I ran across this great article in my boating forum:

Chemotherapy for Wood Rot

Once rot gets a toehold in wood, it is difficult to cure completely, like a cancer.
Digging out the rotted wood will still leave spores and water in the sound wood. After these
cavities, produced by the digging, have been filled with material such as epoxy, rot will continue to flourish underneath. Some products purported to make rotten wood sound and prevent future rotting, penetrate only until they meet water. Generally, under the repair, the rotting continues
Commercial Products sold as a treatment for dry wood to prevent further rot are most ineffective against established rot in wet wood. There are two inexpensive and commonly available materials which will kill rot in wood. and prevent its recurrence. First, there are the Borates (Borax, Boric acid mixtures,) which have demonstrated to prevent new wood from rotting and killing rot organisms and wood-destroying insects in infested wood. Second, there is ethylene glycol, most readily available as automotive antifreeze/coolant, For killing rot spores and wood-destroying organisms, nothing works better than ethylene-glycol antifreeze, unless it is antifreeze mixed with borates. Glycol is toxic to a broad spectrum of organisms, from staphylococcus bacteria to mammals.
Both borate solutions and glycol penetrate dry and wet wood as well because they are water-soluble; penetration by glycol is especially assisted by its extreme hygroscopicity (its strong attraction to water.) Neither of these is a permanent solution solution to rot in wood which is constantly exposed to water because below waterline, they eventually will be extracted (dissolved) out. Glycol was first perceived as a wood stabilizing agent, rather than a fungicide or rot preventative.
There are two types of borate products commercially available for wood treatment: solid sodium octaborate for making solutions in water (Tim-Bor and Ship-Bor) and a 40% solution of sodium octaborate in ethyl glycol (Bor-Care.) Equivalents and more concentrated solutions can be easily prepared from Borax, boric acid and antifreeze at a much lower cost.
Glycol has an advantage over solutions of borates in either water or glycol. Glycol penetrated rapidly through paint, varnish and oil finishes (except epoxy and polyurethanes) without lifting or damaging those finishes in any way. The dyes in glycol antifreeze are so weak, they do not discolor even white woods such as pine. Once bare wood treated with glycol or borate solutions dries, it can be finished or glued. When a borate solution leaves a white residue, the surface should be washed with water and allowed to dry again.
A preferred method to treat rot might be to soak the soft wood, or evidence of rot, in antifreeze, even if you can’t do any other repairs at the moment. Paint it on or stray it on with a coarse spray. Avoid mist-like spraying to avoid breathing in unhealthy amounts of glycol.
Glycol should be used lavishly on suspect wood, which may readily absorb 10%-20% of its weight in antifreeze. Surfaces well away from damaged wood should also be coated. Extract weak, rotted wood and add additional glycol to thoroughly wet exposed wood. Add a 25% borate solution and allow to soak for several hours. Fill void with epoxy putty or a piece of sound treated wood as required.
Make your own home-brewed borate wood preservatives by using the formals listed below and you will produce a borate wood treatment which will work as well or better than commercially available products.
Home-Brew Water Solution of Borates:
Based on U.S. Navy specs, a ration of 60% borax and 40% boric acid gives the maximum solubility of borates in water. A mixture of 65% water, 20% borax and 15% boric acid (by weight) will yield a solution containing 15.8% borates. Borax costs $.54/lb in a U.S. supermarket, boric acid costs about $4./lb in U.S. drug stores, but boric acid roach poison, about 99% boric acid is cheaper in discount stores. To make this solution, mix required quantities and heat until dissolved. Boric acid in particular, dissolves slowly. A stable solution (no crystals) can be stored overnight in a refrigerator and costs a small fraction of Tim-Bor and Ship-Bor.
Home-Brew Glycol Solution of Borates:
This solution consists of 50% glycol antifreeze, 28% borax and 22% boric acid. To make a stable solution, mix ingredients and heat until it boils gently. Boil off until thermometer shows 260o This removes most of the water of crystallization in the borax. This solution is stable at 40o (in the refrigerator) and has a borate content of 26%. Dilute the solution with an equal volume of glycol antifreeze to make fluid enough to use handily. With antifreeze at $6/gallon and borax and boric acid as listed above, this solution costs about $15/gal compared to Bora-Care at $70/gal.

Thankyou for taking the time to post this information. I'm sure it will be helpful to someone doing restoration on a HiLo or around the home. We pulled out all soggy paneling and underlay. No rotted wood to deal with. I will print this out for future reference.

Good information Sam, maybe one our techies could add it to the reference library.

__________________
My Great Wife Joyce
2018 Jayco Jay Flight 21QB
Formerly owned 1705T and 2310H
2012 F150 4X4 SuperCrew EcoBoost w/Leer Cap
Reese WD Strait-Line Hitch
Amateur Radio K3EXU

An exciting day!! Hubby installed the first piece of paneling behind the Ref. Says it looks awesome and he is glad the paneling has an allover design/no matching needed. Both the underlay and the paneling are !/8 " thick and both only flex in one direction. Sm. learning curve,cracked one piece of paneling because it flexed the wrong way. Forgot about this. He will be able to use it somewhere else. Had to use some 1' white paneling nails that will be covered by trim..Took some more pictures and will hound my daughter until she posts them for me. Today,Thur. she is off work. My brother will be coming on Dec. 26th,cleveland Ohio. I will see if the two men want to sleep in the HiLo. The restoration won,t be completed,but the trailer is usable. Beats sleeping on my mother's couch and a sleeping bag on the floor.

Bob,

Great information that I hope none of us will ever have to put into use.. but it is good to have should we ever need it. I think it should be posted in the reference library.

Thanks,

Jerry Curtis
Fredericksburg, TX
2406 Tow Lite

Pictures at last!!

SDC10432.jpg Someday soon all the window curtains will be reinstalled. Note old paneling. A challenge to find something to somewhat match.

SDC10433.jpg Underlay at airconditioner plug. We think this is where the water came in and traveled-extensive dammage.

SDC10434.jpg Seen enough underlay yet? Have a few more that daughter was grumpy about posting. Can't stress enough the importance of finding all your leaks and using the correct caulk ect. All your work will be in vain.

SDC10440.jpg This is what the new paneling looks like,$30.00 a trying to be very patient. The end of the restoration is in sight.!!!!

My brother if visiting my 80 yr old mother for the holidays. He came in from Cleveland Ohio. I went straight from the hospital to check the restoration of the Hi_Lo. Haden't seen it since hubby put in some of the paneling. He did an awesome fabrication job!111. I will takesome more pictures soon. So excited to be on the home stretch. Words of advice. Use a great quanity of Heavy duty liquid nails on each of paneling that is installed. We found it very helpful to purchase a $35.00 floorroller. This is great for applying pressure to get the paneling and liquid nails to adhere to the wall. Hubby,"I should of have boughten this years ago." The rollers remind me of the rollers on roller skates. I will take a picture. We purchasedour liquid nails at Walmart,about $3.00 a tube. Cheaper than the hardwear store. Very important to cut the paneling,let it sit in the trailer to normalize and install the next day.

Saturday,Hubby went solo and installed the last five small pieces of paneling. Took some pictures the other day and then had to charge up the camera. He took all the measurements for ceiling trim and Seam trim. Georgia pacific sells matching seam tape. I need to call and find out the width on the seam tape. The Co. is closed for the holidays. I would like to clear out all the tools and throw out the old paneling we saved for patterns. Clean up in the three hrs. before we have to pick up Melissa from work. Hubby isn't looking forward to reinstalling all the drapery hardwear/curtains.Then he needs to reinstall the big cabinet over the dinette and then I can reorganize and get things out of my Mom's garage. The weather is going to get really ugly for a few days so we'll just stay home and keep warm. We have everything to survive if the 60 to 65 mph wind knocks out the power. Not much snow predicted,just 16degrees temps. Oh so glad I took a picture of the drapery hardwear placement and did a diagram measurements. Some trim we will buy and some will be made(ripped from sheets/scraps of Laun I already have. Hubby wants to change out the lamps in the front of the trailer to Led. That will get done last.

Had a great day clearing out all the tools and cleaning up the Hi Lo. When I was vaccuming the interior bottom rounded window sill I found some water. I was able to sop it up with two paper towels. Three windows had this in only one corner. Two of the windows had been resealed a few years ago. No condensation on the glass. We have been keeping the interior at 65 degrees. Is there seals on interior or exterior that could have gone bad? Will have to check the weep holes for blockage. Don't want to have watter dammage to the new paneling. All I can think to do is to put a plastic cover on the exterior window until we can fix in the spring. We should be able to shut the heat off in two weeks. Any help appreciated. Not discouraged,we love our HiLo no matter what we go through. I priced out a sunbrella cover $615.00 plus tax OUCH!!!! not in the budget. Hubby told me he found a live fly and a lady bug on sat. Hard to kill the critters in the country.

The water may come from condensation on the aluminum frames, check it good for water droplets up on the sides. My brother has a mobile home that is used as a get away cabin, we use it for hunting camp also, the window aluminum frames sweat really bad in winter, so does the glass, when there is heat in side. We mop it up with a towel, as there are no drain holes..

__________________
Rich
------------------------------------
(215TL) - 1995 21' TowLite
(2209T) - 2009 22' TowLite
(2510 ) - 2010 25'

Maybe the water is just some condensation that has formed but it pays to keep an eye on it. If you put a cover on the HiLo make sure it is breathable like the Sunbrella you mentioned, you need to allow moisture to escape. Plastic tarps are a terrible choice for a cover, it's like keeping a damp sponge in a ziplock bag. You are better off to not cover at all and allow the air to circulate.

Our Hilo now has a cover of snow on it and it will be getting 7 to 12 inches thicker thru tomorrow. We live on the edge of the NW PA snow belt. My new John Deere X530 tractor is anxiously waiting for me to take it out to play in the snow. I am in no hurry.

Happy New Year!

__________________
My Great Wife Joyce
2018 Jayco Jay Flight 21QB
Formerly owned 1705T and 2310H
2012 F150 4X4 SuperCrew EcoBoost w/Leer Cap
Reese WD Strait-Line Hitch
Amateur Radio K3EXU

My hubby thinks it is just condensation. We got a dusting of snow with more predicted to come. I won,t be getting a cover as I can,t afford one. I was aware not to use a blur tarp. Better not to cover it at all than to use the wrong one that will do dammage. Today we visited our Ace Hardware store and picked up 3 8ft of foam trim ,oak. This will be used in the corners that joins to the interiorendcap. The corner has a curve and this is very flexible. Probably will use a combo of electric nailer and Liquid nails. We won't be doing any work until Wednesday as it is only going to be 6degrees today. We also ordered one roll of seam tape to wrap around the new flattrim that will be placed over all the panel seams. The salesman thinks it is 3/4 inch wide. He is going to call Georgia Pacific and verify this. Also want to know if it is self stick. Brought home six curtain brackets and spray painted with metallic gold. Came out very rich looking. Will probably want to spray the rest so they match. A womens touch. We've been so spoiled/no snow to blow or shovel. Our big snow blower is ready to be used. Our Med John Deere is waiting for hubby to have time to installthe new $200.oo auger. We are the hit of the neighborhood as we snowblow quite a bit so the elderly and the mailman can get around easier. Love our snow equipment/back saver!!

I woke up to 9" of snow this morning. "Deere John" is ready to roll later today.

__________________
My Great Wife Joyce
2018 Jayco Jay Flight 21QB
Formerly owned 1705T and 2310H
2012 F150 4X4 SuperCrew EcoBoost w/Leer Cap
Reese WD Strait-Line Hitch
Amateur Radio K3EXU

Bitter cold today,just enough snow to clear away with a backsaver shovel. Stayed home and did some cooking from scratch and got hubby to broadcast Scotch guard on the rugs he shampooed the other day. Did a load ofsewing machine mending. Today we'll work on our restoration,need to check the furnice propane. It is so cold that the regular doesn't do auto switchover. We go through a 30 lb tank about every 4or 5 days. Found out today that the paneling seamtape is 1&3/4 inches wide. This should workout good on our homemade strips of trim.

Today hubby cut 1/8th inch off the top half side rail trim. I had touched them up with Minwax Early American stain. He brought me home some siderail pieces of trim and I will go and stain the cut edges. I need to order some screw pieces so we can reinstall the curtains that I washed. Hubby thought they might fall apart in the wash after 21 yrs. All the trim was reinstalled with stainless steel screws 8" x3/3" We are back to some milder weather,40degrees and I want to work on the restoration and get finished up. The trailer seems so big/opened up with out the huge cupboard over the dinette. I thought abour leaving some of the interior room dividers off. Would love to make the lower br door slide into the wall i `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` ``````````````````````````````````````````

Got a chance to work on the HiLo. Hubby installed with his brad stappler the foam trim in the back left corner and two pieces in the back corners of the br. Al so got to install the big mirror in the Br.,back of wardrobe. Had to do quite a bit of measuring,came out looking perfect. Should have done a measured diagram before we took it down. Need to cut some more pieces of Laun for the top of wall trim. Hubbys table saw decided to be tempermental. Something to tear apart/fix? Probably is dyingout from years of use. The bottom half of the shower wall is plane white and in good condition. Looks like I would have enough space to go over it with the scraps of paneling that is left over. I'll tell hubby about this when we are "done". My window sills with the paper towels in them are "bone dry" Found an alive lady bug in the trailer today. Better this than a grey rodent!! Told hubby the other day that he is going to have to remove the couch so I can do some hand mending,maybe not until spring.

Hubby worked on the HILo solo today. The sun was out full force and it was 70degrees in the trailer and the furnice didn't kick in until, late afternoon. Says he got some lazy flies and Lady bugs. The country living isd sure interesting. Don't know how the are getting in the HiLo or staying alive without food? Sure hope they go away when we bring it back to the city. Had to put in longer brads on some of the trim. Installed two window curtins and need to bring back the drill to put in the brackets for the heavier regular blinds. In other words the brackets screw into the metal frame/studs. Told hubby about my idea to panel the lower half of the tub/br area. Said he has enough drops to do this and will do this last. Sunday afternoon aaaamelissa and I will help him install the cabinet over the dinette. Need to stop at Walmart for some new round curtain rods.The old ones are in sad shape. He cut some more trim and I need to go hit the edges with stain. My daughter promised me that she can make a You tube video of the finishedd restoration. Working hard every day to finish up. Some snow is predicted for the end of the week. The new paneling reminds me of the look oi the Towlite models.

Stoped at Walmart to pick up some curtain rods and a few essentials. They weren't the right fit,too fat ends. Came home and did an internet search and found what I needed at Kmart. Just need some sash rods. Hubby was somewhat frustrated in getting the cupboard back over the dinette and the electrical light wire tucked in to the cupboard. Got all done and realized we goofed. We should have slid the thin bottom piece in the open back before we installed it to the wall. Plan B take it all down and start again or cheat. Decided to cut the board in half and then ended up cutting four inches off each end. Now it fits in. Duct tape to the rescue. Our little secret. We don't store anything real heavy up here. Hopefully we will be able to finish up with all the curtains/blinds tomorrow. Then on to stapeling trim where the ceiling meets the wall. Held up a piece and it looks real sharp!!.

we need pics! we need pics! we need pics! we want pics! we want pics! purrdy please?

__________________
robobd
1988 22l
1999 ford f250 7.3 diesel

You asked for pictures,so here's TEN.
SDC10441.jpg Got panneing?

SDC10442.jpg The pattern is "sea mist"

SDC10443.jpg by GP

SDC10444.jpg it's $30.00 USD a sheet

SDC10445.jpg this is how it looks when put in place