Cost of treating dry rot on joists in cellar?

[lukeowl1979 10]

It appears I may have stumbled across dry rot in our cellar this morning on a couple of joists. I've booked someone from Timberwise to come and have a look next week.

 

Has anyone had experience of treatment for dry rot? If so, what kind of cost is involved?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Lostrider 10]

I bought an old terrace house some years ago. Two of the joists had dry rot. Actually you need water to get dry rot. It is s a fungus that affecs the wet timber.

 

As well as any treatment you need to investigate where the water is coming from.

Our problem was the ceiling of the cellar was plastered onto lathes. The old way, and the cellar used to flood so the wood was trapped in damp atmosphere. We pulled down the ceiling allowing the beams to breath and dry out.#

The cellar grate was also blocked stopping air circulating so we opened the grill up.

 

Rather than treat the beams I replaced them with new ones. They were a bit far gone for treatment.

Never had any more problems. Just inspected them every so often.

[jsmith2009 10]

hi just sent you pm ta jeff the joiner

[Lawson 10]

i have the same issue or should i say had,

 

Wood worm took over my kitchen floor including the floorboards and cupboards (this btw is a new house not one im living in which has been stood for a year plus) ive literally gutted the kitchen, ripped up the whole floor and joists and starting a fresh with wood treatment on any new wood going back down (this weekend) its pretty easy tbh as long as you dont mind a bit of manual work......also save you a packet

[JLB joinery 10]

hi we would be happy to help if you would like to arrange a visit please call anytime 07916 813 615 thanks- jlb

 

joinery[email protected]

[WallBuilder 10]

If it is dry rot then the usual idea is to remove the affected timber and any wood for about a metre around it which obviusly means the floorboards and skirting boars in the room above. The walls and brickwork are then sprayed and trated so this can involve hacking off the plaster to about a metre high in the room. I was unfortunate because it was near my front door so i had to have my door frame replaced as well.

Get three quotes and if it's a two minute inspection then i'd be wary and remember you can pay an awful lot for the privelege of having a named company do the work, I paid way over the odds as I used rentokil

[lukeowl1979 10]

If it is dry rot then the usual idea is to remove the affected timber and any wood for about a metre around it which obviusly means the floorboards and skirting boars in the room above. The walls and brickwork are then sprayed and trated so this can involve hacking off the plaster to about a metre high in the room. I was unfortunate because it was near my front door so i had to have my door frame replaced as well.

Get three quotes and if it's a two minute inspection then i'd be wary and remember you can pay an awful lot for the privelege of having a named company do the work, I paid way over the odds as I used rentokil

 

I really wouldn't be able to afford to have all that done!

 

Is there an easy way to treat this? It doesn't appear to have fully taken over the timber yet - it's only on the underside. There are a few white patches on the cellar floor as well - not sure if this is sporing or something??

 

We had a lot of water in the cellar back in the floods of 2007 - we covered the vent up outside as we thought water was coming in through the rain coming in, but it appears that it was the rising water table that was the source of the water. As we don't use our cellar for anything we rarely go down there. I am presuming that it's just not dried out adequately down there.

 

I could really do with an easy/cheap solution to this as my wife and I are expecting our first baby in March so now isn't exactly the best time for us to have to fork out on major renovation work.

 

Any further comments relating to experience of sorting this on a DIY level would be appreciated.

 

Thanks to the joiners who have PM'd. I'll be in touch.

[WallBuilder 10]

Get a couple of companies to come in to give quotes you can at the same time pick their brains. Trouble with dry rot is that it can and does spread so I think a lot of companies that want to give a guarantee tend to err on the side of caution and so either rip out any possible contamination and also like to expose brickwork so it can be treated thoroughly.

When my work was done they also fitted another couple of air bricks in the back of the house so thereis a nice through draft through the cellar and under floor space.

[dan2802 53]

I really wouldn't be able to afford to have all that done!

 

Is there an easy way to treat this? It doesn't appear to have fully taken over the timber yet - it's only on the underside. There are a few white patches on the cellar floor as well - not sure if this is sporing or something??

 

We had a lot of water in the cellar back in the floods of 2007 - we covered the vent up outside as we thought water was coming in through the rain coming in, but it appears that it was the rising water table that was the source of the water. As we don't use our cellar for anything we rarely go down there. I am presuming that it's just not dried out adequately down there.

 

I could really do with an easy/cheap solution to this as my wife and I are expecting our first baby in March so now isn't exactly the best time for us to have to fork out on major renovation work.

 

Any further comments relating to experience of sorting this on a DIY level would be appreciated.

 

Thanks to the joiners who have PM'd. I'll be in touch.

 

Your cellar needs air flow so by covering the vent you may have caused problems.

We've fitted loads of pumps dug into the cellar floor with problems like this but you NEED to uncover your vents.

[beanpod 10]

I'm in a hurry, so I've cut and pasted this from a reply I left on another forum, so sorry if there's bits in that you haven't asked about!:

 

Dry rot doesn't eat brick and plaster, it only eats wood (and cellulose) that has a moisture content over about 20%. It needs to draw nutrients from brick and plaster in order to survive (which is why it occurs in timber that's in contact with masonary), but it doesn't eat them.

 

It does travel through brick and plaster in search of more damp wood, but once its woody food source is removed, it cannot survive for long (although it can remain dormant for some time). Masonary sterilisation is not an effective way of tackling the beastie (despite what companies who carry out the service will tell you).

 

Basically, the first things that you should be doing are finding out and eliminating the source of moisture, then rapidly drying out the area.

 

Secondary measures include finding the extent of the outbreak, removing rotten wood (along with any paper or card around the area, as it can eat this too) and replacing it with pretreated timber, keeping the timber out of contact with damp masonary (for example by using a damp proof membrane) and improving ventilation to the area.

 

Hope this helps!