Dry Rot/Mycellium

[chirpychippy]

Just a quick get you in the picture, the house next door to ours was sold recently The new owners which have bought the house are having work done and have found dry rot in their sub floor on the party wall adjacent to our living room, fortunately the source of the problem is on their side. However, the dry rot has spread through a hole in the party wall and into our sub floor.

Whilst I am a bit irritated by this, the spread seems quite localised in our floor and I imagine relatively simple to treat. Yes I am going to have to replace some of the floor boards, skirting, joists and probably even rebuild the dwarf walls and plates where the mycelium has formed and beyond, but where I am tripping up is which fungicidal wash to use, is there a recommended wash, I have looked at the some of the stuff that the DIY stores do, but being in the trade I am extremely cynical about DIY stores. And would it be wise to to drill the masonary and flood with fungicide?

Thank you in advance!

 

[gregers]

i would,thats how i do it.the diy stuff is ok imho for small isolated problems,but yours sounds like a fairly big job.
we get our stuff from safegaurd chemicals in horsham.iirc probor 20.

suck eggs time,
make sure all organic material is removed from sub floor,ungrade your air vents,use tanilized timber,wrap the ends of joists even if there not touching any walls,just to be safe.
dont forget the industry allow 1m past last found outbreak(and it can jump)in all directions,yeah right.
i:e you think youve come to the end,then you find more

 

[chirpychippy]

Ah, thank you very much gregors, I am hoping it hasn't jumped, but you never know, don't really want to pull the whole floor up on my weekend off. "I can see the missus now whinging cos I am making the house dusty"

Don't worry about sucking eggs, Its good to clarify sometimes. Cheers.

 

[chirpychippy]

Hello again Gregors, I spoke to Safeguard Chemicals today and they advised me that I needed Solliguard Masonary Fungicide not iirc Probor 20 as this was just for timber.

I also enquired about injecting the walls and was informed that I would need Probor 50, however the lady I spoke with informed that they would not be able to supply the Probor 50 as it was for proffesionals only, however, I pointed out that I am a proffesional, being a fully qualified carpenter and this seemed to be sufficient for the eligibility of a "Proffesional"!

Don't get me wrong, I am not a proffesional when it comes to Dry Rot, but I can read and have read safeguards DataSheet relating to Dry Rot and it all seems to make sense, however, I am preturbed by the conflicting information between different companies, some say that the walls should be injected with fungicide and then some say that walls injected with the fungicide could infact make the problem reappear as the walls are being saturated with water! Would you be able to clarify this point for me Gregors, or is it that using the Probar 50 is a Belt and Braces method of eradicating the dry rot?

Thank you.

 

[gregers]

hi m8,over the years i have used various types of chemical from varying companys.
all claim to do the same stuff

i used to work for a preservation company,well about 4 overall.

i think the new method now is called containment?find the last outbreak and drill a few holes vertically,surface spray all walls within infected areas.

i was trained to do diamond drilling over whole of wall at a angle approx 45 degrees and saturate,as there really is no way of knowing exactly how much chemical is going into the walls,i have always thought it was hit/miss.
but this is the method i still use when i have to deal with dry rot at my work.
as we do not require any form of guarantee its a no brainer,but ive been in my work place now 12 years(i too am a chippy)and have had no re occurrence of any dry rot jobs i have carried out.hth a bit.

be prepared you might have to remove a lot of plaster etc to do the job properly.

 

[riggers386]

I'm a joiner with experience in the damp and timber treatment side of things (10yrs in that game!) and just about everything that's been advised is bang on. Safeguard chemicals are fine (we used them for a while,) as are Sovereign (but a bit pricey.) The bit about drilling down at 45 degrees and irrigating is especially relevant.. it works, believe me, when it comes to preventing any reocurrence. The old way (burning the myclia off the wall was useless - and dangerous.)

Just a couple of things:

1) Tanalizing (despite the claims) is no guarantee against dry rot. Thirty years ago, I was working on maintenence at the town's university and was called to look at a floor, where the lecturer's chair leg had gone through. The whole floor (only about 10 foot square)was completely riddled with dry rot. It had previously been a concrete floor, within the building. No ventialtion was possible due to the location, so the joiner had used tanalised stuff, assuming that would be OK. It had only lasted 5 years - and the location wasn't particularly damp.

2) Something all experienced damp proof/rot workers learn: if you think you've got to the full extent of things, and the fungus hasn't crept around that corner/ behind that bit of skirting/ architrave, up behind that casing.... DON'T RISK IT! Have a damned good look - even if it means damaging the decorations.

I've got a similar problem myself: An incompetent 'DIY' nut next door, who told me (3 years ago) he's 'refurbing the whole house'... which seems to mean he's hacked off ALL the plaster, and, having found putting it back on is'nt quite as easy, has spent the last two years bringing pallets and packing cases home from work, breaking them up in his back garden, and subsequently nailing them (into the joints) directly to the - fairly damp, in places - brick walls.....including the party wall. (Presumably to cover with Wickes plasterboard and 'one coat' plaster!)

So - it's only a matter of time before I'll be facing the same problem. Does anyone know if I can invoke the Party Wall Act to stop him?

 

[gregers]

The old way (burning the myclia off the wall was useless - and dangerous.)

i remeber doing that a few times when i 1st started,the guy i was working with at the time actually said he had set fire to a building doing this,


amazing how over the years the ammount of differing technics around and they are all gaurenteed by the govening body,you would think that they would choose the best 1 and stick with it and suggest that method over any others,