Termites can ruin real estate investment
By NINA SUEBSUKCHAROEN
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Samarnchai Atipunumphai, CEO of Leowood Intertrade. |
It is sad but true that the best property investment can be undone by a little creature you can barely see. It can be heartbreaking to see an expensive wooden floor or furniture set become an enjoyable meal for termites.
Even hiring a good extermination company is not a 100 per cent guarantee that your home will stay pest-free, says Samarnchai Atipunumphai, CEO of Leowood Intertrade, which has introduced engineered laminated flooring with a five-year guarantee against termites and carpenter ants.
"Termite treatment does not yield 100 per cent results. Termites don't walk, not that you could build a wall or a moat into which they would all drown. They can appear in many other ways," he says.
Samarnchai gave the example of a high-floor condominium unit owned by his friend. It was infested by termites a year after he moved in. Another friend, who lived in Ban Pathumwan in Phaya Thai, faced a similar situation. Termites reach high-rise condo units throught the building's shaft.
Even if the apartment is regularly sprayed, any new piece of furniture can attract these bugs. "If the furniture has termites in it, these insects will start eating the floor after finishing with the furniture and then move on to other things," says Samarnchai.
However, the likelihood of having an infestation depends on where one's property is located. Structures adjacent to an empty land plot or a relatively green area are at most risk. On the other hand, a property in a fully developed area with no large expanse of raw earth anywhere nearby should be better off.
It seems termites have a liking for all types of wood and wooden products, including particle board and MDF. Two exceptions are very old hardwood, some 30 years or more in age. Plywood is also not to many termites' taste because it is generally made by pasting together thin layers of wood with formaldehyde glue.
However, even if one were to buy furniture made of plywood, the wooden frame could be hosting both termites and carpenter ants.
The root of the problem lies in the way most furniture is made in Thailand. Samarnchai says this includes some items sold by big brands, because almost everything is actually produced in small workshops. While there are methods and equipment to treat the wood, very few of these workshops reach the required standard.
"However, there are many products that have inbuilt restrictions such as particle board. This can't be treated, but wooden furniture can be treated but it so happens most of the furniture in our country comes from small workshops and not big factories so they don't do it."
Leowood is hoping to tap a niche in the market with its engineered laminated flooring with the innovative anti-pest feature. While there are imported varieties of this flooring in the market, these generally do not have this feature because termites do not thrive in cold countries. In terms of price, Leowood's flooring is close to that of imported boards.
Samarnchai, who studied engineering, has in-depth knowledge of wood and its problems because he was born into a wood trading and manufacturing family. With a furniture factory already in place, the investment in modifying the machines to yield better performance was a little over 10 million baht.
His experience has also led him to observe that Thailand's building control regulations lag behind those in neighbouring countries such as Singapore and even Malaysia, where there are stringent interior de'cor standards to prevent and control fire.
"In Singapore, if it's a high-rise the door has to be able to withstand fire for at least two hours. Curtains used in high-rises have to be coated with chemicals to prevent fire spreading and likewise wallpaper and the ceiling. All this has to be able to prevent fire and this is aside from termites because that is something extra."
He faulted Thai authorities for mainly focusing on exteriors, such as the setback required in locating a building, the environment and open space and not focusing on materials used internally. They certainly have not considered the termite issue because this is secondary to other more important ones.
While Thailand lacks these controls, its market is nevertheless big and promising with substantial buying power, be it in terms of volume or price. For this reason Samarnchai is not considering exporting his product to neighbouring countries.
"You might have observed that where expenditure on home de'cor is concerned, more is done so in Thailand than other Southeast Asian countries so we will mainly focus on our market."
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