Chemotherapy for wood rot

[jguyer]

A Firend of mine who has owned and maintained a 1930's vintage wooden sail boat for 40 years told me about a treatmet for wood called "Chemotherapy for wood rot." It is a mixture of 50% green antifreeze, 22% boric acid and 28% 20 muel team borax ( measured by weight) then boil until it reaches 250 degrees. Has anyone heard about this or tried it??
I am planning on doing 'some' deck recoreing and chain plate buldhead reinforceing this winter. I plan to remove as much rotted core as possible , but acoording to my firend "the spores go beyond the rot and need to be killed. A penetrating epoxy will not kill all the spores, so your repair will not last," I have no dout that this mixture will penetrate the wood and kill any spore and that it will penetrate wood deepen than penetrating epoxy. However, I am concerned that the epoxy may not bond to wood core material treated this way. Any thoughts anybody??

 

[woodster]

A Firend of mine who has owned and maintained a 1930's vintage wooden sail boat for 40 years told me about a treatmet for wood called "Chemotherapy for wood rot." It is a mixture of 50% green antifreeze, 22% boric acid and 28% 20 muel team borax ( measured by weight) then boil until it reaches 250 degrees. Has anyone heard about this or tried it??
I am planning on doing 'some' deck recoreing and chain plate buldhead reinforceing this winter. I plan to remove as much rotted core as possible , but acoording to my firend "the spores go beyond the rot and need to be killed. A penetrating epoxy will not kill all the spores, so your repair will not last," I have no dout that this mixture will penetrate the wood and kill any spore and that it will penetrate wood deepen than penetrating epoxy. However, I am concerned that the epoxy may not bond to wood core material treated this way. Any thoughts anybody??

don't know about your mixture ...but for the chain plates if there is rot i would
i would make a pattern of each bad one and cut out the old one and replace with new made out of good marine grade plywood and glass them in with woven glass cloth and west system resin.....as far as the core rot i would also replace the core material by cutting the skin off the boat and saving it so as to be able to replace and keep the original appearance of the glass work...some times short cuts are not the best path to travel

 

[RichH]

Many of the wood boat folks I know use Smith & Co Penetrating Epoxy ... readily soaks into the rot and encapsulates the fungal (mycelia) filaments that are the agents of 'spreading' rot. Spores dont form internal to wood, only through the 'fruiting bodies' (similar to mushroom caps) that are on the surface.

With cored structure ... the core carries very little stress ... the epoxy encapsulation of the core restores the 'connection' to the outer layers and holds them 'in place', thus restores most of the structural integrity.

 

[jguyer]

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate your input. Im am thinking I may need to re core my entire cabin roof and maybe replace 1 chain plate bulk head. I think the other 5 may be OK. The top 1/4 appears rotted but the rest appear OK. I wont know for sure until I unbolt the chain plates. I want to stop what ever rot is started before it gets worse. I will post picts in another thread.
I am really not looking for a 'short cut' the reality is that I am considering an additional step before using a penetrating epoxy. Also, I don't want to seal in new core material with mold spores. I am just not sure epoxy will bond to wood teated with green anti freeze.