• June

    17

    2016
  • 1309
  • 0

What Causes Trailer Wood Flooring To Become Damaged and How to Protect and Repair It?

[ad_1]

Utility trailers wood flooring can over time rot, warp, or become infested with insects causing you to have to repair or replace the wood and once you do that you will want to protect it from happening again. The wood flooring can rot because of a number of reasons, weather, rain or snow being large reasons, another being insect infestations, or overly heavy loads compared to the wood used for the flooring. Maybe it is just plain old and in need of a new floor and with all the rips and tears into it the floor it just gave in to ‘old age’. If it was an enclosed trailer maybe there was a small leak in the trailer you never noticed and over time the leak weakened the wood flooring causing rotting, warping and molding.

Insect infestation is a common cause of deteriorated wood in the flooring, insects such as carpenter bees, carpenter ants and termites are common wood loving insects. Carpenter ants do not eat wood, but they still destroy it as they remove the wood to create tunnels for their homes. Carpenter bees also do not eat the wood, but unlike honey bees who form nests in the ground, carpenter bees build their nests in wood, so they saw away at your wood creating there place to live. But termites do eat the wood, a termite infestation can be a bad one, termites will continue to chip away at all available wood and they will not stop there, they will move onto paper, cloth, and carpets, they will eat just about anything. Another insect infestation can come from powderpost beetles; these are a species of woodboring beetles, they feed on trees, hardwoods and softwood, everything from flooring, toys, books, tool handles, pretty much any wood they find, including trailer wood flooring.

The most important thing to do is to choose the right wood for the projects you plan to do with your trailer and make sure if they are not naturally protected then you take the time out and protect them yourself. Some woods are stronger and more durable than others, some have natural insect and weather repellents in them, others do not, you have to choose the right wood for your job. As for plywood to replace your flooring, think Apitong/Keruing Plywood, this wood has a 30% better strength-to-weight ratio than pine plywood, and if traveling over the ocean this wood also makes a stronger more durable choice. Once you have your new trailer wood floor cover it with a weather resistant stain to seal your wood, this will help protect the wood from rotting or warping.

Apitong is also used for laminated flooring mixed with Malaysian wood this glues wood strips together to create the flooring, this is ideal for vans and truck bodies. Apitong/Keruing has been the hardwood choice used in trailer wood flooring since the 1960s, the only issue with this flooring is that it does not have a natural protection form termites or powderpost beetles, but this can be an easy fix. Your best bet to protect your wood from termites or powderpost beetles is to make your own insecticide to cover your wood with. Mixing borate insecticide and water (2parts water to 1 part borate) mix and cover your entire wood flooring with the liquid using rubber gloves; this should protect your new wood floor from new insect infestations.

[ad_2]

Source by John F Christianson

© Copyright 2016 - Luxury Flooring Inc Designed By: AGC MEDIA