Spot the Rot

Longtime residents of Southern Oregon and transplants alike will tell you: “It’s the climate,” but the PNW greenery comes with other flora that can spell destruction for homes.

What often starts as a small leak in exterior finishes or interior pipes can result in thousands of dollars in home damages.

Justin Hymas, owner and operator of Ashland Builders, explains how you can be on the lookout for rot in your home, ideally rooting out the problem before it drastically impacts your house’s structure.

Ashland Builders team member, Fidel, restructures a breezeway in a recent project to reduce rot risk.

What is rot?

"Rot is caused by water leaking into a house's frame, causing mold which eventually decomposes the wood structure," explains Justin. “We see it a lot outside from poor building practices, but it is possible on the inside too if there were to be some sort of leak in the plumbing.”

All types of rot are the result of fungal decay, but the various species of fungi will behave differently in the wood.

Think about your average mushroom. The “fruiting body” or pan-fryable image we associate with mushrooms is only a small part of the actual organism. Meanwhile, the “mycelium” or underground, root-like system, can stretch for yards in every direction like a neural network of moisture-sucking tendrils. Those feelers are searching for their host with all the feral monstrosity of a mushroom monster on that Pedro Pascal show. In this metaphor, Pedro is your house, running for its life from fungus zombies. Yikes.

Let’s get into some types of evil house funguses and how you can spot them.

Dry Rot

Technically dry rot, or Serpula lacrymans, is type of ‘brown rot,’ and often has visible mycelium and a stubby, pizza-like fruiting body. Shine a light on it, and it can have a yellow tinge. Despite the name, this ferocious fungus is still a moisture hunter, and it’s the most structurally damaging type of rot in a house.

Justin says “Poorly constructed sealing, overhangs and flashing can introduce water inside walls and flooring.” Once the dry rot finds a moist spot it begins to feed on the wood, eventually causing crumbling and big cracks along the grain. A smell from the wetness that introduced the dry rot can sometimes give a clue, but Justin says most dry rot hosts are none-the-wiser.

Not long ago, the Ashland Builders team encountered a downspout leak that had infiltrated a window header that supported a large beam, causing an infestation of dry rot. “Eventually, the beam would have collapsed through the window if it had been left too long,” Justin says.

Justin likens dry rot to cancer because it spreads quickly, and “if the problem doesn’t get addressed to where all the rot is removed, the damage could continue even after you think you’ve fixed everything.”

While it’s frustrating having a small home repair turn into a big, mold-extraction project, Justin stresses that it’s important to have experts ensure all the rot is removed. “After we do it, we'll either primer the areas with a mold killing primer or use a copper compound that also kills mold to to ensure that it doesn't come back,” he says.

Justin highlights the unpredictability of repair costs, "We can't estimate costs until we open up walls and assess the extent of damage."

Gnarly stuff.

Wet rot

These soggy fungi often set up shop in shady, forgettable places like under stairs, eaves, or even an unsealed subfloor.

Wet rot comes in two revolting flavors. Brown rot leaves a brownish residue as it causes the wood to crumble in cube-like chunks. White rot digests the strengthening polymers in the wood’s cell walls, turning the wood into something resembling that sad sponge at the bottom of your sink. Nature is beautiful.

Luckily, wet rot is less stealthy than its so-called dehydrated cousin. Justin advises, “Anytime you see water stains on siding or cracks or places where gutters meet siding without proper flashing, it's a sign of trouble." Besides that tell-tale sludginess lurking in shady places, wet rot gives off an odor familiar to anyone who’s visited a haunted thrift store: a musty smell.

The worst of these offenders is Stachybotrys chartarum or black mold, caused by a constant water leak, heavy condensation or a flood. An infestation of black mold is serious and can even carry health risks for children, elders and those with mold allergies. If you smell a strong, musty smell and/or see blackish-greenish spotting on walls or ventilation, get it checked out right away. Avoid touching black mold without protective gear.

This brings us to an unfortunate reality for Ashland dwellers: not all parts of the Rogue Valley are created equal when it comes to the risk of wet rot. Justin emphasizes, "In Ashland, particularly on the west side of town built up on a hill, the prevalence of rot is significant due to reduced sunlight during the winter months." This means if you’re one of the Ashland dwellers who say goodnight to the sun at 3:00 p.m. during the winter, your exterior might have more damp and shady spots than somebody on the north side of town, east of the freeway.

Keeping the fungus NOT among us

When it comes to rot, prevention is key.

“It all comes down to your house being built well,” Justin says. “First of all a good roof and quality siding. Second, the details of the roof and the siding are really important things, like having an actual overhang on the house. Having trim with flashing and not having downspouts and gutters up against houses, like walls. Being really diligent about shady spots that don't see sunlight, making sure those are particularly well sealed. Anywhere, there's ground contact with wood, you have to really avoid that.”

Justin also recommends avoiding pressed-together, manufactured siding. “Like any sort of OSB style lap siding, T1-11, or cottage lap. Those end up failing pretty quickly.”

But like everything in life, decay is inevitable. Rot is just nature’s way of recycling the materials we’re trying to live in.

“Unless you’re living in the Roman Coliseum, your house will eventually deal with some kind of decay and that doesn’t make you a bad homeowner,” Justin adds. “Ashland Builders is here to help when you find a problem.”

Contact Justin at Ashland Builders by email at justin.ashlandbuilders@gmail.com or by phone at (541) 708-1132.