Restoring Tiki: Save Big Daddy Olu from brain rot! - Tiki Carving

B Benzart Member Port Saint Lucie, Florida Joined: Jan 09, 2004 Posts: 10397	B Benzart Posted posted on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 9:32 AM WOW What a Beautiful piece to have to rescu in such a manner. Unfortunately this is the end fate of any carving done to a tree left attached to the roots, it will end up this way every time. I Applaud you for getting the length of time you have from this piece as it is surely a testament to your continued treatment of the exterior. In the very beginning if you could have drilled out the center (Impossible!) and filled it with concrete it would be different. As far as what to do now, there are several ideas I would give thought to. First would be to dig out as much of that rot as possible without harming the exterior. When you have as much out as possible and as deep as possible then the interior should be hosed out and cleaned as well as possible, even drilling a few drain holes at the bottom if needed. Its kinda like tooth decay, if you put the filling on top of the rotted part, it keeps rotting away inside so the dentist must remove as much as possible. The next step I would have done is to invite a professional bug killer outfit to spray the interior with termite and other needed bug killer poison. Those guys have access to the strongest stuff available. Next, what to fill it with?? The Minwax wood hardener and GitRot are good things but you would be needing a 55 gallon drum of the stuff. Foam would seem like a good choice but I'm afraid that "Expanding" part would split the tiki wide open at several places so don't think that would be the greatest. My personal choice would be the foam.spray cement or plaster similar to what the pool guys spray onto the pools. It is light weight and will fill a large space in a hurry. HOWEVER, you may not want tofill the whole thing at one shot, break it into 3 or 4 sessions. Confer with the cement technician for that advice, That foamy stuff shouldn't expand like the Foam foam but will create heate the same way and you need to know that it won't get too hot. Then it should be able to last many more years with you only needing to maintain the thin wood shell. Of course I have a few other ideas too which I'll gladly share if you like. On behalf of the rest of the tiki community, I offer THANKS for going the extra mile to protect this piece of tiki history, BUT, Thats what YOU DO and we are Lucky! :)

WOW What a Beautiful piece to have to rescu in such a manner. Unfortunately this is the end fate of any carving done to a tree left attached to the roots, it will end up this way every time. I Applaud you for getting the length of time you have from this piece as it is surely a testament to your continued treatment of the exterior. In the very beginning if you could have drilled out the center (Impossible!) and filled it with concrete it would be different. As far as what to do now, there are several ideas I would give thought to.
First would be to dig out as much of that rot as possible without harming the exterior. When you have as much out as possible and as deep as possible then the interior should be hosed out and cleaned as well as possible, even drilling a few drain holes at the bottom if needed. Its kinda like tooth decay, if you put the filling on top of the rotted part, it keeps rotting away inside so the dentist must remove as much as possible.

The next step I would have done is to invite a professional bug killer outfit to spray the interior with termite and other needed bug killer poison. Those guys have access to the strongest stuff available.

Next, what to fill it with?? The Minwax wood hardener and GitRot are good things but you would be needing a 55 gallon drum of the stuff.
Foam would seem like a good choice but I'm afraid that "Expanding" part would split the tiki wide open at several places so don't think that would be the greatest.
My personal choice would be the foam.spray cement or plaster similar to what the pool guys spray onto the pools. It is light weight and will fill a large space in a hurry. HOWEVER, you may not want tofill the whole thing at one shot, break it into 3 or 4 sessions. Confer with the cement technician for that advice, That foamy stuff shouldn't expand like the Foam foam but will create heate the same way and you need to know that it won't get too hot.
Then it should be able to last many more years with you only needing to maintain the thin wood shell.
Of course I have a few other ideas too which I'll gladly share if you like.

On behalf of the rest of the tiki community, I offer THANKS for going the extra mile to protect this piece of tiki history, BUT, Thats what YOU DO and we are Lucky! :)

Post #428503 by Benzart on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 9:32 AM