Dry rot...

[bigcat]

difficult

Drying the air out is a fast process. Drying the bulk of the walls is pretty slow of course. But moulds need poor ventilation as well as damp to thrive: expose the wet bits and the surface dries fairly quickly, and the ventilation doesnt help the mould survive any either.

If its in dryish air there wouldnt be a problem, its long exposure where rot sets in. Vic houses were built without any kiln drying, and there was no CH then so they dried more slowly. They didnt normally rot.

Certainly yes on anything exposed to the great outdoors, but not indoors. Its just not needed, and not really effective either. The thing is to fix the damp problem. Only if you cant or wont for some reason do chemicals then become important.

NT

[AlexW]

Cheers for the info ... its academic at the moment and will remain so hopefully...

[Pete C]

Doesn't treating the surface of the timber care of that?

Also what do you think of injecting boron based chemicals into the wood? I'd expect if it gets/stays damp they will spread inside the wood and stop more rot.

IME they do a good job of keeping the humidity level under control, if the damp is due to condensation then they will dry it out, but if due to water leaks etc then the affected area will stay damp.

cheers, Pete.

[The Natural Philosopher]

But rots are not plants. They are fungi.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I agree that damp is the cause of all rots, but what is the best way to deal wih worm and beetle attack to timber?

[Anna Kettle]

For worm - central heating. I _think_ the same is true of beetle

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[bigcat]

white sauce and bread?

NT

[Pete C]

Magnetron from a microwave and a long extension lead* ;) Doing both sides of a 2" joist should take care of 'em!

But I would have thought there are surface and injectable treatments that will do the trick.

• = don't try this at home!

cheers, Pete.

[Miketew]

Listen to the guy who gave the detailed how to instruction, burning an

removing etc. the other people are guessers and you will most certainl live to regret not tackling it properly. I made that mistake and it cos me dearly to put it right. dry rot is a fungal infection of the wood an travels via brick work plaster and wood all over your house if no treated, curing any damp is sensible but will not stop it once you hav the infestation

-- Miketew