Does water cause rot?

[cs]

Was the question on Yahoo answers. Here is the answer I gave.


Wood rot is caused by several factors. Remove one and and you remove the chance for rot.

Rot is caused by a fungi. This fungi needs oxygen, a food source, temp range of 40 - 100 degrees farinheit, and moisture.

Some day take a look at a wooden boat that has rot. You will see the rot happens generally at the waterline and not below the water line. Below the water line it has all the required items except for oxygen.

So to answer your question, water in of itself does not cause rot, but it is one of the factors that have to be present.

Sound right to you?

Chad

[cs]

Don't know why this thread disapperead. So I hit the back button a bunch of times till I found it and than reposted it.

Chad

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Sounds approximately right - depends to some extent on the choice of organism...


Scot did "something" and speeded up the forum dramatically - a few posts got lost and I'd guess that your thread was one of the innocent victims - still, all's well that ends well.

[TimH]

rain water in the bilge causes rot. Not sure about seawater. The rot spores dont live in saltwater?

[Mrleft8]

Rot only occurs if you see it, or it's effects.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

That's about the size of it. I don't know if it's just fungi or other kinds of microbes to boot. Whatever they are they eat wood. If intervention comes in time you will suffer nothing more than a dark stain which is almost impossible to eliminate.

This thread is giving me some strange answers. I think Armaggedon is near.

[Leon m]

They've been pulling up old growth timber from the bottom of lake Superior that have been laying there for well over a hundred years from the old logging days.Not a bit of rot, very nice timber actually. so I would agree with the statement you posted

[botebum]

According to a mold remediation seminar I took a few years back you are correct. It takes oxygen along with "food" and water. Mold cannot live if you remove any one of the three. Rot is a form of mold in the sense that you have the "evil three" available at one time. Eventually it dries out, gets rewetted, dries out, etc. The effects of rot are a cumulative result of this cycle.

Doug

[Paul Pless]

mold remediation seminarmold remediation seminar??? Tell me this wasn't court ordered!:eek::eek::eek:;):D

[botebum]

mold remediation seminar??? Tell me this wasn't court ordered!:eek::eek::eek:;):D
Not even close. I live on the "Mold Coast" I am a Superintendant of Construction for a builder of condominiums. The builder that I worked for at the time hired the "foremost authority" on mold remediation in the US to author a seminar for an entire weekend of meetings. I was a little hungover for the meetings but I went and learned nonetheless.:rolleyes:

Doug

[ishmael]

Pretty well covered.

I'll just add that the fungi which are common in rot have a fairly narrow moisture range. I can't remember what it is. Leave a piece of wood in that moisture range long enough and it will rot-- some species faster than others, hence the notion of "resistance."

So called dry rot is a fresh water problem. Salt water doesn't grow this fungi, actually kills it.

A common practice not that long ago(still used sometimes in work/traditional types) was to make shelves in the framing where rock salt was placed. Fresh water making its way below decks was made salt so no rot. Another common practice, still very much used with laid decks, is to wash down the decks frequently with salt water.

Re pulling logs up that have been underwater for a century, I'd be interested in someone's experience with that lumber in boats. Remember that schooner they pulled intact out of the Great Lakes? It fell apart with amazing speed. Michigan built IIRC, it was probably white pine and red oak. A remarkable little time capsule, the anchor windlass still turned!. It went down in a squall and everything was still there after decades, the rig still upright. They pumped it full of air and up it popped, not quite as fresh as a daisy, but close. Didn't hold together worth a damn once above the water again.

[Vince Brennan]

Don't know why this thread disapperead.
Chad

Forum rot... accelerated by the tears of those who've been trying to post for the past three weeks?