Dry Rot is often confused with dried out wet rot, but it is potentially much more serious. Moisture is needed for dry rot to get started, but once established, it can travel through masonry and even concrete, to find some more timber to feed on.
Guaranteed treatment depends on successfully removing the source of moisture and all affected materials, before treating the area and reinstating the items removed. It is often necessary to improve on the design or construction of the original item, perhaps by improving sub floor ventilation, or isolating timber joists from the walls. Non Guaranteed control treatments can be carried out instead, and these depend on controlling the local environment to ensure that the conditions in which Dry Rot flourishes, do not arise.
There is only one dry rot fungus, Serpula lacrymans. Wet rot is more easily treated by removing the source of moisture and replacing defective timbers. Unlike Dry Rot, wet rot will not travel beyond the point of the moisture, into dry timber. With dry rot, there is always some fungal growth, although this is likely to be out of sight. With wet rot, there is often no fungal growth, although there are one or two wet rots that look similar to dry rot. There are a number of wet rot fungi
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