structural problems

[daveyx]

Many thanks for the advice i got on my damp thread, particularly from Matt. (Here's hoping for dry rot :wink: ).

This a just a question for my curiosity really since I don't have responsibility for it as a tenant and at least the landlord seems to be taking some action on this one.

I was talking to another tenant from the flat above me and they say that there have been people round looking at structural problems. They have been scraping stuff of the cellar walls apparently. Have you any idea what kind of possible problems there may be? I appreciate this is probably far too little information to go on.

I'm not sure of tha age of the Victorian property i live in. Possibly between 1880 and 1893, red brick. It stands in a now designated conservation area that grew up from the 1840s on wards. It is a large detached property converted into flats. The cellar has never been converted or modified into a dry storage space.

 

[Raylea]

Hi there,

If they are scaping stuff of the wall, that could be dry rot as it can eat everthing in its path I think its like a spiders web and it doesn,t limit itself to wood (costly also to get rid of). Could be settlement possibly still on the move etc, but I am no expert especially to some on this forum, so you don't get lost down the line this is my ten pence worth.

Raylea

 

[Nemesis]

Dry rot - stop the cause and it dies.

See Matt Green's many posts on the subject.

 

[Matt Green]

If they are scaping stuff of the wall, that could be dry rot as it can eat everthing in its path

Hardly.

I think its like a spiders web

I'd hate to see the spider.

and it doesn,t limit itself to wood

Really? Wow! A stone-eating fungus! My word, what else can it do? Can it play the trombone? Make coffee? Will it steal my dog or maybe suck the moisture straight from my body?

(costly also to get rid of).

Only if you are spectacularly ill-informed...

It's not a super-organism, merely an efficent wood-decay fungus that has an environmental niche similar to a wet building. It needs water, organic matter and oxygen to survive: just like any other fungus.


Matt Green

 

[Nemesis]

It needs water, organic matter and oxygen to survive: just like any other fungus.

I think I need those things too. Am I a fungus?

 

[Matt Green]

I think I need those things too. Am I a fungus?

Not sure. Do you take up mu'sh room?

 

[Nemesis]

Too much these days!

Maybe I am one of these:

Waxcaps appear on grassland where the soil has been undisturbed for a long time - such as the lawns around stately homes and ancient monuments, including Stonehenge.

Churchyards and cemeteries are also good sites. With so many historic estates, the UK is a stronghold for waxcaps, being home to two thirds of the 60 European varieties. The ballerina waxcap is thought to be better represented here than anywhere in the world and can be seen in good numbers in country house and stately home gardens, including Petworth House, Sussex, and Charles Darwin's former home, Down House, in Kent.

 

[DaveBrigg]

Really? Wow! A stone-eating fungus! My word, what else can it do?

Matt Green

To be fair to Raylea, we had what was identified as dry rot across the tiled floor of a room, several feet away from the nearest piece of timber. The floor had been covered by plastic sheeting and a couple of mats, so there was no shortage of moisture. I assume the organic matter required must have come from whatever had been dropped on the floor for the last fifty years.

 

[Raylea]

I wasn't really suggesting that dry rot eats with a knife and fork, and grammatically I probably should of said its found on damp wood, sucks up moisture from wood and then it can be found on brick etc trying to locate more wood, because it can't survive on anything else other then damp wood. Me's finking hat me's probubbly ot it rong agane. Still mushroom for more improvement on my side. Ho hum.

Raylea

 

[Penners]

Am I a fungus?

Well, let's see... any chance of your posting a self-portrait so we can compare?