1 Assess damage
3Cut away damaged wood
4 Apply wood hardener
2Treat cause of wet rot
5 Fill hole
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HOUSEHOLD EMERGENCIES
DEALING WITH WOOD ROT
1 Assess damage
• Rotten wood at the foot of doors or around window frames is usually caused by wet rot.
• Wet rot occurs when wood gets damp, often when water has seeped through damaged paint. A first sign is often peeling paint.
A sign of wet rot is wood that is dark brown and crumbly when dry
3Cut away damaged wood
• Chisel out all the decaying material until you reach sound, solid wood.
• Coat the sound wood and surrounding woodwork with
a chemical wet rot treatment.
4 Apply wood hardener
• Brush a coat of wood hardener on to the exposed wood. This
varnishlike liquid binds the loose fibers of wood together and seals the surface, making it ready for replacement wood or filler.
A cotton-wool like material and rustcolored spores indicate dry rot
• If you can detect a strong, musty, mushroomy smell indoors, or see a white, cottonlike material below kickboards or through floorboards, you may have dry rot.
• Dry rot affects wood in badly ventilated confined spaces, and it spreads rapidly. Call in rot treatment specialists immediately.
2Treat cause of wet rot
• Before repairing damaged wood, try to find out why the wood has
become damp. Check for a leaky pipe or blocked drain.
• Fix the cause of the dampness and let the wood dry.
5 Fill hole
• For extensive damage, use new wood, treated with preservative,
to fill the main gap.
• For smaller gaps, use a special two-part wood filler, following
the manufacturer’ s instructions. Use wood filler also to fill any gaps around new wood.
• Once the filler is dry, rub it down with sandpaper until smooth, then
paint, stain, or varnish.