On 16 Jul 2003 10:13:39 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
Mark writes:

I'm not familiar with dry rot (only the wet rot in my bathroom).

Is it a fungal rot caused by damp rather than the wood being rotten
through the water? The treatment of the wood and another poster
mentioning treatment/burning etc.

It might help to think of it more like a pot plant. The soil
is the wood, and it breaks down the wood to grow branches
across rock and brickwork, and through mortar and behind
plaster, to search out more wood for food. The branches can
carry the water it needs, so it is capable of infecting some
wood which isn't damp once it gets started. The flowers
(fruiting bodies) are like white cotten wool balls, and the
seeds (spores) are a dark red or brown powder which the flower
throws out some feet from it. The powder can lay around for
years after the fruiting bodies have gone, if not disturbed.

It requires a particular humidity range which doesn't occur
naturally in the UK, but can be found in poorly ventilated
enclosed spaces in houses. It will actually die all by itself
if exposed to good ventiallation -- you never see it growing
outdoors in the UK. It's natural habitat are caves in the
Himalayas where it feeds on the dead tree roots which
penetrate the cave walls. It was brought back to the UK in
wooden ships, where it also became a major problem.

I found a small outbreak under a bath. It was in a tiny block
of wood fixed to the wall. The branches had grown out along
the wall to find some more wood. However, it's blind, and it
had managed to stear a course which missed all the other wood,
and then it ran out of energy from the original tiny piece of
wood and died (fortunately). There was no sign it had ever
managed to grow a fruiting body.

Thanks for the description guys, makes a bit more sense now the extent
of the treatment. Still think I'd do it myself and save a couple of
grand. :-)

Mark S.