When building a house, termite treatment should be given before setting the wooden material and then it should be set.  Always ask your engineer to do this.

Many people are using wooden items, decorative items and furniture in their homes.  The maintenance of these wooden objects, which are functional and beautiful to look at, can be difficult.  If there is carelessness in all of these, mainly termite erosion, water intrusion, they will be damaged and wasted.  Dinesh, a Trichy-based private construction founder, tells the ways to maintain them.

"When we used wood to make household items, we used to make only a few things like doors and windows.  But now its use at home has increased.  While designing wardrobe, floor, decorative items, safety and maintenance arrangements should be made for them right from the construction of the building.

* When building a house, termite treatment should be given before setting the timber and then it should be set.  Ask your engineer to do this.

 * Where water is used a lot, termites will start to eat away at the wood.  Therefore, wood products should not be placed and used in those places.

 * If the use of wood is unavoidable in water-flow areas, then laminated wood can be used.

 * Avoid using wood products in places that get too much sun.

 * Every three to five years it is necessary to paint wooden furniture.

* Once there is an itch or termite problem in the wooden materials, it should be treated with medicine.  This should be done by a specialist, not just the affected wood or the area but the house as a whole.

 * In some houses floors are made of wood.  When they are infested, they are removed en masse and treated with insecticides.

 * Wooden items are mostly placed along the wall.  They should be moved and cleaned frequently from that place.  Any water that gets on the wood should be wiped off immediately.