Why You Should Be Concerned About Dry Rot In Your Deck

19 Jan Why You Should Be Concerned About Dry Rot In Your Deck

Seattle area homeowners deal with dry rot a lot, because we live in a very wet climate and experience a significant amount of rain throughout the year. But this isn’t just a casual problem to think about every once in a while. For the average Seattle area home with a deck, especially an uncovered deck, dry rot should be a major concern.

Here’s why Seattle homeowners should be more concerned about dry rot in decks:

It sneaks up on you

Contrary to its name, dry rot is caused by directly exposing wood to elevated moisture levels, such as water pooling during rainfall due to poor drainage.

Don’t see any pools of water, so you think your deck is fine? Check again – an extremely rainy period could have resulted in trapped water and initiated the dry rot growth, and it might still be growing using the moisture trapped in the affected wood even though the skies have cleared up.

This is even more important in Seattle because often we don’t even touch our decks until the all too short summer months, which is when the majority of dry rot issues in decks are discovered – the hard way. Don’t let this happen to you.

In addition, rot is hard to detect by an untrained eye. And when you do see or notice it, you are really seeing as little as only 10% of the damage as it is normally hidden and wood rots from the inside out.

It can spread to your house

Replacing a deck is costly, there’s no doubt.

But if the dry rot spreads from your deck to the structure of your house, you’re going to be spending a whole lot more money. Dry rot will spread until its water source dries up, and its tentacles have been known to spread up to 25 feet.

Be vigilant with your deck and you’ll have a better chance of avoiding extra expenses like replacing interior walls and/or flooring in your house later on.

It’s extremely destructive

Dry rot grows very quickly and before you know it, your whole deck might need to be replaced. If you can get away with just replacing a few boards instead of the whole deck, of course that’s more affordable – and more eco friendly.

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It’s also extremely dangerous

A rotted deck will most likely collapse eventually, possibly with you, your family, or your party guests on them. (Think you can just avoid your deck? They can also collapse with no one standing on them.)

The news is full of tragic stories like this one of injuries and deaths caused by dry rot in decks.

There have also been cases of danger in your home when floors affected by dry rot collapse under someone standing on them.

If safety is your priority, you have to check your deck for dry rot regularly and deal with it completely when you find it. The stakes are just too high to miss this.

A Few Tips On How To Prevent Dry Rot

Never paint structural deck members / timbers. Paint traps moisture and actually promotes rot as well hides the damage being caused. Instead, use stains when possible as they tend to let the wood breath.

Keep decks clean of organic debris like leaves, etc. Decomposing material will also promote rot.

But how do you know if your deck has been affected by dry rot? Stay tuned – I’ll be writing a post about that soon. In the meantime, if you think there’s even a tiny chance your deck has dry rot, get in touch with me now to find out how I can help.