This week I am in New Orleans at the National Pest Management Association meeting. What, you ask, does pest control have to do with hardwood floors? Well, the pest control industry deals with termites (the topic of my post from last week), as well as many other wood destroying organisms. Those organisms include wood boring beetles of several types, and mold, mildew and wood decay fungi. Those organisms like moisture, and moisture affects hardwood floors.
Pest control industry guidelines cover how to deal with those organisms in, around and under buildings. Those organisms, and their treatment, can affect hardwood floors. So I am here listening, learning, teaching and raising awareness.
When I first got involved with this industry about 20 years ago, guidelines (and some laws) were to increase ventilation if a crawl space had a moisture issue. Eliminating ventilation and adding dehumidifiers were such a foreign ideas that I nearly got run out of the room every time I brought it up. One of the regulatory people I kept pushing disagreed with the sealed/dehumidified approach, but ended up trying it in his own house with rousing success (after the increased ventilation approach failed). Even then, he was hesitant to push for a change in the regulations. Now, 20 years later, there is a whole sub-industry that seals and semi-conditions crawl spaces to control moisture and pests. This approach is becoming more accepted and routine.
Sealing and drying a crawl space can cause changes to a hardwood floor, or help reduce potential future issues. By working with the people who control moisture under floors, hopefully we can keep the unintended hardwood floor issues to a minimum. And the pest control industry is a major player in moisture control.
