Spelunking in Hell [X]

[errantember]

I survived. Barely.

I rigged up a remote control for the shop vac using X10 (definitely a good move. It takes about fifteen minutes to wriggle my way all the way to the back on either side (they don't connect), and I had to check on some wood damage that might have been termites.) This way, I could switch off the vac with my remote control, then dig into the wood a little to see if the soldier termites would get their Alice Cooper on.

I heard nothing, and saw no mud tubes, live termites, or other signs of current activity.

I'm pretty convinced based on the three places we found evidence of termites in my house that, contrary to what the guy from Aztec told me, the Eastern Subterranean Termite *must* have local water to remain established in a location. All three places had, during my occupation of the house, long-term leaks with constant moisture. Of those three, *only* the one where the moisture had persisted still had any evidence of termites.

So I vacuumed out all of the various dusts, rusts, nails, bugs, rat shits, and bits of spray-foam insulation, filled the drain hole with a monster snowball of caulk, then went back in with the boric acid and made a two-inch deep perimeter all the way around.

All in all, it was *much* better than the previous times I've been down there, all of which have been after one of the legendary Hot Tub Flooding Incidents, meaning that in addition to everything else, it was also *wet*. I found several other minor problems with the tub itself that finally clinched the decision that it will never operate again in its current location. The thing to do is to remove it and set it up outside, and re-claim the roughly 200 sq. ft. of air-conditioned space it currently occupies. How, exactly, that will possible when the entire wall (and not the one it's sitting next to) was knocked out to put it *into* the house is yet to be seen. I suspect it will involve a grinder and a lot of Bondo.

A story for another day.

Comments

[worldmegan.livejournal.com]

Jesus, you are industrious and determined. I am impressed. And (irrationally) terrified of your hot tub. HA!

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm beginning to believe that's true.

Odds are good you will one day be *in* my hot tub. At this point, it's pretty clean.

[worldmegan.livejournal.com]

Eeee, that means you're not getting rid of it entirely. That is ridiculously awesome. :P

I will get less terrified as more and more time passes since it was the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom under there. Ha!

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Actually, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. Although getting some Indiana Jones action figures and doing a little bad stop-action animation under would be fun.

By the time I was finished, it was pretty clean. Basically a big wooden framework sitting on top of a dry, clean concrete slab covered with a sprinkling of boric acid.

I realized today that it *is* actually pretty easy to get it working again inside the house. The part I though would cause a leak was actually the light tube, which is completely sealed.

I was imagining you in it outside, though, once it gets moved there, which would make your nakedness all the more shocking.

I'll have to give some thought to where it aught to go so it won't be immediately visible to the neighbors...

[worldmegan.livejournal.com]

You work that out and let me know. ;}