Dry Rot

There are mainly 3 terms used in dry rot these are Stands, Sheets and Mushroom

Strands – fibres like small plant roots, dirty off-white to silver grey in colour.

Sheets – Mycelium – dirty off-white skin, can be tinged with yellow, occasionally found as billowing cushions of off-white growths.

Mushroom – Fruiting Body – this produces the Spores – rust red in colour, can spread around onto other surfaces, usually found as a flat body with red spores in the centre and an off-white rim.

Treatment

The best, safest and most pleasant treatment to apply is Boron Ultra 12, a water based ‘biostat’ that has no effect on non-wood boring insects or mammals. This Borate is applied as two coats by brush or spray and soaks quickly into the masonry and timber. It is permanent and, unlike its main rivals, it has no vapour and no smell. It can only affect wood rotting fungi and wood boring insects, so Bats (a protected species) are not affected – their main food, the house fly, does not eat wood and so it never contains any preservative.

Heavily infested areas of timber, and damp patches, should have an application of Boron Ultra Gel as well, to reduce the risks of future rot and provide extra active ingredient. Permanently damp wood also needs injection with Boron Ultra Paste and the insertion of Boron Ultra Rods

The so called ‘re-entry time’, set by the HSE for every Pesticide, is only 1 hour, or until dry, whichever is the longer. Pet birds and fish are not at risk from Boron-based preservatives, but if a Permethrin based treatment is recommended, you must keep any pets, particularly fish away – Permethrin is lethal to fish in minute quantities.