Does anyone have any dry-rot DIY experience?

I have a cottage that shares a wall with the main house. The cottage is full
of wet and dry rot, mostly caused by leaking roof and broken gutters. The
dry rot has come through the shared wall and is in the joists of the ground
floor of the main house.

I am happy to fix the original leaks, etc.but am wondering about tackling
the dry-rot myself?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers!
Stuart.

In article ,
	"Stuart Malcolm"  writes:

>Does anyone have any dry-rot DIY experience?
>
>I have a cottage that shares a wall with the main house. The cottage is full
>of wet and dry rot, mostly caused by leaking roof and broken gutters. The
>dry rot has come through the shared wall and is in the joists of the ground
>floor of the main house.
>
>I am happy to fix the original leaks, etc.but am wondering about tackling
>the dry-rot myself?


Well, it's a case of removing the source of the damp, making
sure all areas containing timber are well ventilated, and then
it will die. You will need to replace the infected timber as it
will have been weakened and could rapidly start a new outbreak
if it gets damp (ideally with pressure treated timber, and
after the brickwork has dried out).

You cannot really just do this on one side of a party wall
though -- at least the investigation for sources of damp and
ventilation must take place on both sides, and checking for
extent of spread.

-- 
Andrew Gabriel

Thanks Andrew,

Any idea of how long it will take to die out? how long should I leave the
brickwork to dry out before replacing the infected wood?

Are you saying that if I stop the damp source, let dry out, replace infected
wood, and keep ventilated, then there is no need to apply the 'toxic box'
chemicals? It is the chemical application that seems to cost big money to
get a contractor to do, and if it doesnt need done, then the whole job
becomes a lot more DIY friendly.

Thanks,
Stuart.

PS. I will be fixing both sides of the wall, as (un)fortunately, the cottage
came with the house!


"Andrew Gabriel"  wrote in message
news:432d33bd$0$38044$5a6aecb4@news.aaisp.net.uk...

> In article ,
> "Stuart Malcolm"  writes:
> >Does anyone have any dry-rot DIY experience?
> >
> >I have a cottage that shares a wall with the main house. The cottage is
full
> >of wet and dry rot, mostly caused by leaking roof and broken gutters. The
> >dry rot has come through the shared wall and is in the joists of the
ground
> >floor of the main house.
> >
> >I am happy to fix the original leaks, etc.but am wondering about tackling
> >the dry-rot myself?
>
> Well, it's a case of removing the source of the damp, making
> sure all areas containing timber are well ventilated, and then
> it will die. You will need to replace the infected timber as it
> will have been weakened and could rapidly start a new outbreak
> if it gets damp (ideally with pressure treated timber, and
> after the brickwork has dried out).
>
> You cannot really just do this on one side of a party wall
> though -- at least the investigation for sources of damp and
> ventilation must take place on both sides, and checking for
> extent of spread.
>
> --
> Andrew Gabriel
>

In article ,
	"Stuart Malcolm"  writes:

>Thanks Andrew,
>
>Any idea of how long it will take to die out? how long should I leave the
>brickwork to dry out before replacing the infected wood?


Depends how thick the wall is, and how wet. A rough ball-park
figure is that a brick wall dries out at around 1 week per inch
thickness once well ventilated. If you reconstruct with no timber
in contact with the wall (e.g. using joist hangers, membrane
barrier protection, etc), then waiting for the wall to dry is not
so important, but ventilation to ensure the humidity is not high
becomes more important.


>Are you saying that if I stop the damp source, let dry out, replace infected
>wood, and keep ventilated, then there is no need to apply the 'toxic box'
>chemicals? It is the chemical application that seems to cost big money to
>get a contractor to do, and if it doesnt need done, then the whole job
>becomes a lot more DIY friendly.


The damp and timber treatment industry is for the most part just
a large rip-off business.  I don't believe there is any magic
bullet chemical to protect against dry rot. So any such protection
is done with very toxic "kill everything" chemicals, which might
not be the sort of thing you want around your home. There have
been a number of cases of Trading Standards catching such companies
just spraying water in any case, and charging a fortune of course.

If you remove the infected timber and the rhyzomorphs (branches
which grow out of the timber in search of new timber to infect and
carry the water necesssary to digest the timber away from the water
source), and get the humidity and brickwork moisture back down to
normal levels, it can't grow.  (A blow lamp is good for burning it
off walls.)

Dry rot is not native to the UK and cannot live in our normal
weather conditions. It only lives in damp micro-climates which
are created in damp unventilated areas of homes. It can grow
from there to drier areas, carrying the water it needs to grow
with it, but there has to be a source of damp somewhere for it
to grow. It needs quite specific moisture conditions for a spore
to germinate, but once it starts, it can grow over a slightly
wider range of humidities and survive without growing over an
ever wider range.

Its native habitat are damp caves in the Himalayas where it lives
on the tree roots which break in through the cave walls. It was
brought back to the UK in the hulls of wooden ships (which it also
really liked to infect).

-- 
Andrew Gabriel