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Need Help With a Wood Rot Issue Discovered on Joists in Crawl Space

Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 2:49 pm
by julesk1
Hi,
We have recently built a new understairs cupboard and while in the process of being in the crawl space we noticed some worrying fungus type things and coverings on some of the joists. We've had one person tell us its dry rot and another tell us its wet rot... Just looking for some opinions really! Neither of these people would actually go underneath the floor and just gave their opinions from looking at the pictures I had taken!
Heres a link to a page with some pictures and descriptions on:
http://www.purplelights.co.uk/#!blank/c1v12
Having looked at lots of images online we are struggling to find ones that are similar to what ours looks like.. Thanks in advance for any help...we're having a proper panic about this :(

Re: Need Help With a Wood Rot Issue Discovered on Joists in Crawl Space

Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 1:16 pm
by Perry525
If you have wet rot, when you press your
thumb nail against the wood, water will ouze
out onto the surface and the wood will feel
soft.
Take a sharp pointed knife and drive it hard
into the wood, with the width of the blade at
right angle to the grain.
Do this in various worrying places, then do it
in places that you consider to be OK.
If the results are consistant no problem.
Dry rot, shows by cracks across the wood.
I guess you have had mould growing at some
time. Mould only grows when it has a supply
of food (wood) and water (water vapour from
the air) if there is a shortage of either, then
mould dies.