Dry Rot (sepular lacrymans) Dry rot begins in a damp, poorly ventilated place – the favourite sites are suspended wooden floors, cellar timbers, leak-effected structural timbers and back of skirting boards. Unlike wet rot it prefers damp (20 per cent moisture) and not wet timber and it does not affect wood outdoors. It is less common than wet rot but the effect is usually more serious because of the way it spreads. Once the fungus has taken hold a mass of cottony threads develop and from them long root-like strands appear which seeks out fresh wood to attack. These strands can pass through plaster, mortar and even brick. In this way dry rot can move from basement to roof timbers and from one semi-detached house to another. Detecting dry rot is often not easy because it usually attacks timber which is hidden from view. There is a musty, mushroom-like smell and the wood is soft when prodded with a screw driver. Woolly growths may be seen above a skirting board, and dried-out rotten wood has cracks both along and across the grain to form cube-shaped blocks which crumble when touched. After many months pancake-shaped fruiting bodies are formed on timbers or plaster. Spores look like red dust, its presences is a sign that there is dry rot.
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