A Historic Moment? Annual Maintenance Gets Done!

WITHIN THE SPACE OF sixteen days, Mishkon has received its annual maintenance both for the roof and for termite infestation. The fact that both of these have now been undertaken 2 years in a row is noteworthy, for it seems to be historic. To my knowledge, it is unprecedented. 

Schematic drawing of locations needing treatment last year

In these two key areas of concern, we may be moving from only crisis management to ongoing facilities management. While annual roof and termite maintenance can’t quite yet be considered a “routine” part of what we do at Mishkon, this single repetition feels to me like a big achievement in itself. This post explains why.…

On a regular basis, certain things in life require attention or else they will get out of hand: people’s hair needs to get cut; hedges need to get trimmed; and engines need lubrication. Just as surely, a roof needs annual patching, and a termite infestation needs annual treatment.

This is true for termites because in the absence of tenting/fumigation, no pesticide treatment can manage to kill 100% of an infestation. If we are lucky, a local treatment will kill 85%. This means that the remaining 15% of termites keep on chewing, and also multiplying, so that a year later the infestation may be 20% as large as when first treated. However, if we come back then and treat that spot again, we can hopefully get the infestation down to 15% of that amount, or 3% of the original size. And if repeated the third year (if evidence of significant activity persists), to less than 1%. 

The magic of maintenance is in the cumulative impact of our keeping at it. Although the chewing meanwhile will never stop entirely, our doing annual maintenance can slow it way down — and thus buy us a lot of time.

New locations in the sanctuary building were treated this year, because the inspector spotted evidence of termite activity there, on all levels of the building.

Happily and as expected, this year fewer infestations were identified than last year (which seems to have been the first inspection and treatment in 30 years). 

And whereas last year we then needed to spend $6,500 on replacing damaged structural wood, this year’s indications in those same areas show no new replacements that are warranted.

This year, too, as we became more familiar with the building, we discovered nooks and crannies that we even hadn’t noticed a year ago. (For example, did you know that there’s an attic above the stage in the Social Hall, and how to get into it? I didn’t.) Which means that we have now found and treated some additional infestations. The two spots shown below are beneath where a persistent roof leak (long since fixed) was apparently allowed to thoroughly wet the floor of the southernmost passageway between the sanctuary and the play yard. (Termites love the way that damp wood is softened up for them, so they tend to get established there.)

A chewed-up portion of the passageway’s subfloor

The vertical timber used to be a floor joist; its innards are strewn atop an aluminum heating duct that runs beneath it.

I intend to continue to look into how and when to replace this damaged wood. Neither one of these pieces is easily repaired, given their location.

Finally, for a similar focus on the recent annual roof maintenance, see HERE.

A Word of Gratitude

I’m grateful to the 2020–2021 board for having approved a 2-year service contract for termite control, which meant that this week’s treatment was paid for already during the fiscal year recently ended. And to the 2021–2022 board for having approved a budget that allows for annual maintenance of the roof.