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Dry Rot Floor System

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Dry Rot (also known as brown rot) is the leading cause for a home’s floor joists to be structurally compromised. Dry rot is a type of wood decay and it will dry out the wood that supports your home, causing the wood to become stiff-like and crumble. To identify dry/brown rot, you will see a cotton-textured, white-colored,  type of mold as well as dark cracking and missing pieces in the wood joists.

What is Dry Rot?

Dry Rot is a fungus spore by the name of Serpula Lacrymans. It is a brown fungus that breaks down cellulose and hemicellulose- two components that give the wood in your home strength and resilience. The wood will be cracked, brittle, and broken. Despite its name, dry rot will form when there is a moisture content of 20% or higher inside the wood floor joists and a relative humidity of 95% in the crawl space or basement. This is why removing the source of water intrusion as quickly as possible is the best prevention of dry rot. Dry rot mold spores can live for years, waiting for the perfect environment to grow and spread. The most ideal environment for dry rot is a humid area with temperatures between 70-80%. Moisture, wood, oxygen, and high temperatures are the food sources for this wood-damaging mold. 

How Does Dry Rot Happen?

  • Pipes burst and are left unattended or unfixed, so the wood absorbs large amounts of water. 
  • There is a high water table in your crawl space with no type of drainage system. 
  • The wood is not properly dried before construction use. 

Identify & treatment of dry rot

Indications: 

  •  Brittle, broken, cracked, stiff-like wood. 
  •  Sunken or shrunken wood floor joists.
  •  Dark cracks in the wood.
  •  Fuzzy cotton-like white growing around cracks in the wood. 
 

Treatment:

  • Remove any standing water from the area, install a crawl space or basement drain system, install a sump pump, and lay down a protective vapor barrier. 
  • This is a prevention method because if there is no intruding water, there will be no active spot for dry rot fungus to grow. 
  • Aftermath: Once we have treated the area with a crawl space encapsulation and drainage system, it comes with a transferable lifetime warranty! 
          This procedure is also effective in basements. 
 

An encapsulation and drainage system not only works for treating mold, mildew, humidity, and dry rotting- Also helps keep the health of your family in check, keeps the critter out, and for a lifetime, protects the integrity of your home’s floor system!

 
Dry Rotted Floor Joist
Mold In Crawl Space Floor System
Mold on Crawl Space Floor System
Mold on floor system

> See More crawl Space Warning signs

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