Mould!
I have re-done some more of the lining and when I was poking around I came across some mould. AGH. I am not sure whether this means I have to remove all the wood on the boat (over kill) or let it dry and get on with it. I know quite a lot about the behaviour and science of Fungus, but I have no idea what this is or what to do with it. I could guess at removing the wood, the floor etc, but fungal spores will be EVERYWHERE by now….
posted by MortimerBones at
7:39 PM
5 Comments:
Oooh how exciting. My initial thoughts were to spritz it with some chanel no. 5 but I think you need to scrape it off and treat the wood with proper stuff. The spores are probably everywhere by now anyway! Do you have a friendly microbiology department in the uni / hospital who would have a squizz??
It's either dry rot or wet rot. Hopefully, the latter - was the wood actually wet when you found it. or has it been so in the recent past?
If so, you just need to cut out the soggy wood, treat the rest with fungicide, and replace the lost bit. THere's also a stuff you can get to paint on the spongy wood to harden it up again.
If dry rot, Serpula lacrymans, you're in mega trouble. The dry rot mycelium can travel long distances through or over dry stuff to find more wood to eat. It only needs its feet in a damp area, such as in the bilge.
Hopefully, it's the wet stuff...
HTH
Bruce
Lovely Sister....How lovely to hear from you! Perhaps if I had used Chanel no. 5 such an occurance of mould would not have occured!
Bruce... how do I tell the difference? I thought it was probably one of them... oh dear.. panic panic.
Actually I don't think it matters if it is wet rot or dry rot, spores are everywhere and if you have conditions good for rot then which one you currently have will just depend on the moisture content of the timber and as Bruce mentioned if the rot has a source of water. Best guidance is in the BRE's digests but I don't think you can view them online. This site is reasonably balanced: http://www.buildingpreservation.com/Dry%20rot.htm
Richard (off to look at his bilges on Saturday)
The best source of info I know of for treating rot in boats is here http://www.angelfire.com/nc3/davecarnell/rot.html
It is seriously worth checking out, and not as daunting as many would have you believe.
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