Dry rot in listed building

Kentishhare

Hi there,

We're in the process of buying a grade II listed Georgian property. The survey found it to be in excellent overall condition with no damp or other problems apart from a patch of dry rot in the ground floor joists in the cellar, where the ventilation was actually found to be good.

The owner of the property has commissioned a timber expert to take a closer look and write a report including costs for dealing with the issue, but in the meantime I wondered what people's thoughts are on dry rot. The information I have found online seems so conflicting. I realise it's a potentially very serious issue if not dealt with, but it also seems that if it's caught and managed early it is not as scary as it might seem.

Should we be running a mile, or if it's found to be localised and treatable would you proceed? Has anyone dealt with similar? We really love the house and, as I said, it is otherwise extremely well maintained. 

All experiences and views welcomed!

stuart45

Dry rot does tend to frighten people, but it does need certain conditions to survive. If you remove these conditions it can't. 
At least you are well aware of the problem. It often grows in unseen places like timber ground floors in the crawl space and behind timber panels. 

Kentishhare

Any other experiences of dealing with dry rot? Thanks in advance 🙂

JCR982

We have moved into a property and discovered it has dry rot which wasn't caught in the Survey.  Have been told that it can spread quickly in the right circumstances.

We have had to have a full kitchen floor & joists replaced as well as the ones in the downstairs loo.  It can cost a lot of money to sort out, ours in total is going to be around £15,000 but will come with a 20 year guarantee.

Have to say, its now given me anxiety about the rest of the house but fingers crossed the rest of the house doesn't hold any more nasty surprises.

Kentishhare

JCR982 said:

We have moved into a property and discovered it has dry rot which wasn't caught in the Survey.  Have been told that it can spread quickly in the right circumstances.

We have had to have a full kitchen floor & joists replaced as well as the ones in the downstairs loo.  It can cost a lot of money to sort out, ours in total is going to be around £15,000 but will come with a 20 year guarantee.

Have to say, its now given me anxiety about the rest of the house but fingers crossed the rest of the house doesn't hold any more nasty surprises.

Thanks for your reply and I'm sorry for your experience, sounds very stressful. Out of interest, how did you realise you had it if it wasn't found in the survey?

peterhjohnson

Kentishhare said:

The owner of the property has commissioned a timber expert to take a closer look and write a report including costs for dealing with the issue,

That's nice of them but do not rely on their report or buy on their promise of getting it fixed. The sellers have no incentive to get a competent repair done.
If you want the property enough, commision your own report and get quotes for remedial work to be done after it's yours. And drop your offer appropriately of course :-):

FreeBear

peterhjohnson said: If you want the property enough, commision your own report and get quotes for remedial work to be done after it's yours. And drop your offer appropriately of course :-):

Find an independent damp expert without any links to a damp & timber treatment company. If the report comes back recommending injected DPC and waterproof render/plaster slapped on the walls, you may well find your local Conservation Officer having a right royal fit. This is a listed building that deserves to be treated with respect and not have modern "cures" thrown at it which could do long term damage.

JCR982

Kentishhare said:

JCR982 said:

We have moved into a property and discovered it has dry rot which wasn't caught in the Survey.  Have been told that it can spread quickly in the right circumstances.

We have had to have a full kitchen floor & joists replaced as well as the ones in the downstairs loo.  It can cost a lot of money to sort out, ours in total is going to be around £15,000 but will come with a 20 year guarantee.

Have to say, its now given me anxiety about the rest of the house but fingers crossed the rest of the house doesn't hold any more nasty surprises.

Thanks for your reply and I'm sorry for your experience, sounds very stressful. Out of interest, how did you realise you had it if it wasn't found in the survey?

We thought the kitchen floor which was laminated was squashy in one corner, (we thought duff laminate) my other half then went to the downstairs loo which is the otherside of the wall and the floor dropped about 1/2cm.

We asked a builder to look as thought a joist had gone but he discovered dry rot.

Tell tale signs are red dust, squashy floor etc.

Had the Surveyor removed the kick board, he would have seen that the floorboards had gone under the kitchen cupboards!!!  Apparently we were lucky to have not fallen through on the toilet as well but it was covered with tiles which kept it more sturdy. 

The house we purchased was unoccupied so the Surveyor couldn't get underneath the house and actually we had to have a trap door put in by the original builder to look at the joist.

We live and learn and its an expensive mistake on our part but I will certainly be making sure I don't make it again!!!

JCR982

We didn't go through the downstairs loo straight away maybe two months in.  Lucky we did in a way so that we got on to the builder sharpish after that!!