Hawaii was paradise. Lots of sandy floors to explore, I mean inspect. But Hawaii's climate is pretty nice, and not real conducive to wood floor problems (other than termites). Temperatures are pretty stable and vary from about 60 to 90. RH varies from the 50% range to 70s.
The big thing at the pest control conference this year was bed bugs. If you haven't had them yet, you will. They bite at night and suck blood. Kind of like a mosquito that can't fly. Lots of hotels and motels are getting them. They get on you or in your clothes and you take them home as little souvenirs of your trip.
Common treatments for bedbugs are to freeze them or cook them. Freezing involves spraying dry ice around. Cooking them involves heating the space up to about 130 degrees F.
Imagine what those temperatures could do to wood flooring. Boy, do we get way outside the recommended temperature range. The good thing is that these treatments are normally pretty quick, so damage can be non-existent. But when something goes wrong, I suspect we could see some interesting issues. I'll post some more about it on my website at www.rlcengineering.com/bedbugs.
Aloha, Hawaii. Now it's back to the real world.
