Dry Rot (Serpula lacrymans).

This is the fungus which is responsible for most of the destruction of timber in buildings. It lives on the cellulose of damp timber and requires damp, warm, stagnant conditions for its cultivation. Once established it will spread to timber that would appear to be adequately ventilated and reasonably dry. An attack which has begun will push out its strands or hyphae until drier wood is encountered.

They extract nourishment from timber reducing it to a brittle condition and finally causing it to crumble away. Strands are known to have the power of percolating through heavy brickwork and masonry following the line of damp in search of further timber to attack. The moisture is carried through the strands, which are hollow, and so another zone is rendered suitable for destruction.

When the fungus has reached a certain stage of maturity, the fruit bodies are produced. These are generally in the form of flat pancakes growing on the wood or on the brickwork and plaster near it. The fruit bodies have brick red centres which give off prodigious numbers of red rusty seeds or spores. The infestation is usually caused by faulty construction or faulty maintenance. When the source of moisture has been removed, the fungus will eventually cease spreading and will lie in a dormant state.