Simple tips for treating dry rot in your home

Encountering dry rot in your home? Use these simple measures to alleviate the issue for a happier, healthier home.

For homeowners, it can be a complete nightmare. Dry rot is a fungus growth that grows in wet woods. The build-up typically occurs within unventilated, damp and moistened areas of the home such as underneath wooden floors, stairs, skirting boards and roof trusses.

Dry rot affects the structure of the home such as timbres, joists and stalwart beams. It spreads quickly as well and the entire structure of your home could falter in a matter of months if left untreated.

It can be difficult to see dry rot when it starts to grow, but being able to identify and understand the symptoms of dry rot can help prevent detrimental damage to your home. Dry rot has the ability to travel through building materials, making them vulnerable to the dry rot’s wood-destroying fungus. If this happens, your home could be at risk of a potential dry rot outbreak. Typical dry rot attributes include:

• Wood shrinking, darkening and cracking in a cuboidal manner.
• A grey mushroom-like coloured skin is visible on the wood. Sometimes patches of lilac and yellow are apparent as well. This type of discolouring is typically formed under less humid conditions.
• Under more humid conditions, white cotton-like fluff will develop accompanied by mildew-like droplets.
• Fruiting bodies, soft and fleshy to the touch, with an orange-ochre surface may sometimes form.
• Rust-coloured spore dust can sometimes pop up around the fruiting bodies.
• A visible form of decay with a potent musty damp odour is apparent.

• Find out where the source of the dry rot is. Check for plumbing leaks, gutters and pipework that need to be done.
• You have to expose the wood, either by eliminating the dry wall or insulation from your home. Essentially, you need to get to the damaged wood in order to get it replaced.
• Cut the wood out and be vigilant with spotting the surrounding wood of the damaged area. Dry rot spreads infectiously, therefore don’t take chances and eliminate all surrounding wood that looks like it's been exposed to dry rot.
• Replace the wood with new timber and get rid of infected wood in a safe location away from home.

Removing dry rot can be a daunting task. If you're unsure or hesitant to do it yourself, it's always safer to hire a contractor, especially when removing damaged wood that's structural.