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Brian G

wrote:
On 23 Dec, 19:20, "Brian G" wrote:
wrote:
On 23 Dec, 15:33, "
wrote:
We have a cellar that holds water in our 180yr old house. I've
recently had to replace the bottom 3 stairs and the pantry floor
because the timber had rotted due to the water vapour when the
cellar fills up with water(approx 3 inch of water). Cellar is 7
foot deep and until recently had no air bricks at all and the
timber that rotted had no doubt been there years so it lasted
quite long.

I have installed 2 air bricks and replaced the floor and stairs
with treated(tanalised) timber. I used bitumen paint on the ends
of the timber where they came in contact with the damp masonry.
This was maybe 3 months ago and today I went down in the cellar
and was rather shocked to see that the areas of the timber that
had bitumen on are dripping with water and also there is white
mould on certain parts on the timbers?

Dear Mark
Are you sure it is mould and not fungus (not mould)or
efflorescence(salt crystals? If so take a picture and I will have a
look
To get a fungus after 3 months is not likely

Chris
PS
IF itis tanalised and has not been cut it is impervious to decay
c

-----------------------------------------

"To get a fungus after 3 months is not likely"

It is possible for timber to be infected with the dry rot fungus
well within three months - although unlikely with tanalised timber.

I have actuall seen new skirtings and window frames re-infected
within that time because a proper dry-rod eradication program had
not been carried out before their renewal.

"IF itis tanalised and has not been cut it is impervious to decay"

That is factually incorrect - tanalising only delays the onset of
decay (albeit for a long period and dependent upon local conditions)
whether cut or not.

Brian G- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Dear Brian
Evidence please to support these two assertions?

All my working life repairing buildings as a carpenter and general forman.

To answer you the fungus question first:

I have supervised the renewal of joinery in a property that was severly
infected with dry rot without first eradicating the damn stuff (against my
direct advice) and within three months, the new timber was infected - after
that little episode, my advice was followed.

You gave a sweeping statement that "IF itis tanalised and has not been cut
it is impervious to decay".

That is untrue, I have seen rotten tanalised timber - and in fact, the life
of such timber in certain circumstances is around 5 years.

A huge snip

Chris,

With all due deference to your knowledge (and I must admit I got bored with
the length of your post and gave up less than halfway through [1]) timber is
a living thing, and no amount of treatment by tanalisation (or any other
method for that matter) will allow it to last forever - all it does is
*prolong* its life.

And that is from over 40 years of working with the damn stuff and not
running laboratory experiments.

[1] Don't take offence at that as I have read the
specifications/dissertations and listened to archtitects, surveyors,
chemists and company reps spouting on about several different types of
timber treatment over the years and taken a lot of the information with a
'pinch of salt' - especially when even the so-called 'experts' try to
rubbish each other's claims.

And one of my joys was calling a rather arrogant rep back five years after
using his firms so-called "guaranteed for ever" treatment, to show him a
lovely piece of joinery thoroughly rotten and totally useless - that's life.

Never mind, have a nice Christmas.

Brian G