My Research

The title of my project is " Borate Pretreatments to Protect Building Envelop Components from Decay and Mould Associated with Water Ingress or Condensation".

Timber components in the building envelops are vulnerable to decay and mould growth if insufficient attention is paid to the presence of water. Problems are greater for the areas difficult to access after construction or costly to repair. So if design and construction practices cannot ensure exclusion or drying of water from the structure, deteroriation is a must. And harmful or costly preservatives like ACQ, CCA or CA are not good choices for residential use. So the objective of my research is to introduce a cost effective, safe and low environmental impact wood preservative like Borate by justifying the efficacy in term of variables like wood species, configuration of the structure, wood moisture content, chemical formulation and carrier of borate and application method.