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PAGE 18A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. OCTOBER 7 2010
Who you gonna call?
Termite carpenter explains the problem
SWAN DRIVE-IN
THEATRE
Blue Ridge, GA
ADMISSION: Adults $6.00
Children ages 4-11 $3. OO
FM Stereo Sound 105.5
By Jeff Warren
Say I'm one lonely termite,
out on a scouting mission, up
from underground to sniff out the
wood sugar located in lumber.
Get a whiff of that: a major por
tion of stud wall newly damp
where rainwater has seeped be
side a leaky window molding.
Shazaam! Wait 'til I tell the
whole colony. I love my job. I
love the smell of cellulose in the
morning.
According to termite-repair
carpenter, Tom Moore, it hap
pens something like that when
ever termites discover a home all
prime for infestation.
Sometimes carpenter ants go
ahead of the termites, Moore
said. The ants gorge themselves
on untreated pine. "It looks like
it has layers cut into it," he said.
About the time the ants get going
well, termites show up to crash
the party. Termites can follow ant
tunnels to the feast site and then
muscle out the ants to have it all
for themselves, Moore said.
He said termites most often
infest where wood has become
dampened first. "It gets wet, and
it just rings a dinner bell for these
things," Moore said. A termite
colony always has scouts out
scouting, he said. They search for
wood and the cellulose sugar it
contains. They hunt it in a large
enough quantity to feed the
whole clan.
"When the cellulose is wet, it
puts out fumes, vapors they can
sniff out," Moore said. Let them
discover your house, and they
will mine it like the mother lode.
Termites work together the way
ants do, cooperating much like
an army. "It's pretty interesting
actually," Moore said.
Because termites need mois
ture to survive, they maintain
tunnels back to ground to period
ically return there and re-mois-
turize. But when they find a
pocket of wet wood inside the
wall of a house, they have found
enough moisture to sustain them
without returning to ground. That
bit of streamlining allows ter
mites to rev their chair rail chew
ing even higher.
"They can actually go from
your basement through your
walls all the way up to the roof,"
Moore said.
Where termites are at work
inside stud walls, you can some
times rub your hand over the
sheetrock of the wall and see the
surface flake away, Moore said.
"The paint just kind of crum
bles," he said, "and you see little
tunnels." That means termites are
eating the studs inside the wall
and penetrating outward through
the plaster of the wallboard to eat
the paper on the surface of that
sheetrock from underneath.
So who you gonna call? An
exterminator most probably. But
you will also need a carpenter to
clean up this mess and fix it back
right. It helps if that workman
understands the problem, Moore
indicated. For five years, Moore
performed termite damage repair
for an exterminator and later
launched his own business as a
termite-repair carpenter.
"If you have damaged wood
on a house, you want it put back
the way it was when the house
was built," he said. It is impor
tant to remove all of the damaged
wood, whole pieces of lumber
where any part was affected, he
Big Canoe Fitness Center reaches
out to local middle schools
On Tuesday, Sept. 21, both
Jasper Middle and Pickens
County Middle School 8th
graders were treated to a very in
formative and beneficial pro
gram presented by Steve Panetta,
director of Fitness, Glo Winters,
health coach, and Rosemary
Hecht, H20 instructor and per
sonal trainer from the Big Canoe
Fitness Center. The program fo
cused on living and eating for a
healthy lifestyle and was geared
to the middle school audience.
Students were presented with
visual representations of the
sugar and fat content found in
many favorite fast food and
snack items and then were given
healthier alternatives to choose
from. They were also instructed
in how to incorporate more exer
cise and movement into their
daily life styles.
The PC Youth Enrichment
Program was responsible for
bringing this very worthwhile
program to the middle schools in
Pickens County. The mission of
the Youth Enrichment Program is
to provide educational opportu
nities beyond the regular school
curriculum. It hopes to provide
student scholarships for educa
tional field trips, cultural aware
ness activities, after school
tutoring and extended media cen
ter hours for students, and effec
tive behavior and instructional
support programs. If you would
like to make a tax- deductible
contribution to the Youth Enrich
ment Program, you may send
your contribution to the follow
ing address: Community Foun
dation of Northwest Georgia, PO
Box 942, Dalton, Ga 30722-
0942. Please note on your check:
For PC Youth Enrichment Pro
gram.
Apple Season is upon us
The Lions Club sponsored a for the folks at the Pickens Sen-
trip to Merciers’ Apple Orchard ior Center.
Invite Santa to your Christmas Party.
770-894-7185
You would think the bags of
fresh apples is what got them
there... but I am convinced it
was the beautiful scenery of the
Blue Ridge Mountains on the
way up, or maybe it was the
warm fried pies once we got
there! Any way you look at it, a
good time was had by all! Ray
and Betty Ferrell (Lions Club)
were our cheerful captains that
day who kept us all safe and
comfortable!
Come join us here at the cen
ter. .. or on our next outing... just
come join us! 400 Stegall Drive,
Jasper 706-692-6133 M-F, 8-1.
explained.
After going back with new
wood, Moore carries the repair
through to the finish. His craft
isn't replacement construction, he
explained, but full restoration. "It
looks like no one was ever there,
but there's no bugs in the wall,"
he said.
Where he replaces sheetrock,
Moore goes back with green
board, the moisture-resistant
wallboard normally used in
kitchens and bathrooms. "It will
not disintegrate when water hits
it," he explained. "It's only like a
dollar more a sheet, and you get
that extra security."
Most termite repairs can be
handled in a day, he said. "At the
most, I might have to come back
a second day to match the paint
or something," he said. Repairs
can go longer when damage is
more extensive, but about 80 per
cent can be handled in a day or
two, Moore said.
Termite colonies swarm in
March, ganging out into the open
to prance a winged frenzy and
spread the feast. They are wing
less the rest of the year.
By fixing termite damage
ahead of March, you can avoid
the swarm. Then, having an ex
terminator re-treat your home to
establish a termite barrier around
the foundation should restore
protection, Moore said.
The way to determine the
cause of wood damage is to open
things up and have a look at the
inside. Moore said he can iden
tify the source of a problem. "I
can tell if it's moisture, pocket
rot, or if there's termites in it—
recent or after the fact," he said.
Pocket rot is dry rotten wood
that decayed due to moisture but
has since dried out again, he ex
plained. In cases of recent ter
mite infestation, "You can break
apart the wood, and there's bugs
still in it," Moore said. When it's
after the fact, you see the damage
but no bugs. They have moved
on further into your house.
As a preventive measure,
Moore can go over a house,
checking suspect areas with a
moisture meter—wet wood
being the thing that attracts ter
mites.
"You gotta fix that hole in the
roof or the soffit or where the
siding's busted," he said.
Sometimes window frames
become damaged by moisture,
Moore said, because metal flash
ing over the top does not extend
wider than the window frame.
That flashing should be wider
than the frame and rounded
down at the ends to protect the
window molding from rainwater.
Otherwise, the mitered joint at
the molding comer can catch rain
drips, channel them into and
along the window frame and ul
timately inside the wall. That
is when termites smell wet wood
and show up for dinner as Moore
explained.
A close eye on home mainte
nance can head off such prob
lems. When it is too late for that,
you need a specialist to put it
back right.
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