Treating Rotted Roof Timbers

Apply a borate wood preservative to permanently prevent dry rot.

Treating rotted roof timbers. Why not just use beam caps to fix rotted roof beams. Treating dry rot can involve removal of the affected timber including all timber for a metre beyond the visible signs of the fungus and extensive chemical fungicide treatments for all adjacent timber and the brickwork of any contaminated walls and plaster. Dip a small 2 in 5 1 cm paintbrush into the container of liquid borate. Usually the fungicide comes as a concentrate and will need to be diluted.

It can be applied as a paste and inserted into 10mm holes drilled in the timber. You cannot magically replace damaged timber but if the rot has not structurally damaged the timber item then digging out the soft material treating it filling up the craters left behind and painting it so that water cannot raise the moisture content again will do a lot to slow it down or stop it. The treatment of wet rot involves applying a fungicide during the drying out period. If you re concerned that timber may get infected with dry rot in the future your best bet is to coat the exposed ends of the wood with a liquid borate preservative.

However this approach is expensive and unnecessary. Not being able to correct the moisture problem as mentioned earlier before performing any diy treatment the primary step is to remove the source of water causing the damp. These tend to be eaten away by woodworm and the roof beams then move opening up the joints. The wood should come away quite easily without much force.

How to repair roof trusses. Fixing decayed rotted wood using an epoxy penetrant and filler. Treating carrier beams and wall plates boron is an excellent treatment for damp timber. The properties of boron will kill all wood boring insects as well as killing and preventing further growth of all fungicidal spores which are the causes of wet and dry rot.

Step 1 remove any visible rotten wood with a chisel. While only capping the beam ends might improve their appearance it usually allows existing dry rot to get worse. This is particularly the case with rot that continues to get damp with rainwater. You can treat the wood with an antifungal solution like the ones mentioned above before using it as a replacement to the dry rotted wood.

Older roof timbers were connected with mortise and tenon joints plus wooden pegs. For this example we will be demonstrating a brief step by step guide on how to repair a wooden roof joist using timber materials. Resin repair with tie bars and injected resin can solve this problem.