Mushroom under shower tray

Hi all,

Rather more than a year ago I noticed that a corner of one the wooden floor= boards right next to our shower tray had rotted. I assumed that it was due = to water getting out of the shower, and causing wet rot. So I sealed the sh= ower properly with mastic, and moved on. I did leave the little hole that h= ad rotted (about two or three square inches) without filling it, just to ke= ep an eye on things.=20

Well now I've just had a look and we have a problem. There is water down th= ere again after a shower - not such a surprise because what made me look wa= s the fact that the mastic was looking a bit dodgy. However, on further inv= estigation I've managed to pull a mushroom/fungus from the hole! This, I th= ink, is pretty bad. I believe it can only mean dry rot, is that right? In w= hich case redoing the mastic gets rather overshadowed by a much more seriou= s problem!

Anyone with any experience of this?

Cheers!

Reply to
Martin Pentreath
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floorboards right next to our shower tray had rotted. I assumed that it was due to water getting out of the shower, and causing wet rot. So I sealed the shower properly with mastic, and moved on. I did leave the little hole that had rotted (about two or three square inches) without filling it, just to keep an eye on things.

again after a shower - not such a surprise because what made me look was the fact that the mastic was looking a bit dodgy. However, on further investigation I've managed to pull a mushroom/fungus from the hole! This, I think, is pretty bad. I believe it can only mean dry rot, is that right? In which case redoing the mastic gets rather overshadowed by a much more serious problem!

Ouch.

Not sure that "mushrooms" are necessarily indicative of dry rot - more wet rot? Am really not expert at this stuff - but there are masses of pictures online to look at and compare.

However, even if you've managed to fish a bit of what might turn out to be wet rot out of a hole, it doesn't mean that you might not also have dry rot elsewhere as a secondary result?

Reply to
Lobster

What kind of shower tray and how old? If it is an old fibreglass one on a foam/chipboard moulded base then the whole tray could be leaking. Our old one was incredibly icky and soggy and more or less fell apart when I took it out.

Reply to
David.WE.Roberts

There are lots of fungal rots and some have more obvious fruiting bodies or mushrooms than others. A spore print might be definitive. Don't let it get that far though!

Have a look for images of dry and wet rot online. Whatever is there must have attacked a decent sized chunk of wood to be able to support a fruiting body so don't waste too much time going after it!

Reply to
Martin Brown

The fungi usually inhabit rotting wood and turn it into a kind of dusty stuff is all I know. It really needs someone to pull it all out and have a look to see what is going on I think. My neighbour had this in the front sitting room and had to have a couple of new floor joists and several new floorboards and and some noxious stuff sprayed on the wood. However in her case it was damp from the ground, and one supposes in yours its fixable if its a leak. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Well thanks for the replies. The shower tray is a pretty sturdy ceramic thi= ng, I don't think that's the problem. The mastic has definitely failed in o= ne corner near the rotten board, so that's where I'm putting the blame at t= he moment. Without major ripping-out it's impossible to come to a definitiv= e diagnosis though.

The limited area which I can see through the small hole reveals that the mu= shroom patch looks like what you might expect a mushroom to enjoy - moist d= ark brown compost!

A friend of mine with a bit more nouse about these things is coming to have= a look during the week. The question right now is whether to tear everythi= ng out and cause major disruption, or whether the just redo the sealant, ke= ep it under observation with fingers crossed (observation being limited to = what can be observed through a small hole).

Reply to
Martin Pentreath

I think ripping it out now is the best thing to do.

Painful in the short term, but usually better than wishful thinking :-)

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David.WE.Roberts

That's what I was going to say too. "Moist dark brown compost" sounds more like wet rot than dry rot; but you *really* don't want to get it wrong. How much other timber that matters do you have within, say, 3 metres. IIRC some time in the 19th century most of the woodwork in the White House had to be replaced because of dry rot, and supposedly this was only discovered when one leg of a grand piano went through a floor.

Reply to
newshound

I think they did the same thing to the Downing Street terrace in the

1960s. I seem to recall one of the Harolds PM'd from Admiralty House in the interim.

JGH

Reply to
jgharston

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