ROTTING timber can ruin a property, shave thousands off the value – and leave it impossible to sell.
It’s little wonder then that when the problem sets it home-owners turn to quickfire options to try and resolve it.
For many that means plugging in a dehumidifier and hoping for the best.
But one of the UK’s leading experts has today issued a warning in this area – and urged people to avoid this as a way of trying to deal with the problem.
Rotting timber expert George Edwards, from Timberwise, said: “Rot in timber is never a pleasant thing to find, and once discovered it’s probably going to remain a priority for you until it’s resolved and the timber is restored to a safe state.
“The problem is that some people choose not to seek out professional timber treatment and instead rely on home remedies to resolve the problem.”
Explaining what timber rot actually is and why it occurs, George continued: “Rot in timber is a fungus, a living organism that requires specific conditions in order for it to grow and spread. “In the UK the two most encountered forms of rot are wet rot and dry rot.
“You should not, however, be fooled by the name. Both wet rot and dry rot are found in timber that has been overexposed to moisture and now harbours a higher than average moisture level.
“It tends to grow in timber that has a moisture level of around 30%, and wet rot grows in timber with a moisture level of over 50%. Both types of rot are a pain to discover, and if left unchecked they can easily spread through and ruin your timber completely, leaving it brittle and structurally unsound.
“The root cause of both of these kinds of rot though is moisture, spreading within the timber where it shouldn’t be. Until this source of moisture has been taken care of, it’s more than likely that any remedial work done to the timber in question is going to have no effect.
“That’s because the moisture within the timber acts as the nutritional source for both wet and dry rot, with the rot fungus feeding on this moisture in order to grow and spread – drying out and ruining your timber in the process.
“Once the rot fungus has established itself, it will enter its fruiting cycle. This is where the rot develops its fruiting body, which in turn releases thousands of spores into the air to travel and come to rest on nearby timber, which will in turn continue the spread and growth of the rot.”
George said there are often many questions people have when trying to deal with the problem. The most common revolve around the use of dehumidifiers.
Here, he explains why this is a tool that should be avoided.
Why Do People Use Dehumidifiers to Try and Treat Timber Rot?
“The main cause of both wet and dry rot in timber is an excess level of moisture. After learning this there are many people who marry up the idea of too much moisture, and a device like a dehumidifier which is designed to remove moisture from its environment.
This however, is not an idea that is going to work. First off, a dehumidifier is not designed to dry objects, only the air in the space that it occupies. The dehumidifier will suck in the surrounding air via a fan, which then passes over specialised absorbent cooling rods, or an absorbent fabric. These absorbent surfaces are designed to soak up the moisture present in the air, before the air is blown back out of the dehumidifier. An everyday dehumidifier designed for use in your home is not going to be capable of extracting the high levels of humidity present in timber that allow for the dry and wet rot spores to grow.
Why Won’t My Dehumidifier Dry my Timber?
If your timber is routinely absorbing moisture to the extent that it is facilitating the growth of wet or dry rot, the chances are that the timber already has a defect which is allowing moisture in.
In the case of dry rot it may well be something smaller, like the timber being positioned over where damp is appearing in a property, or maybe even the sealant on the timber being ineffective. Until the cause of moisture ingress has been discovered and rectified the chances are that trying to dry the timber out is going to have little to no effect.
In fact, even removing the timber, actually allowing it to dry out and then replacing it won’t work – the timber is only going to take on more water once it is reattached to its position within the property, making the whole process moot.
As previously mentioned, dehumidifiers are not designed to dry out objects, simply the air surrounding the dehumidifier. So, even if a dehumidifier was placed next to a sodden piece of timber the chances are that it would have little to no effect on the moisture content within the timber itself.
So will a Dehumidifier Stop the Spread of Wood Rot?
In short, no. If anything it can make things worse.
We have talked about how a dehumidifier works, by sucking in air, absorbing the moisture in the air, and then blowing it back out.
Well, think about that in conjunction with how both dry and wet rot spread. If the tiny fungal spores that rot releases were to be sucked into a dehumidifier you will be faced with one of two possibilities.
The first is the rot spores will be trapped with the rest of the moisture within the dehumidifier, which could lead to some spores sprouting and rot or mould growing within the dehumidifier itself.
The other possibility is that the rot spores will pass through and be blown out of the dehumidifier potentially further than they may have travelled without the assistance of the dehumidifier blowing them out and away.