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Dry Rot & Brown Rot in Northern Colorado Crawl Spaces

Dry rot damaging wood in Silverthorne

Damage from dry rot creates small, rectangular pieces of crumbling wood on the surface. Dry rot damage is often mistaken as a termite infestation.

Dry rot (also known as brown rot) is one of the most damaging forces on household wood in the world.

Approximately twenty billion feet of timber is destroyed by wood rot in the United States each year — that's more wood than that damaged by fire!

Replacement wood used to repair damage caused by wood rot accounts for almost 10 percent of the annual wood production in the United States alone.

In the United Kingdom, dry rot problems have been credited for dealing about 150 million pounds worth of damage annually, and wood rot in general leads to about 17 billion dollars of damage each year in the United States.

Colorado Crawl Space has a long history of experience in eliminating, preventing, and controlling dry rot infestations in homes throughout Colorado, including Eagle, New Castle, Meeker, Frisco, Granby, and areas nearby. If you have a dry rot problem in your home and would like more information, call or e-mail us today for a dry rot control estimate!

What is dry rot & brown rot?

"Dry rot" is a term most often used to describe a particular kind of dry, cracking, rotting wood. However, dry rot occurs because of a variety of brown rot species, most notably the "true" dry rot fungus known as Serpula lacrymans. Dry Rot originally got its name from the thought that it didn't need water to live, but instead used a fermentation process to survive. Research long ago proved that theory untrue, and dry rot is now more appropriately called "brown rot."

Dry rot needs much less moisture than other types of wood-rotting fungi — a wood moisture content of just 28-30% — to survive. While there is no official proof on the subject, many contractors have observed that dry rot also will not grow on wood with too much moisture.

Protect Your Home From Dry Rot!

The Bad News
The Good News
  • While dry rot is not the most common type of rot, it can deal serious damage to your home and endure conditions that are too dry for other types of rot to thrive.
  • Dry rot fungus spores are present in most homes and can survive for several years, waiting for the right conditions to grow.
  • Dry rot can pull moisture from moist areas to dry areas. It grows through mortar, concrete, masonry, and behind plaster.
  • Despite its name, dry rot needs moisture to produce spores — at least 28-30% moisture content within the wood with a relative humidity of 95% or higher. Most softwood timbers in dry homes, especially in the upper levels, have a moisture content of 12-15%.
  • Dry rot problems in crawl spaces can easily be solved by controlling moisture by sealing and dehumidifying the space.
  • Wood treatment with boric acid or other products is known to eliminate and prevent dry root fungi.

Identifying & treating dry rot or brown rot problems in Colorado

Wood severely damaged by dry rot damage in Craig

Damage from dry rot creates small, rectangular pieces of crumbling wood on the surface. Dry rot damage is often mistaken as a termite infestation.

A common first indication of dry rot in a home is the appearance of a "red brick dust". This is actually an accumulation of fungal spores that are covering the surface, waiting for the proper conditions to start to grow.

An outbreak of dry rot commonly occurs several months after a household water event, such as flooding, bursting washing machine hoses, a failed water heater, or leaking pipes.

Dry rot is also common in vented crawl spaces with groundwater flooding.

Dry rot is often not detected until the damage is already very significant. At this point, the following steps are recommended:

Steps to Dry Rot Cleaning & Repair

  1. Remove damaged wood: All wood that shows decay or visible fungus should be removed, as well as all wood within one meter of the visible decayed material.
  2. Remove materials near damage: Plaster, paneling, linings, and ceilings around the dry rot areas can also contribute to the damage and should also be removed.
  3. Wire brush affected area: Using a wire brush, remove loose material from all surfaces within 1.5 meters of the furthest edge of the infestation, including metal, masonry, and pipes. You should also remove the resulting dust and debris.
  4. Disinfect area: Apply a disinfectant to all wood, masonry, and exposed soil within 1.5 meters of the damage.
  5. Rebuild: Replace beams, joists, and posts that are significantly rot-damaged with pressure-treated wood.

How to prevent dry rot in a crawl space: Seal off all crawl space vents and door covers. Encapsulate the crawl space with a crawl space liner, then install a self-draining crawl space dehumidifier.

Dry Rot Alert!

Dry rot can grow through damp mortar, concrete, masonry and behind plaster.

This makes remediation of dry rot complicated and expensive, and it can lead to future problems with dry rot if it is not treated properly.

Preventing dry rot problems in your crawl space

Colorado Crawl Space can help you eliminate dry rot problems at their source. We can dry your crawl space, eliminate flooding problems, and seal out humidity.

This not only eliminates dry rot problems, but also creates an environment that is inhospitable to:

  • Mold
  • Wet rot
  • Mildew
  • Termites
  • Carpenter ants
  • Crickets
  • And more

We offer no-obligation crawl space quotes in our service area. We can answer all your questions and point out the sources of humidity and moisture in your home.

We proudly serve Colorado, including Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge, and nearby areas such as Steamboat Springs, Carbondale, Avon, Gunnison, Rifle, Salida, Bailey, and beyond.

OUR SERVICE AREA

We serve the following areas

Our Locations:

Colorado Crawl Space
1901 S. Main Street
Minturn, CO 81645
1-970-827-4210

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