Dry Rot Advice

styler1978

Hello, hoping someone might be able to offer some good advice on dry rot.....
We have a ground floor store room below our home, which has sat empty for probably over 30 years.  It has recently been sold and the new owner has stripped it back to the bare bones, where he has found dry rot on the wood joists and wall.
On inspection it looked worse than what it actually it is, with the fungi (cobweb like) had ventured onto 80% of the joists and also some of the walls.  However upon a proper inspection and removal of the dry rot, I was able to ascertain that only two main joists need replacing, as all the others are solid as wood.
I believe the source of the damp was due to a blocked gutter above my home, which has probably been blocked for many years (The house was built in 1849).  The worst area is the other side of my wall where I used to have a water leak in my home when it rained heavily.  The gutter is now unblocked and no more leaks.   I can tell that it has been an ongoing issue for many years, due to the size of the joist that has vanished, from continued rain water and then dry spells.....which I believe would be ideal conditions for dry rot.

To make matters worse the air vents in the room had been blocked up, so in all this time the room has had ZERO air circulation.   I have now unblocked these and also fitted some air vents directly above in my floor, to ensure the room is now properly ventilated.   The new owner is then going to have the room insulated when he converts it to a new studio flat and so the room should be in the best condition its ever been in once finished.

I have treated the wood with Boron powder and I am in the process of treating the brick work myself with Borotreat.   The rotted joists will be removed and cut back to a meter where we can see the rot has got into the wood.  The new joist will be treated before fitting.

My question is, can dry rot come back after doing the above?  Can dry rot survive if we have removed the damp issue and completely changed the room dynamics with extra air bricks and ceiling ventilation.
I had a quote from a dry rot specialist and they have quoted £2000!!…..I know I can have the joist replaced for £400, so unsure where they are getting the extra £1600 from?  It seems very excessive just to spray a room and drill some holes in the wall.

Really appreciated any advice or information.  Many thanks!

Steve

FreeBear

styler1978 said: The new owner is then going to have the room insulated when he converts it to a new studio flat and so the room should be in the best condition its ever been in once finished.

The walls need to be insulated properly with a ventilated air gap between the wall & insulation. Failure to do so could see moisture trapped between the two, leading to more problems in the future.

Tanking & injecting chemicals in to the wall will not help, and would only hide any damp problems for a few years as well as trapping moisture in the walls.

travis-powers

I would say you are more clued up than the unqualified specialist trying to sell you snake oil!
 When I used to work on historic restoration it was always take away the course you take away the problem!

Doozergirl

Dry rot isn't dry. It does need a water source, as you know.  

If you remove the rot,  there is no longer any leak and it is ventilated properly then no, it will not come back of its own accord.