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| Termites could burn your house down |
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| tooki:
--- Quote from: TerraHertz on October 11, 2019, 03:29:49 pm ---Edit to add: Speaking of termites, what's with the bug in the photo upload selections? The photo you specify first, appears as the last one in the page, though the others are all in correct order. To get them ordered right here, I had to specify 4473 twice, then delete the "first" one (appearing as the last one.) --- End quote --- It’s the new “improved” image upload plugins recently added to the forums on a whim. It’s possible each of the two plugins in question work fine in isolation, but at least in combination, it’s buggy as hell. In the thread about it, I characterized the behavior in detail, but the admins haven’t taken any action (or even acknowledged that it’s buggy). |
| chickenHeadKnob:
--- Quote from: KE5FX on October 11, 2019, 09:35:31 pm ---I'm very confused. Where was the "arc" that an AFCI might have detected? Looks like simple I2R heating was responsible for this near-disaster. --- End quote --- Yup the AFCI would have been happy as a clam, saying to itself, Granma just turned on her tea kettle, I will help her. Once a combustible nest of fluffy high surface area has been built by the critters it will take bugger all total energy to start runaway ignition. Just look on the Youboob for bush-crafters starting campfires with the most feeble embers imaginable. The kind you get from a fire drill where you rub one stick on the other. In the southern parts of Canada we do get termites but more often this kind mischief is cause by squirrels or other rodents. |
| Electro Detective:
Wow :o seen a few of these but not this bad, great pics btw :clap: fwiw after a clean up and rectify on old school jobs like this, assuming it's an isolated one off incident, and not an infestation to be sorted with a complete rewire/outlet job a shot of insect crawling spray into a suss electrical cavity, and rub some around the back of the switch or socket housing, be it new or old, then let it dry and or soak up any excess before putting it back as it was, complying to the regulations applicable when built as commented by SeanB above . Use GLOVES when messing with this stuff and a low odour insect crawling spray if people are close by, or sensitive to the vile smell of the good stuff Rest assured termites and other crawlie groups will set up shop elsewhere next time.. :scared: :scared: |
| TerraHertz:
@SeanB actually the house is not that ancient. It was built around 1970, and the wiring is PVC insulated. The intact insulation isn't brittle at all. Those wires near the switch are bare because the 'hot spot' of conductive carbonizing worked it's way along the wire like a burning fuse cord. Then the resulting gunk fell off when I moved them. A pest eradication is going to happen urgently. In the meantime I went and bought a couple of cans of surface spray, broke open all the termite tracks I could find, and gave the entire area in the wall cavities and under the house a good dose. I found where their trail comes up from the ground. It's inside a brick double wall, under the bathroom concrete slab. Looks like a metal wall capping there may have rusted through, but I can't see the hole. Rust suspected due to an in-wall toilet cistern made of plastic, that developed a crack and leaked some years ago. I fixed that, but it hadn't been leaking long enough to rot the timbers so I had only needed to replace sodden wall plaster and some tiling. Before hiring the eradicators, I'll hammer-drill some big holes in the internal wall of the double brick, for access to that space. My mum is 90, and probably only has a few years left. After she passes that property will be sold and it's virtually certain a buyer would demolish the house and rebuild. So, minimal effort repairs. |
| SiliconWizard:
Note that thermite could do that as well. :P |
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