworm, but have never found any books on the subject. It's really hard to know if just painting a couple of coats of water based natural preservative like Biofa Nahos is actually going to sort the problem long term. Could someone write an Eco-Rentakil Encyclopedia perhaps? I'd buy it…..

[Anonymous]

You might be interested to look at the Hutton and Rostron website (www.handr.co.uk) “pioneers of chemical free management of timber decay”

[Author]

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