Dry rot, damp, mould and other horrors can ruin a home, especially an older, or even historic building.
Over the years many methods and tricks have been tried out to locate dry rot in houses, but as the damage is often hidden, how do you find dry rot without ripping the place apart?
Step forward man’s best friend and dry rot’s worst enemy: Damp dogs.
Yes, I am being serious, and April fool’s day was ages ago.
There now exists companies who locate dry rot, often hidden in large buildings, by ignoring modern technology and gadgets, and using dogs instead…..
At first glance, yes it does sound a bit of shaggy dog story, but it’s true, so let’s look at the work of dogs in locating dry rot.
……..and for the “thinking impaired” (!) this is NOT a service we offer! Thank you, now read on….
How man’s best friend is helping to save older buildings.
Before you start to stockpile “Pedigree chum” for your home improvement project, these dogs are specially trained sniffer hounds who can easily locate the smell of dry rot, using their enhanced sense of smell, and can pick up traces of the damage, often hidden under floorboards, in roof spaces or behind skirting boards.
Dry rot is notoriously hard to find and is often discovered at it’s advanced stage, often meaning that the damage has already been done and expensive repairs are then needed. These dogs can locate the problem before it becomes a big problem.
What is dry rot?
Dry rot is known as “Serpula lacrymans”.
It is essentially decaying wood, normally caused by a fungus that eats away at the wood, destroying it’s strength and tensile structure, resulting the wood softening and losing it’s strength, which if the wood refers to the beams holding up the roof, for example, you are in trouble.
The “rot hound” is able to smell the start of the decay long before the problem becomes untreatable, so if you own a large building or a manor house, it is worth getting the dogs in (!) to survey the property just to reassure yourself that the rot does not exist.
Where do I find a rothound?
As you can imagine, this type of service is not to common and won’t be found on the high street. They are often used by surveyors, and often in large country piles.
In fact the National trust has employed these amazing animals (and their owners of course) to look for rot in their many old houses, with surprising success, so I am told.
Dog’s have been man’s best friend for 1000’s of years and we think training dogs to sniff out dry rot is an amazing idea! If you also think so, please comment at the bottom of the page.
Who uses the services of damp sniffing dogs?
Anyone who owns or manages a historic building, a property where the scourge of dry rot is more likely to appear, can use these services.
Unless you yourself own a very large and old home, it is unlikely that you would need to use them.
The national trust, the charitable trust which maintains some of Britain’s most treasured stately homes, often uses the dogs, especially as it spends around £50,000,000 a year (!) maintaining it’s houses, so any instance of dry rot not found and repaired would be a terrible strain on their resources.
So as you can see there are many way to deal with damp and dry rot, some of which, as we have learnt above, come from thinking outside the box and finding new and innovative ways to combat the typical problems that owners of older homes can face.
If you have used a “damp dog” before, why not get in touch and tell us what happened?
I hope that you enjoyed reading this article. Please use the buttons below to SHARE this with others!
PS. If you are looking for one of these dogs DO NOT CALL US (!), we do not use them and have no need to, but after a speaking with the wife, we could perhaps lend you “Condensation cat”, (!) although we are still on the look out for a “Damp proofing dog” and will update you when we find one!”
If you have ever bought a house before, you will know the importance of having a survey, but what if the report finds wet rot or dry rot?
What is it? How can it be dealt with?
We, as a company, only really deal with damp in masonry, but we often get asked about other types of damp, so we wrote this for your reference and research.
We explore these two common forms of damp damage and how to fix it.
The problems of wet and dry rot and what to do about it.
These 2 main types of rot refer to damage done by forces of nature, mainly to the wooden parts of your home.
Rotting wood and rotten timber are NEVER a good sign.
This can include floorboards or floor joists, roof joists and timbers inside the roofspace and any other wooden material that makes up the construction of your house.
Timber (“lumber” in USA) is a readily available, natural building material which has been used by man for 1000’s of years without much issue.
It is versatile and can be employed in a multitude of uses in constructing or improving a home.
The problem nowadays with modern heating systems, insulation and double glazing, our homes don’t have the natural air circulation anymore, which is when problems can start.
What is dry rot?
Dry rot refers to decaying wood which is normally caused by a fungus that literally eats away at the wood, destroying it’s latent strength and tensile structure, meaning the wood softens and therefore loses it’s strength. If the affected wood is a load-bearing timber, such as in your roof, this is a very bad sign and replacement must be instigated as soon as possible.
Contrary to it’s name, dry rot is NOT dry at all, and needs moisture or damp in order to germinate and grow.
One of the most tricky things about this type of damage is that it often occurs in hidden places, such as under the floor or in the roof, so even if you have lived in the same house for 10 years and have no intention of selling, a periodic survey by a surveyor can at least bring peace of mind.
There are four main stages to dry rot infestation
Dry rot, like most causes of damp in the home, starts out as tiny spores in the air and can be spotted sometimes as an orange dust or powder on the wood.
Regular inspections by a qualified timber contractor can be a lifesaver if the rot is noticed early on, and then treatment can take place which may save the wooden structure from further contamination, and/or expensive replacement of timbers.
The second stage of contamination, and only with sufficient moisture or damp present, is where the rot starts to grow into something like a fungus, which then germinate, grow and spread into the third stage, just as other types of damp multiply.
The fourth stage is where it starts to resemble a living plant or organic matter and the infestation then gets much worse and spreads much quicker.
It is rare at this stage to be able to carry out a repair without replacing ALL the affected wood in the area.
Timbers affected by dry rot completely lose their strength and the wood can crumble away in your fingers.
This may be a good time to have a look in the loft for signs of damp, or if you have a room inside that has a musty smell that just won’t go away.
Check under the floorboards, just to be sure, although bear in mind that can be a major job, so maybe only consider that if you are confident something is not right.
What is wet rot?
Wet rot is less common a problem than dry rot and is often caused by the timbers being exposed to above-average levels of moisture or humidity, accelerating the natural decay of timber, and is often caused by an external issue such as a structural problem or a leaking pipe.
Wet rot can be caused by a poorly maintained house, especially one where the exterior walls have little or no weatherproofing, perhaps with cracked render or porous brickwork, allowing the moisture into the home and into contact with the wood, causing the rot.
A specific weatherproof exterior wall coating on the outside of the house would solve this problem, coupled with treatment of the timbers after the walls have been weatherproofed from outside.
Wet rot is sometimes much easier to spot than dry rot and commonly affects wooden surfaces in more prominent places in your home.
A good place to spot it would be the bottoms of doors and door frames or floorboards which feel “spongy” underfoot.
A faulty DPC (damp proof course) is often to blame for this type of damage as instead of the ground water stopping from rising up at the DPC, it carries on upwards and makes the floor joists and floor boards wet.
An injected DPC is often the way to cure the damp rising but if the wood is badly affected it would need replacement.
Also check for rot wherever moisture is common in your home such as under baths or showers and under the kitchen sink. Small leaks can, over time, turn into patches of damp wood which then rots.
What else can damage the wood in my house?
One problem some of our regular readers over in the USA have is damage by termites or other bugs, often as most homes in the USA are wholly wooden constructed, although beetle damage does occur here in the UK and your local timber care contractor can also advise you on getting rid of the bugs and fixing the wood so they don’t come back.
Another, less common, problem with wooden houses is settlement or subsidence
What to do after finding any rot in your home
We would strongly advise contacting your local timber care specialist and ask their advice.
They will probably suggest a home visit to assess the problem. If your house has structural damage from wet rot and it is unsafe, they will be the people to alert you to that.
However bad the issue is, in most cases dry or wet rot CAN be treated, usually in the form of removing and replacing the wood.
Afterwards it is good practice to have all your timbers professionally treated to avoid a recurrence of the problem.
I hope that this article has been helpful to you and thanks for reading.
Disclaimer.
Please note this article is for education and reference ONLY and our company does NOT offer repair to dry or wet rot but some of the timber care and wood preservation adverts shown on this page, and provided by Google, may do so. We are not responsible for external websites accessed through our own site. Thanks.
Picture credit: Main photo (C) Yorkshire evening post.