Essential Home Services specializes in repairing dry rot in residential and small commercial buildings in the Portland Metro Area. Dry rot can be particularly prevalent in the Pacific Northwest where there is a lot of moisture. We see small dry rot problems that merely need some siding replaced and larger problems that have caused beams and siding on nearly an entire side of a house to rot--causing serious problems. In looking at dry rot it is essential to repair them sooner rather than later and to fix the original source of the problem.

 

What causes dry rot?

Dry rot is caused by fungi that decay the wooden parts of a structure. The name can be somewhat misleading as all of these fungi require a high presence of moisture to be able to thrive. The term 'dry rot' refers to rot in dry lumber as opposed to green (wet) timber. Because of the nature of this fungi all dry rot is indirectly caused by the presence of moisture. The moisture may be coming from a leak in a plumbing pipe, a poor flashing job, the absence or poor maintenance of a gutter--these are common problems that lead to dry rot.

 

 

 

Here is a photo of the source of water for a house that had a beam, siding and part of a wall rotting out. A pesticide company had come through a few years earlier and had drilled holes in the siding to spray pesticide--this time they hit a drain pipe.

How do you repair dry rot?

If it is just a little bit of dry rot sometimes it can be repaired by the application of a chemical stabilizer that stabilizes the wood to prevent further rot. More often the wood has so much dry rot in it that it needs replaced. Sometimes it is a combination of both the application of the stabilizer and the replacement of as much of the rotten wood as possible.

Here is a photo of a beam and other sections that had dry rot in them replaced with good wood.  Notice everything that comes in contact with the concrete is treated. 

 

 

How do you determine if the dry rot is bad enough to replace?

To check and determine if you have dry rot that need replaced equip yourself with a pen, knife or something similarly shaped. Then try to poke the knife, pen or other object into the siding, decking, flooring or whatever else may contain the dry rot. If your knife goes into the wood without much effort and feels fairly soft than you probably need to call a contractor or investigate further yourself by doing some careful demolition.