DO THIS Before you Drywall Your Remodel or New Build

on the build show today we're going DIY if you're building or remodeling a house I've got three ways that you can prevent termites cockroaches bugs and even mold from happening all for $200 or less on the build show today we're coming to you from a remodel project and I'm gonna show you three ways that you can prevent termite damage cockroaches small bugs and even mold from happening with just three steps and all this is gonna cost about 200 bucks for a standard sized remodel or house so let's get going we're gonna be talking specifically about three different products and the bulk of the heavy lifting is going to be this right here this is called boric air we're gonna get into that in a second we're also going to be using some boric acid and this is gonna be specifically for cockroach prevention and then we're also going to be using some caulking now there's a bunch of different options on this we're gonna get all that later but all combined for this 1500 square foot remodel we've got going here we spent about 200 dollars in supplies so this is pretty affordable now I do want to mention that this boric air that's going to be doing the bulk of the heavy lifting for us when it comes to bug prevention and termite proofing this is a product that if you're doing it for someone's houses for me as a builder for sale I need a licensed pest applicator to do this but because I'm doing this for one of my project managers who's remodeling our house we're not charging for this and so this is totally legitimate as far as I know in all 50 states check into your local rules but if you're doing this on your house or your friend's house or your parents house when you remodel or build you can use this product yourself no licensing needed okay so what is this product that we're using here boric air as the name implies there's borates in here and borates are a naturally occurring mineral in fact it's mined really in two places in the US and if you're familiar with your with the term 20 Mule Team borax that's a laundry additive that your grandmother may have used that's basically the same ingredient that's going into this it was originally mined in the early 1800s in Death Valley and it was pulled out of those mines with 20 Mule teams and that's where the name comes from but it's also mined in California this is basically a salt that's been dissolved or or in solution here and when you buy this one gallon here it actually makes six gallons of product now this one has mold care with it as well you'll notice there's compartments or to lids here so this is the Borah care which is the big compartment and then this mold care which is basically a biocide has been an added on this as well now if you don't want the mold care you can also buy this as just playing boric air it's gonna be a little less expensive but this bottle cost me about a hundred and ten dollars on Amazon just about everything we're gonna talk about today there'll be a link in the description below if you want to see that now you can get this without the mold care version for about 80 bucks to about a $30 savings and basically what you're gonna do is you're gonna mix this up and you're gonna spray it on the framing once you spray it on the framing the wood because it's a product that will absorb water it's gonna absorb this mineral this crystal into the wood fibers and then if termites were to visit your house and start chewing on that wood they're gonna ingest those borates and it's gonna kill them pretty rapidly now the reason why I like this in particular is because it's really not very toxic for humans this is a pretty safe product and in fact most green building programs list this as the best way to termite-proof a house much much better than let's say dumping a bunch of chemicals on the ground before you build your slab which is a usual method which in fact I did for many years and another method is bait stations which you have to renew often this one on the other hand is gonna last for the lifetime of the house so let's spend a few minutes on how we actually did this process on this house I want to give you some of the specifics and show you how easy it is so first of all we need to mix it up it's a little annoying that it requires six gallons you can't use a standard five gallon bucket so what you want to do is fill your five-gallon bucket with water and then I use the trash can basically a kitchen trash can that was ten gallons you're gonna pour about four gallons into that trash can and then you're gonna use a mixing paddle with your cordless drill it's really important to mix this product up and it takes in fact about five minutes of mixing to really ensure it's mixed in thoroughly you'll notice when it dumps out into the water it's real thick it's kind of a syrupy it's like you're putting maple syrup into the water so it really needs to be totally mixed up into that solution so like I said do four gallons dump all this in mix it for a couple minutes and then with that one gallon that's left over in that five-gallon pail you want a triple rinse this you want to really make sure that you've gotten everything out of the can and you're using all the products I think they also want you to triple rinse it so that this is safe to put in a recycle can the kids aren't going to get into that biocide on them so basically by triple rinsing it dump a little bit of that one gallon that's left in there we rinse it up real good dump it do that three times and you're gonna be all set now make sure like I said you go five minutes in total and once you do that you're ready to go now let's talk about PPE personal protective equipment if you're just using regular Bawra care without the mold care there's really not a lot you need long sleeves long pants they recommend you put gloves on and you have some basic eye protection but it's pretty inert pretty safe product not a lot you need if you're in an enclosed area though you do want to use a respirator now because this one has a biocide I took a little bit more precaution I wanted to be really safe I put a tie vac suit on basically a full-body suit I've got boots on I've got full glove protection and now I'm gonna use more like a splash goggle like a chemical resistant goggle I wonder need this getting into my eyes now I didn't wear a respirator cuz I'm in a big open stud area if you were spraying this in a crawl space for instance and you were spraying up at that framing or let's say if I wanted to do this whole ceiling area I would certainly recommend putting a respirator on or maybe even a full face shield you wouldn't want a lot of that coming down on your face but here's the process once you've got it mixed up you can use a pump sprayer and there's a couple options out there a really cheap option if you're just gonna do this one time is if probably a $15 one gallon chemical resistant pump sprayer but for 40 bucks you can get a four gallon backpack sprayer I happen to pick this one up on Amazon for $40 it's a roundup version I think I'll use it in the future so this was a good buy at 40 bucks and now I was able to dump 4 gallons of the solution in once I had my PPE on and I had the solution in my backpack sprayer pretty simple process we're basically gonna coat the entire house two feet and below that's really for termite protection the termites are going to come up through the slab and any cracks you might have through basement if you have a basement house they might tunnel on the outside of your house up until they hit some wood framing so we really want to make sure that we get everything 2 feet and below soaked now you can do this in a variety of ways but basically the way I like to do it is I want a picture frame each one of the stud Bay's this house worked well because we had a two-foot sheathing break in fact you know we use the method that I like which is where we use pressure-treated plywood at the bottom and so that pressure to plywood we're good there's not gonna be any termite damage there but we want to make sure there's the studs for sure are well coated and because this is the mold care product I want to go higher in anywhere that there could be any moisture areas where we've got plumbing in the house where we've got bathrooms I'm gonna actually go up to the 8 or 9 or 10 foot whatever the plate line is and coat the entire stud the entire sheathing what this is gonna do is it's gonna put a protective film basically on that wood and of course we've got them the termite treatment because it's gonna soak up that bore aid is gonna soak up in there but the bio side is actually gonna help that wood that if moisture happened let's say we had a water leak we had a window leak it's gonna make sure that mold won't form on the stud surface now you can actually use this on the back of your sheet rock as well let's say if you're doing a Remo we had some areas that sheet rock was already installed we're able to spray the back of the sheetrock anything that's cellulose based which is basically wood fibres we want to spray that and treat it and protect it if you really were mold sensitive or you're really worried about mold you could actually even treat your drywall before you installed it you'd want to do both sides and you want to let it dry before you install it but if you really had some mold sensitivities that could be a way to go as well spend some time especially in your bathroom area is paying attention to making sure you get it on the concrete slab or whatever is your subfloor by at least a couple of inches pay attention where you've got hold down bolts where you've got electrical wires all those sorts of things we want to make sure everything gets a really solid coat you don't want it running off if it's if it's not soaking up and running off that means you've gone too heavy but I did use the red spray tip on this which is the high flow spray tip don't use the low spray tip and on this remodel like I said there was about 1500 square feet I was easily able to coat all those areas with the six gallons in fact I had a little bit left over now if you've got some left over you're gonna dump it at the end because you don't want to hold it in your tank overnight it's gonna start to crystallize in the tank it's gonna ruin your sprayer so just use what you need at the time by how much you need and use it all in one and one application in one setting and remember you want to keep the house dry after that if this was an outdoor area let's say this was a shed or maybe a pergola that was gonna get wet eventually that water is gonna leach it out and it's gonna lose its effectiveness but because this is a framed house it's been dried in as long as this house is kept dry we're good to go ok number two now that you've got the boric air with mold care on the house the second thing that we're gonna do is a borate acid treatment now this is really for cockroaches and you're gonna use this anywhere you've got voids in the house and I typically would wait to do this maybe until insulation is installed but in this case the insulator hasn't arrived yet so we're gonna run it in all the places that we know we can hit now underneath all of our tubs I'm gonna put it at the base of all of my interior walls if you had let's say an unconditioned attic meaning a ventilated attic that was insulated you could spray it up there as well anywhere that you might have cockroaches or some area that's a void in the house that's a great place to put this boric acid it's going to keep the cockroaches at bay and kill them and again it's totally safe around kids and pests this is a naturally occurring mineral all right the third and final step and really a very critical step for all the other pests in the house is to do some air sealing and one area that I found that's super leaky on houses especially southern US houses is the connection between the framing and the slab all right now if you're a pro like me you're gonna use a product like this this is trim cows demonic 100 and you may not have seen this before this is a sausage tube so you've got 20 ounces in here and you're gonna use a sausage gun that when you're finished very little waste from this leftover this is particularly good products because of its movement ability you've got a ton of joint movement and this product is gonna move with the house swelling and shrinking or over time and make sure it doesn't break its seal but most homeowners do-it-yourselfers out there are gonna have just a standard gun and that's what I'm gonna recommend for this video dabs Dyna flex 2:30 this also has some ability to flex and move and what you're really trying to do is seal that joints between the concrete and the wood framing you know as you look at the house from your 6 foot high it looks really tight but believe it or not there's a lot of air leakage in that area and anywhere that air is gonna leak in your house that's a really good Inlet for bugs remember the air that's leaking in or out may be cold in the summertime and attract those bugs or maybe even warm in the wintertime when those bugs want to get in there so this is gonna do a world of difference for your house both from energy efficiency and from standard bug proofing this is ants this is cockroaches this is all those little things that might get in there anywhere air might leak out thanks for joining me guys if you follow these three steps on your next build or remodel you're gonna make a big difference on the longevity and durability of your house you're gonna prevent termites for the lifetime of the house you're gonna keep those cockroaches at bay all those other little bugs are gonna be prevented from getting in your house and as a side benefit you're gonna have some energy efficiency boost and you're gonna make sure you don't have mold growth in the case of some water leaking in everything we talked about today is going to be in a link in the description below and if you're not currently a subscriber hit that subscribe button we've got new content every Tuesday and every Friday otherwise we'll see you next time on the build show [Music] you

Channel: Matt Risinger

Views: 1,053,337

Rating: 4.9442096 out of 5

Keywords: termite prevention, how to get rid of bugs in your house, cockroaches, remodeling, buildshow, borate, termite spray, cockroach spray

Id: LIvPla-07fo

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2018