Wet and Dry Rot
Wet Rot, Dry Rot
Wood Rotting Fungi
All wood rotting fungi derive their food by breaking down the cells of timber. The various fungi can be sub divided by the nature of how they attack the two main constituent components of timber, cellulose and lignin. Cellulose and lignin are the two main building blocks of a timber cell. Fungi which attack both the cellulose and the lignin are referred to as the brown rots and typically will darken the colour of the timber they attack and often cause characteristic horizontal and vertical "cuboidal" cracks on the timber. The size and severity of the cracking varies from species to species and is affected by other environmental factors and there are other more subtle characteristics to the damage, but for the broad strokes used here this level of detail should suffice. The second group of fungi essentially attack only the cellulose and these fungi are typically referred to as white rots. White rots tend to bleach the appearance of the timber they attack and rather that form "cuboidal" cracks the fibres of the timber tend to fray almost like the bristles of a paint brush.
There are other fungi that may be found in property that do not cause timber rot though they still indicate a problem will damp and may act as a indicator to the potential presence of other wood rotting fungi.
The more commonly know division of wood rotting fungi tends to be the wet rot, dry rot split. This has arisen out of the fact that of all the wood rotting fungi only one Serpula lacrymans actually falls into the dry rot category as all other wood rotting fungi are classified as wet rots, this distinction is important due to the additional problems associated with the successful eradication of dry rot (Serpula lacrymans) when compared to the wet rots. For the general purposes of information it is worth noting that dry rot is also classified as a brown rot.
Brown Rots & White Rots (some examples)
| Brown Rots | White Rots |
|---|---|
| Serpula lacrymans (Dry Rot) | Phellinus contiguus (Wet Rot) |
| Coniophora puteana (Wet Rot) | Donkioporia expansa (Wet Rot) |
| Fibroporis vaillantii (Wet Rot) | Pleurotus ostreatus (Wet Rot) |
| Paxillus panuoides (Wet Rot) | Asterostroma spp. (Wet Rot) |
How Important is the correct identification of wood rotting fungi?
The most important single factor in the identification of a wood rotting fungi, once it has been established that it is a wood rotting fungi, is whither or not the fungi is a wet rot or dry rot i.e. Serpula lacrymans, for the purposes of the client the specifics of the exact species of wet rot is possibly a mute point however your Timber & Damp Surveyor should be aware of this as a number of wet rot fungi can have very similar characteristic to dry rot and they must be aware of the distinctions. Miss diagnosis of the nature of a wood rotting fungi can lead to either under specification and potential recurrence of a rot outbreak with all the upheaval involved and potential redecoration costs. Further a false positive identification of dry rot would mean that the job would be over specified and therefore be unnecessarily costly to the client!
You need Miller Preservation
Miller Preservation take pride in the level of knowledge and expertise of our surveyors and take great care in the accurate diagnosis of all fungi and insects affecting your property. Indeed over the years we have come across may properties where inspections by other parties have miss interpreted the presence of Serpula lacrymans when in fact some less serious wet rot fungi was present. Wither this was a genuine mistake on behalf of these third parties or an effort to pad out a contract we'll never know what we can state however is that by getting Miller Preservation on board the client got a accurate diagnosis and a targeted specification enabling a cost effective solution to their wood rotting fungi problems with the peace of mind of a Miller Preservation Guarantee with the option of CGS Insurance.