massive Dry Rot plant under the house

ormus

ps.
a building society report is pretty much worthless. they are only interested in the value of the house/loan ratio. they certainly will not accept any warranty claims.
if a full survey was carried out, then that could be claimed against. (and good luck too).

insurance will not pay out on building maintenance matters. all insurance policies state that the building must be kept in a good state of repair.

vaio

Think I’d be tempted to rip it all out, sterilise the walls and lay a concrete floor.

Dry rot is evil stuff, it will track behind plaster to other floors/window frames and is hard to eradicate.

Standard treatment when I was involved in building was any timber within a yard of an attack or fruiting body gets removed and burnt. Any plaster within a yard gets removed, any tracks behind plaster uncovered get followed and plaster removed for a yard past the end. All joist ends built into brickwork cut back and put on hangers instead. All uncovered brickwork drilled and irrigated with sterilisation fluid and allowed to dry before replastering. All new timber to be tanalised or similar etc etc etc

slummymummyof3

Even if you had a full structural survey, they have probably covered themselves by saying that due to fitted carpets/furnishings they were unable to inspect.

jockster211

Hi

I agree with several posters who say get it professionally treated.

Getting rid of dry rot is a massive undertaking for the professional, never mind the DIYer (no offence), as Vaio rightly points out timbers and plaster work need to be completely removed & properly disposed of, and all brickwork treated up to a metre off the floor. Potentially you may need to 'shell' the ground floor to eradicate it completely.

Dry rot can travel for many metres from its 'water source', it can expand in diameter by over a metre in a year so a small growth can become a major problem in a very short space of time, it can traverse concrete and brick and untreated spores can remain dormant for dozens of years.

On the face of it a specialist company who would warranty their work may be a good option.

Good Luck

rachbc

get the pros in - we had a small dry rot attack in a house we had and had to have half the plaster in 2 rooms off as well as new joists and floorboards. the piece of mind with the gaurentee was worth the money and hassle. if you do do it yourself i'd check more frequently than in a year.

gehngus_2

I've made an appointment for a specialist to come around and have a look.

I have already removed boards and joists for that entire room (its a small room)
and have chiseled the plaster off to a meter high (figured i might as well do an injection DPC while im at it.

I was going to replace with concrete. this room and the next.

I would only need the specialist to treat the stuff and assure me its dead & gone.

I assume i can re-build and re-plaster myself without it affecting his "its dead" statement. thus saving the building fee's

Ill find out when he calls.

i say im a D.I.Yer, but im a self builder or I convert barns (but i do it solo & it takes years).
In this case its an upgrade (i though it would be less complicated.. Ha!.

I have to admit.. i haven't dealt with damp rot before .. so better get a pro's opinion.

new build next time, a lot less hastle

silvercar

Your survey won't cover you, unless it was a full structural survey and didn't include a caveat that they can't look at things they can't get to.

Your house insurance may offer some cover. Generally they don't cover repairs and maintenance , but they do cover the damage caused. So if you had a leak, they wouldn't cover repairing the leak but would cover the damage caused from the leak.