Rot discovered, what now?

[Isla Ladell]

See photos here.

A while back as I was redoing the sealant I noticed a peziza-type fungi concealed behind the sink pedestal, turns out the flexi connector had been leaking for a while.

I replaced the pipe, ripped out the saturated particle board plus remaining tiles (previous owner bodge job) and left the dehumidifier to do its thing.

For whatever reason at the time I didn't think to check the floorboards or joists, finally got around to doing so this evening and had my worst fear confirmed.

There's rot for sure, wet or dry I have no idea but the mycelium is clearly visible. The joist shows a larger area of white rot with what I assume is black staining from prolonged water exposure.

There's been previous leaks in the property before I purchased, so of course I'm now really panicking that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Matt Green]

That's a white rot and Peziza spp. generally don't use that decay mechanism. May be a Poria Spp?

White rots are slow at degrading timber, given that they attack the lignin as well as the cellulose components of wood. This is old, slow, damage. You should be able to scrape or wire brush the mycelium off the affected areas and repair the timbers, cutting back to a point where you can get a fixing.

No need to panic much.


M.

 

[Isla Ladell]

That's a white rot and Peziza spp. generally don't use that decay mechanism. May be a Poria Spp?

White rots are slow at degrading timber, given that they attack the lignin as well as the cellulose components of wood. This is old, slow, damage. You should be able to scrape or wire brush the mycelium off the affected areas and repair the timbers, cutting back to a point where you can get a fixing.

No need to panic much.


M.

Thanks Matt, I was hoping you'd answer since you seem to be the forums resident rot man.

This is why I was concerned about dry rot. The cubical pattern in the wood makes me think there's more than just white rot. Happy to stand corrected.

 

[Matt Green]

you seem to be the forums resident rot man

I've been called worse. Really, I'm a beetle man, but I diversify in lean times.

That sort of surface cuboidal cracking is from soft rot (ref: see the current window rot thread), the deeper brown rot cuboidal cross-cracks from brown decay, of which dry rot is one example of a fungus that uses that mechanism, is quite different (ref: see the current doorstep rot thread).

It's like London buses- no rot threads for months, then three come along at once.


M.