Subject: Help needed redry rot.
From: (Steve Fisher)
Date: 14/07/03 20:30 GMT Daylight Time
Message-id:

We've got dry rot under our stairs.

A company has been round and told us that all the floorboards in hall
will need replacing with treated floorboards. Plaster will need
replacing to height of 1 metre (up to Dado rail) by 3 metres wide. Two
air bricks will need installing.

The quote has come in at £3000 for a weeks work.

This seems fairly expensive considering the quote effectively covers

1) what the cost of floorboards are (hallway measures 2 metres by 6)
2) 2 people for 2 days to lay floorboards
3) install 2 airbricks (cover one exisitng air brick which is level
with pavement outside (this is where water has been coming into the
house)
4) the cost of a plasterer for a day and his material.
5) treating all new wood with dry rot prevention chemicals
6) finsihing work

Chances are all you really need to do is find the source of the moisture that
causes the dry rot (a badly named thing if ever there was one), add some
ventilation, slap some dry rot killer around and let it all dry out. There may
be a leak from cracked render or a gutter or damp proof course letting moisture
in. If you have a washing machine under there that can cause all sorts of damp
and condensation problems. I have the same under my stairs from the washing
machine and its drain outlet. Replacing floorboards many metres away seems
total overkill IMO but then I haven't seen your house.

Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines (www.pumaracing.co.uk)
You find somebody to love in this world you'd better hang on tooth and nail -
the wolf is always at the door. (Don Henley - In A New York Minute)