In the cartlodge attached to our new home (1650's Norfolk cottage) there is some (presumably very old) wood forming the wall between the different sections of the cartlodge, which at the bottom where it rests on a wooden crosspiece has become quite soft and flaky. It doesn't seem to be actually rotten as such - but it is definitely softening. I don't have the time or money to sort it out at the moment, but I was wondering if there is any wood treatment I could apply that might stabilise the situation. I appreciate it may well have been like this for a very long time already, but I just wonder if there is anything I can do.
Do you think that the places where this is could have been fairly wet at some time in the past, but yet was reasonably well ventilated?
If so, it's possible that the damage is a consequence of some form of wet rot having taken place. The break down in the wood is partly via the action of the fungus itself and partly from various weevils and assorted friends who then come along for dinner. I saw this in a house where the DPC had been bridged and the ground floor joists were into pockets in the brickwork just above it; yet the floor void was well ventilated. There was no real sign of any fungus itself in terms of visible strands etc. but there doesn't have to be.
You can look for cellar fungus as a reference for pictures. The main point is that the wood breaks up into flakes. This is very different to some other fungal timber infestations such as dry rot and similar where there needs to be the right conditions of temperature, humidity, lack of ventilation. The result with most of these species of fungus is more of an angular, cubic breakdown of the wood.
There's nothing that you can really do mechanically about wood where this has happened. Complete remedial action is normally to eliminate the source of moisture and then to replace the damaged sections. If you can't really do this, then it may be best not to actually do anything provided that the place isn't about to fall down.
If you think that there is a general, slow decay going on, you can inhibit it with a timber treatment. In effect, this would be similar to treating exterior softwood, which otherwise does tend to decay with wet rot (e.g. fence posts). Solignum colourless preserver (solvent based) would be a good choice for this. However, if the problem has been happening for several centuries, it doesn't seem likely that it will reach terminal level in the next couple of years.
The other thing that you could look at is sources of damp. Are there any things that can be done to fix that, for example.
How far can you push a bradawl into it? Any sign of moisture when you take it out? You can impregnate porous material with various resins but it needs to be bone dry. Chicken and egg
Thank you Andy for that very helpful summary. I think you're right that's it's wet rot, but it's odd in that it's quite some distance off the ground where the vertical planks rest on a horizontal piece of wood resting on a raised brick foundation (so not that old then) with, clearly, no damp proof course. What I have just noticed looking on the other side is that it is completely covered by a board that is lying against the wall - presumably this could be preventing the circulation of air on that side - which I assume with this sort of structure could be essential.
Dear Keith If the wood is soft it will have suffered SOME form of degradation. The most probable in your described conditions is wet rot eg C puteana or possibly C cerebella. IF it is not now currently wet it will be historical and almost certainly dead. It could also be one of the following: Softrot stainers (unlikely but possible if it was very wet for some time) Chemical defibration (but that would not flake but would look more like lint) White rot (but that would not show the sort of syptoms to which you refer.) It could most remotely have suffered from some form of bacterial attack but that normally only affect the pit membranes and after long immersion in water do that is so improbably as to be worthy of ignoring Other categories of degratdation are mechanical damage and UV both of which are unlikely. Contrary to a later post the biological mechanism for dry and wet rot is identical both being a brown rot fugus - attacking cellulose and leaving the lignin and both leave virturally identical cuboidal cracking - just look at the two photographs on BRE Digest 299. Well what to do?
1) determine the moisture content of the timber. Is it wet? (not likely from description) IF so - how wet? if VERY wet it is worth applying a chemical treatment and the obvious one if very wet (eg greater than 50% mc up to say a max of several hundred %) use a boron based pellet or crushed powder and let the water do the work of incorporating the active ingredient. DO NOT USE AN ORGANIC SOLVENT- BASED PRODUCT!
2) IF it is only slightly wet eg 20 to 30% mc it is not worth using any chemical to control DECAY - Isolate the timbers with a dpc or by other means and ventilate. If Isolation is not feaible or pracical then use a mayonnaise paste only as a stop gap and last resort If you are a domestic user you may not be allowed to buy this as it is not likely to be classifed as a A group chemical (for amateurs) in the Pesticides register If you can classify yourself as a professional and can use a P chemical then you will need to be competent to do a COSHH assessment
3) if it is dry you need do nothing and to apply any chemical could lead you (in theory) to be at the wrong end of criminal proceedings for unnecessary use of a pesticide - and quite right too! That deal with fungi If there is insect attack (there was reference to such in other posts) all you need to do is to put some lining paper over the timber ASAP (flight season ends in September) and monitor the lining paper for new holes. Absent any holes in 3 years you can be sure that there is not Common Furniture Beetle (aka woodworm) As it is a 1650 house the chances are that it is hardwood so there MAY be DWB (death watch) which is very difficult to eridicate and may emerge 7 years on Are there any such holes? Chances are what you are seeing is perishable sapwood and the heartwood is sound as a bell Do not be tempted to "defrass" it is aesthically unacceptable to any lover of a good timber frame. Consider the merits of the literature in the SPAB Best wishes Chris Chris
Many thanks for that very comprehensive reply. But ...
"mayonnaise paste"? "BRE"? "defrass"? "SPAB"?
Have now removed the stored wood which was preventing ventilation on one side of this wall so hopefully it will all dry out and presumably require no further action. No evidence of woodworm or DWB.
Haven't a clue. Sounds like it ISN'T an emulsion of olive oil and egg yolk though!
Buildings Research Establishment.
Presumably, "remove the soft timber until you get to the sound heartwood".
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings - you probably ought to have a look at some of their info if you have 17th century house.
The other people that might be able to offer some advice is your local council conservation officer. "I'm not doing /anything/ until you've had a look" will at least earn you some brownie points.
On the other hand:
Sounds like that's the solution. Check back in a year or so and see if the problem has got noticably worse.
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