Painted white deal skirting rotting away

Moggaman

Hey. I have miles of white deal skirting painted white in my house built 2007. In 2 sections of skirting, the boards have become all wrinkled and the paint has come away to show basically rotted dry white deal. One section is in the bathroom and one in my daughters bedroom. The other 3 walls with skirting in these rooms are fine... It's very localised. I'm baffled. See pictures.

noel farrell

You seem to have dry rot you will have to treat it , it's a bad fungus hard enough to kill.no use replacing timber until you are rid of it. It mostly lives in old house's ,you may have to treat large areas, most hardwares will fill you in .there are lots of diy product's .if you ask uncle Google there should be lots of info

kneemos

I'd second the dry rot.

Moggaman

Agreed its dry rot. I have a semi solid floor alongside it. Would that be danger too?

jack of all

I'm guessing the two areas of skirting affected are on the same wall back to back? Probably a plumbing leak of some kind- either a leaking pipe or joint buried in the concrete floor (pin hole leak in copper that got worse in contact with cement?) or perhaps a leaving valve packing on a radiator in those two rooms, or maybe a leaking shower tray? I think you'll have to take up any timber flooring in those areas as even apparently healthy timber can allow the rot to spread to other areas in the search for moisture. You'll need to make sure you remove any affected timber and burn it, check for loose plaster/ tiling and find out the source of your water leak.

Moggaman

Could dry rot be caused without a leak...like purely from condensation or the like.?

jack of all

You'll find plenty of info elsewhere on dry rot but from what I know you need moisture content above 20% or so for it to get a hold so that would suggest a small leak from somewhere combined with poor ventilation/ drying conditions was at fault initially. Once dry rot is present it can continue to grow and spread even after the source of moisture has been eradicated as the fungus sends out "threads" to find water elsewhere, it can spread through porous brickwork and plaster. I don't want to be alarmist but if it were me I'd investigate thoroughly and make sure any water issues are addressed and all infected areas throughly treated etc. May not be as bad as it looks but it's rare enough to see that type of damage in newish construction, especially if the dwelling is occupied, heated etc.