Dry rot
Dry Rot
Devon
We were contacted by the client after they discovered large holes in their floorboards.
Note the reddish dust (dry rot spores), within the cupboard.
This dry rot fruiting body was initially seen on the underside of the floorboards by using a borescope visual aid.
A floorboard was carefully removed revealing the severity and extent of the outbreak.
Defective rainwater goods, including this cast fall pipe, were found to have been responsible for initiating the dry rot outbreak.
Rainwater had permeated through the defective cement render and into the rubble-filled walls, saturating embedded floor joists. This had created an ideal environment suitable for the development of the dry rot fungus.
Furthermore, the cement based render had severely restricted the evaporation of moisture from within the wall, thus maintaining the environment favoured by wood rotting fungi.
Mycelium hyphae and strand formation seen within the stone rubble-filled wall.
Note the next image is a close-up showing free moisture within these voids.
Although this particular outbreak of dry rot was found to be severe, a repair strategy that included a sensitive heating and ventilation regime, quickly began to arrest the development of the fungus. With the defective rainwater goods repaired, the fungus was successfully controlled with the minimal use of chemicals and loss of historic material.
The client commissioned our in-house works department to undertake the conservation minded repair of this listed building.