Treating Wood Foundation Pillars

[sleepy]

 We're about to start our log home and we're going to build the log shell on a temporary pillar foundation made of oak. My concern is rot and termites. We live in middle Georgia where the termites find any wood that stays on the ground for very long. I thought about treating the bottoms and sides with a disel fuel and burnt motor oil mixter. I've seen my uncle use this concoction with good results. What do you guys recommend?  :-\

[Furby]

Can you explain why you are building it on temporary wood pillars in the first place?

[scsmith42]

I use Timbor.   You can buy it off of e-bay for around 80 bucks for a 5 gallon pail.  This in turn makes 25 gallons of treatment.

[sleepy]

I should have explained we're building a handcrafted log home from scratch on a temporary foundation much like other handcrafted builders do. Once the shell is complete we will dismantle and move it to the permanent foundation. Wood pillars are easy to set and level.
Thanks scsmith42 I'll check out Timbor.

[Furby]

I guess I gotta ask how long is temporary?
If it's just gonna be until fall or something I might not use anything , but I don't live down there, so I don't know.

[sleepy]

Furby I hope to be moving it next fall. I'm worried about this next summer.

[ljmathias]

I would guess Georgia termites are as hungry as those over here in Mississippi- and they're fast, too.  I put stakes down for my batter boards and footing supports, pulled them out after two weeks or so, and termites had already tunneled along the surface of most and into the heart of some.  Of course, SYP 2X4's are not quite as "hard" as oak but I would think a month on the ground and they'd be pretty well infected.  I'd worry they might burrow into your frame and make problems.  Would timbor or other quick treatments be effective enough? Why not buy a few treated 6X6's for a couple hundred bucks from one of the big box stores?  Depending on your footprint, you would only need a handful, and there's always a use for such posts later... like for the deck that will stretch along the front of your new house?

Anyway, just a suggestion to be safe rather than regretful later when a "couple of months" turns into half a year or more (at least it would for me...)

Happy New Year!

Lj

[Raider Bill]

Down here in Florida I Timbor everything that sits even near the ground, attic's, crawl spaces even wall studs. Even if you use treated wood they will use that to reach the untreated sweet stuff.
It's finely ground boric acid, safe and easy.
I have 5 - 5 gallon pails of it ready to go to Tenn as I type.
Another good one is Termidor.

[JGroebner]

Boron rods work well on areas of concern (ends), we use penetreate on ALL our timbers as it works as both an insecticide and pesticide and is all natural.

www.loghelp.com  Schroeder sells this product and for 20 years it hasn't failed.

Jared

[PineNut]

Termites here in Mississippi have quite an appetite. They also work rather quickly.

Monday – Cut a deal
Tuesday – move in
Wednesday – feast
Thursday – move out
Friday – for sale

[sleepy]

Thanks everyone for the response.
Jared have you had problems with  penetreat leaching out when the your timbers get wet or do you stain right away. I have some penetreat that I was going to use to treat my logs with as I put them on the wall but the label says that if not stained right away it would leach. We used Log Keeper when I went to school but Log Keeper has been discontinued. Does anyone have sugestions on what perservative to us while building until I get ready to stain. Could I use Timbor?

[sleepy]

Thanks for the help everyone, I just relized that Timbor and Peneteat both contain the same active ingredient: Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate 98%

Thanks,
Sleepy