Tales Of An Old Car, An Old Ship And An Old City
February 1999

What do a rare 1947 Buick, a sailing ship, and Venice, Italy have in common with your home? All of them are depending on borates to keep their wooden components in good condition. As in the construction of new homes and for pre-existing homes and structures, 20 Mule TeamŪ products, such as Tim-borŪ Professional Wood Preservative/ Insect Control and Tim-borŪ Industrial Wood Preservative are being used to treat car, boat and city against decay fungi and wood-infesting pests.

A wheel rescue

Antique car collector Paul Murdock of Brea, California, U.S., was not happy when he found a mushroom growing on his 1947 Buick Roadmaster 70 Series "Woody" station wagon. Upon closer inspection, Murdock also found that some of the laminated wood on the stored car showed signs of dry rot.

Murdock called Gordon Termite Control in Rosemead, California, for help. Ken Gordon, president, found the antique car was heavily infested with dry rot and had a drywood termite problem, too. The machine - believed to be one of only three remaining - was taken apart. The infested wood exterior and many complex wooden structural components were then treated with Tim-bor Professional. Tim-bor Professional killed the dry rot fungi on contact and eliminated the drywood termite infestation. It penetrated deep into the wood to provide long-lasting protection. The treated wood components are now sealed.

Unfortunately the problem was caught too late for several structural wood components. Murdock has hired craftsmen to remanufacture those parts to match the grain and look of the original mahogany and northern ash. Once the new wooden parts are completed, Gordon Termite Control will protect them with a Tim-bor Professional spray treatment just as house timbers are, and then the rare Buick 'Woody' can be reassembled and restored to its original beauty. Ken says that while the job was one of the more unusual he has done, he is confident the treatment will protect the Buick for many years and miles.

Setting sail with Tim-bor Industrial

A ship that has yet to touch water is being protected against future infestation with Tim-bor Industrial. The schooner Sultana, a replica of an 18th century sailing boat, has more that 10,000 board feet of timber - all treated with Tim-bor Industrial. The keel has been regularly treated since it was first cut in 1997 and will continue to be throughout its construction, as will other parts of the schooner. Once commissioned, the boat will become a floating classroom for history and environmental sciences, and is a project of Chester River Craft and Art in Chestertown, Maryland, U.S.

"There are four reasons why we chose Tim-bor Industrial," says Drew McMullen, Sultana project director. "It is environmentally preferred to petroleum-based products, it is water-soluble, easily absorbed into wet wood, and it doesn't produce any fumes." Drew explains that the freshly-cut wood is treated a number of times before it is sealed with a linseed oil, turpentine and tar mixture. Most of the timber used in the schooner will undergo Tim-bor Industrial treatment.

One of the advantages of Tim-bor Industrial, its water solubility, means it is highly mobile within the timber. So over time, as the schooner's wood ages and moves, new surface areas will be exposed and the existing protection may leach out. For the Sultana, the wood treatment will be a continuing process.

While the Sultana begins its life afloat sometime in 2001 with the advantage of borate pre-treatment, other, older ships have been given life extensions long after their maiden voyages by borate treatment. Some of the more famous ships already benefiting are the U.S.S. Constitution, the Wapama, and the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's ill-fated flagship and Captain Cook's Discovery.

Boron helps stop the collapse of Venice

Venice. City of romance and beloved of lovers has that sinking feeling. But don't blame the love bug. It's other destructive bugs that are part of the problem. The city is subsiding into the soft, porous seabed underneath by about three millimeters each year. Destructive air pollutants are eroding the city's facades, and microbes are eating away at the millions of centuries-old wooden pilings that support the city's more than 30,000 buildings. This is a problem which has been exacerbated by age, but one which even brand new buildings face unless their timbers have adequate protection.

One man, according to an article in Scanorama, the SAS Airlines in-flight magazine, has been charged with arresting the city's rate of descent. Swedish 'building biology' professor Allan Jerbo has designed the treatment method. "The most important reason for the increasing decay in La Serenissima (the most serene city) is that the microbes are literally eating up the pilings," says Jerbo, who is from the island of Aland in the Baltic Sea. "The only salvage method is to resolutely attack the microbes directly."

The formula he is applying checks the growth of the microbes. As he puts it, "I confront them with boron." He says that while boron in trace amounts is a life-necessity for all types of organisms, in larger concentrations it becomes deadly to microbes. Low-pressure borate injections into Venice's wooden pilings is stopping further degradation and preventing re-infestation. Jerbo has used a similar strategy for historic buildings in the Nordic cities of Gothenburg, Helsinki and Turku.

The Venice project will continue at least until the year 2050 when most of the city's pilings will have been 'boronated'. Jerbo says the treatment is ecologically friendly and cheaper than installing new building foundations.

From a historic but modern schooner, to a 50 year-old car, to wood pilings supporting a city, Tim-bor Professional and Tim-bor Industrial are helping to preserve our industrial and cultural history.