Dry rot spread across three floors in a Wimbledon home

Wimbledon is a suburb in South West London, and is well known as the home of the British tennis Grand Slam, the oldest tennis tournament in the world dating back to 1877.

Wimbledon is less famous for its mixture of property types, but you can find rows of Victorian terraces, modern flats and luxurious Edwardian fronted homes.

Just a short walk away from the renowned All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club you can find brick built semi-detached properties, susceptible to property preservation issues such as moisture ingress and fungal decay.

Our Peter Cox London Team was called to this family home to undertake a damp and timber survey, as the homeowner had noticed damaged timbers in the downstairs bathroom.

A damp and timber survey involves a full inspection of a property with the purpose of identifying any moisture ingress issues including rising damp, penetrating damp and condensation, as well as any timber issues including woodworm and fungal decay.

A damp and timber survey will always start with an inspection of the exterior of the property, as this will allow the surveyor to pick up on any issues that may cause moisture ingress such as damaged brickwork, roof tiles, guttering or high ground levels.

On this visit the damp problem had not been caused by external defects but instead by a plumbing leak from a water softener. This continuous flow of water made the surrounding timbers damp, making them susceptible to fungal decay outbreaks such as dry rot, also known as Serpula Lacrymans, that we identified.

Our surveyor noticed discoloration and cracking, both signs of timber decay, to the wooden flooring in the bathroom and when they lifted the floorboards they discovered a dry rot fruiting body.

These dry rot fruiting bodies, also known as sporophore, are often the most obvious sign you have a dry rot outbreak. They are pancake-like in texture and when they first grow will be yellow ochre in colour, a bit like clay, and darken to a rusty red shade when they mature.

The local Peter Cox team carried out a full exposure survey, lifting the flooring and removing plaster to determine the extent of the outbreak, this is crucial for properly treating the issue, as dry rot can spread through a property, not only feeding on timbers but able to travel across masonry in search of new sources of moisture.

In this property, the initial outbreak had spread from the ground floor utility room up into the first and second floors.

After the exposure works were completed, our surveyor sent a comprehensive report to the homeowner detailing the extent of the dry rot outbreak, along with recommendations for treatment.

Removing the source of moisture is the most important part of treating timber decay. In this case, as the leak had been fixed, the affected areas were exposed and ventilated allowing them to dry out, whilst decayed timbers were cut away and removed in all directions.

Once this was completed, our technicians thoroughly brushed down the brick work to remove any traces of dry rot including the mycelium and strands. Now that the dry rot itself had been removed, the treatment process could begin.

Our local team then applied fungicidal treatments to the masonry before reinstatement work could commence over three storeys of the property.

New joists were required, secured in joist hangers to ensure they were isolated from the masonry and that no future moisture could reach them, and then the floors relaid and other timber fixtures such as skirtings and door frames were renewed.

To complete our works, our team of specialist plasters replastered the areas with a  breathable render and a skim finish ready for decoration.

This dry rot outbreak was successfully eradicated leaving the customer with newly plastered walls ready to decorate, and a 20 year guarantee meaning the property was protected long term.

The local surveyor said “this was an extreme case of dry rot, it is unusual to find such a large dry rot outbreak in a domestic home. Thankfully we were able to carry out extensive treatments across the property and provide the client with a long term guarantee, giving them the peace of mind the problem is solved long term.”