My Wood Floor Is Rotting

Understanding wood rot is the first step towards fighting it so take a minute to think about what causes wood to rot.

My wood floor is rotting. Floor buckling is the most extreme reaction to moisture in a hardwood floor. Fortunately this is not a common occurrence. This 1940 s wood floor buckled severely because of wet conditions in a gymnasium after the roof leaked. Wooden supports can easily rot and fail in problematic crawl spaces with open vents high humidity and standing water.

Pests in wood flooring can be several types. In order for fungi to set up shop the wood must be continuously damp. Plywood is the most common type of subfloor material used in homes around the world along with particleboard. Buckled wood flooring due to leaks or high moisture our photo at page top shows cupped wooden strip flooring and an easy way to detect this condition.

Wood rot if your floors feel like they are bouncy uneven and sagging you could have a problem with the floor joists and support system underneath your house. While exterior grade plywood is treated. Dry rot can also be caused by termite damage as the termites will eat away at the pulp of the wood causing it to die. Fungi will not grow on.

Wood rot is a form of decay triggered by the combination of moisture and fungi microscopic organisms. When that happens the wood becomes brittle and will crumble. Dry rot is actually the result of the infestation of a living fungus whereas wet rot is simply the natural decay of timber in the presence of high levels of moisture. Dry rot occurrs when wood has lost all or most of its moisture.

Buckling occurs when the wood flooring actually pulls up from the subfloor lifting several inches in one or more places. Of the two dry rot is far more serious and is usually treated by the removal of all infected timbers as well as the application of chemical fungicide. How to stop a plywood floor from rotting. It is actually fairly simple lingering moisture in wood creates an environment conducive to fungi growth which in turn causes the wood s fibers to deteriorate.